Good morning, fellas! For today's first musical post I decided to explain, to the best of my capabilities, a very important musical tool which is, in my humble opinion, indispensable to the growth and evolution of each and every apprentice musician out there. 

<center>https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2016/10/25/23/19/music-1770291_960_720.jpg
 <i>The circle of fifths, as depicted in a clock-form</i></center>

As a fellow musician (with several certified skills on guitar and piano), I have too been there in the beginning of my journey where I hit a point of perhaps losing my compass. That is why I eventually turned to the circle of fifths, which further helped and can still help me along my way for my purposes in music.

In principle, each and every new music is exposed to the circle of fifths in some form or other. Usually, the vast majority of musicians are firstly exposed to the circle of fifths as part of a formal musical training before approaching a real world musical instrument and start playing. In my case however, for the aim of learning guitar, many years ago it was enough for me to grasp maximum 10 major and minor chords from one of my instructors (which were drawn on a sheet of paper in tablature format).

Nevertheless, if you truly want to get more serious about it you <i>must</i> know the circle of fifths, even at the expense of being called a musical freak by some of your closest friends. That being said, my experience with the circle of fifths came many years after my first contacts with the guitar while I was still a bachelor student in Aalborg, Denmark. 

During one of the breaks between lectures, I and another fellow student discussed a bit about guitars and music and, since one thing ultimately led to another, he talked me through the circle of fifths as well. A valuable lesson learned for which I am indeed grateful.

<center>![768px-Pitch_class_space_star.svg.png](https://images.hive.blog/DQmXZNtbXasc6aPePV4ksusvcBM5S82ebv9pCJgsa2rXkRE/768px-Pitch_class_space_star.svg.png)
<i>The circle of fifths as a key scale dodecagram. Image source: [Commons Wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pitch_class_space_star.svg)</i></center>

Now, on to the explanation part where things might get a bit rough and complicated. If you are a guitarist and want to become as versatile as possible, playing multiple keys in between your performances, you have to know the circle of fifths. There are 12 chromatic pitches in total and each and every one of them has a minor and a major version to them. Bearing in mind the aforementioned, I will just leave a full further explanation to Brian Kelly on Youtube who literally nails it:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/50CpDZvTWks" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And some further theory explained in a beginner's way:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VfrD6IOTgKY" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Some of the advantages of using the circle of fifths in your everyday musician life include:

1) Determining the key of a song;
2) Recognising songs by their signature key;
3) Becoming a virtuoso guitarist;
4) Ultimately playing a lot of stuff by ear on guitar.

That being said, I truly hope this was an educational article well worth your time. Furthermore, please tell me in the comments' section down below whether you have personally used the circle of fifths or if you're going to use it if you're a musician yourself. Cheers and stay tuned for more!