Drills for practicing cycle of fifths

[johnnywas]

anybody know any good exercises for moving round the fret board in 5ths

 

to clarify I am practicing my scales in all the positons and I play them fowards backwards and 'up three then back two'

 

i really want to practice going from one note to the fifth so i need some finger patterns

 

its possible that I'm deluded and theres no such exercise but Im sure that some tutor showed me once (should have paid more attention)

[mikey4402]

IMO what your trying to accomplish is pointless.

 

You should know the notes and not concentrate on patterns.

 

Also IMO the circle of fifths is highly overrated.

 

Your time would be better used learning the intervals between the notes of the scale and learning to appy them and modify them around the fretboard.

 

Im assuming that your tutor told you to do some exercise, such as arpeggeos by fifths. in other word the exercise was ment to practice arpeggeos and not the circle of fifths.

[johnnywas]

mike

 

thanks. its come back to me ! i remember the exercise

 

he said john you need to learn all the notes on the guitar. start on a random note and work your way up the neck using the cycle of fifths.

 

arps by 5ths - whats that ?

 

J

[Poparad]

Andres Segovia put together a nice little practice route for all 12 major scales and melodic minor scales running forwards through the cycle (C -> G -> D etc). The fingerings span quite a range on the fretboard and get you moving up and down the neck quite a bit:

 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6233192/Diatonic-Major-and-Minor-Scales-by-Andres-Segovia

[mikey4402]

 

mike thanks. its come back to me ! i remember the exercise he said john you need to learn all the notes on the guitar. start on a random note and work your way up the neck using the cycle of fifths. arps by 5ths - whats that ? J

 

 

You would just play say

 

Aminor arpeggio

|------------10--|

|----------8-----|

|----------------|

|-----9-10-------|

|---7------------|

|-5--------------|

then move up a fifth to E then up to B etc. Up the neck.

 

Try practicing arpeggios calling out the notes as you play them. This is the best way to master the board IMO. You dont have to play by fifths you could play them in any order you like.

[Poparad]

Another small note: the most common order to play through the cycle is by moving down a 5th (or up a 4th), rather than up a 5th (down a 4th). The reason for this is that chords tend to resolve this way, and playing up in 5ths sounds a little backwards. That said, the Segovia scales I linked are arranged by ascending 5ths. The cycle in descending 5ths/ascending 4ths would be:

 

C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab - Db/C# - Gb/F# - Cb/B - E - A - D - G - C

[meganutt7]

A great exercise is actually to just play the scales fro mthe lowest possible note of the scale to the highest possible note in the scale (on the fingerboard, of course) so, if you have a 24 fret guitar for instance, staarting on C major, you would play it from the low E note to the highest E note at the 24th fret... Then descend.. then play F the same way... then Bb... Then Eb... Then Ab... Etc. This will help you to see the fingerboard and what notes change and where they are on the board...

[BlueHeaven]

IMO what your trying to accomplish is pointless. You should know the notes and not concentrate on patterns. Also IMO the circle of fifths is highly overrated. :mad: Your time would be better used learning the intervals between the notes of the scale and learning to appy them and modify them around the fretboard. Im assuming that your tutor told you to do some exercise, such as arpeggeos by fifths. in other word the exercise was ment to practice arpeggeos and not the circle of fifths.

 

The circle of fifths is just about the most valuable thing you can ever learn in music if you actually want to understand what you are playing or writing.

[stomias]

"The circle of fifths is just about the most valuable thing you can ever learn in music if you actually want to understand what you are playing or writing".

 

 

Yup

[jeremy_green]

 

A great exercise is actually to just play the scales fro mthe lowest possible note of the scale to the highest possible note in the scale (on the fingerboard, of course) so, if you have a 24 fret guitar for instance, staarting on C major, you would play it from the low E note to the highest E note at the 24th fret... Then descend.. then play F the same way... then Bb... Then Eb... Then Ab... Etc. This will help you to see the fingerboard and what notes change and where they are on the board...

 

 

Nice - yes agreed this is a great exercise and way to practice.

 

Curious: Where do you do your position shifts when YOU do this?

[Leo Plumtree]

The circle (endless spiral, really) of fifths is more of a conceptual thing rather than something you literally play. Useful scales pour from the spiral through an assumed octave equivalence...that's the real point of the CoF. Six successive fifths gives you the major scale (the fourth mode of it, anyway), four successive fifths gives you a major pentatonic scale. String enough together and you just arrive at the chromatic scale (twelve fifths gives you a complete inclusive chromatic scale, that is, with a doubled root).

 

Ascending in strict perfect fifths without inverses (fourths) or octave equivalence, a normal guitar runs out of range after only 6 fifths.