Good Music Theory YT Playlist

I’ve been watching these videos. They are great. She is very good at explaining things. This is her whole music theory playlist (18 videos). Enjoy.

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Yes, I’ve found her great with explaining theory. And she’s still adding videos…

I have the same problem with this video that I have with every video I’ve seen on the Circle of Fifths. She doesn’t bother with context.

She seems like a nice enough lady and she explains it well but, like every other video, she never bothers to explain why this is important or why you would want to learn this.

I can tell it would help with reading music since, traditionally, the sharps and flats aren’t notated on the individual notes.

I can imagine it is helpful in figuring out or memorizing the notes in all the keys.

Are there other reasons for learning the Circle of Fifths?

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First (will answer your question in a minute) - the best way i have found is to simply engrave it into your brain, memorize the thing. I wrote it down over and over and over, first the circle, then each scale, backwards/forwards etc. Over and over while watching TV, or just chilling. Before bed, etc - used my ipad so I didn’t wipe out a forest for the paper.

So why do you want to memorize it?
If you ever want to improvise in any reasonable fashion over chord changes, you need to know what notes work and what don’t in each ‘key’. F#Maj chord, what notes do you play? You need your scale, which comes from the construct of the circle and the keys. These have to be emblazened in your brain just like your native language is as there is no time when playing to go 'ok, F#Maj, I have x/y/z available to play, so I think I will play…z/z/y/x. Ain’t no time for all that thinking, has to be second nature.

Want to write music? Same applies.

Want to play bass tabs and have fun - no need, rock on dude.

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This is one of the best answers I have seen to why learn the Circle of Fifths/Fourths.
Of course @John_E picked a key that has 6 Sharps in it. :slightly_smiling_face:

Another use would be to get shapes for Scales you do not know or to get a shape for just the 1 (Root), 5th, and Octave for a particular Key although if you know the Key signature this should not be an issue because the patterns for all the Major scales on Bass are the same as long as you know where the Root note is but some people like it drawn out anyways. Here is one example of each of these for the Key of F♯ Major @John_E mentioned.

Right but what do you do if the tabs are wrong - or does that never happen :joy: :joy: :joy:

On shapes…they are a fine learning tool, but not the ‘way to play’.
If you really want to be able to improvise, you need to know your notes and where they are to play them.
Playing a shape let’s you improvise in shapes.

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I understand what you are saying but most beginners seem to prefer shapes.
Probably the same ones that say they do not need theory because they use tabs :joy: :joy:

Realistically, shapes is how you play pretty much any instrument; you’re not taking the time to think about notes and play them, there just isn’t time for that. That’s why you practice all the different scales on the piano; muscle memory. That’s why reading standard notation music is so efficient, we can recognize image patterns and transfer them into motor/memory. If you’re playing piano in the key of C and you see a triad starting on C, you don’t need to read all three notes, you can recognize that it’s a C/E/G and just play it. This is apparent too when you play an instrument which uses valves or pads where you have to finger a shape to get a note. A common G chord on guitar is G,B,D,G,D,G; how many guitar players know what notes they’re playing when they finger a chord? Probably not a large percentage… I don’t think about it and I don’t usually care :slight_smile:

The problem with “theory” is determining exactly what someone means when they say that. Young children know grammar long before they start studying the rules off grammar. Native speakers usually know certain grammar for their language even though they’ve never been formally taught those rules.

If you’ve ever had to do a computer programming exercise where you have to instruct a person line by line on something like brushing their teeth or making a peanut butter sandwich, you know how many skills we take for granted because we do them without thinking about them.

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No matter how you look at it music theory can only enhance your understanding why something works in a song and why something does not,

BUT

I believe the majority of people here on the forum are beginners and have no need to understand 90%+ of the discussions on the forum, related to music theory, outside of what is taught in the B2B course.
I have often thought that a lot of beginners think that learning more music theory, again other than what is taught in the B2B course, is going to give them some kind of magical shortcut to being able to play the Bass faster and this is just not true.

I just started a new topic regarding these issues. Here is a link.

Beginner Bassist Requirements

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I listening to Victor Wooten’s audio book and this is a recurring theme in his teachings. Makes sense! I just wish I’d picked up any instrument around the time I was learning to speak/walk. :rofl:

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People are always in a hurry but slow and steady wins the race :slight_smile:

I played multiple instruments between the ages of 8 and 18 but then I stopped playing for almost 30 years.

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I bought Rick Beato’s book on theory, I’m not very far in but i think I’m cured of this theory thing :joy:

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:rofl:

I can’t watch the guy. I just can’t. He’s very smart and knowledgeable and still I just can’t do his channel.

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Same - he does my head in!

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Just watched this and thought it was a good one to share for those, like me, who are early into our ‘Music Theory Journey’ and attempting to wade through all the ‘you must know this’ videos. I like David Bennett’s Channel, quite a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItsMmqTOgKo

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I like Dave Bennett too. Like most those guys, I get saturated after a while, and I let them alone for a while. Josh only does one per month, so I never miss his.

Did you try watching her video 7 ways to actually use the circle of 5ths?