Circle of 5ths

This site is for music students and their teachers

The Circle of 5ths is a diagram of related chords. Found online at randscullard.com is an interactive app that is helpful in determining all associated chords. To determine the applicable chords for a key, it is all that one really needs. Paul McCartney and John Lennon never made use of such an app, but knew the chords that were associated with the major scale or minor scale that they were using.

E Major


I ii iii IV V vi
E F#m G#m A B7 C#m

A Major

I ii iii IV V vi
A Bm C#m D E7 F#m

D Major

I ii iii IV V vi
D Em F#m G A7 Bm

G Major

I ii iii IV V vi
G Am Bm C D7 Em

C Major

I ii iii IV V vi
C Dm Em F G Am

Moveable Chords On the E and A Strings

Using the chart below, if I wanted to play a Bm7, with the root note on the E string, I look at the top row of shapes and select the Minor 7th shape, and according to the 'rootname' chart below, B is on the 7th fret. I place my index finger across the seventh fret and let my other fingers line up under it. If I want to play an Eb7 with the root note on the A string, I look at the second line of chords and the second chart. I find the 7th chord shape, and place it with my index finger on the sixth fret.

chord shapes


root notes

Common Barre Chord Shapes

Four common chord shapes that the Beatles used are shown below. The root of the chord is red.

cade shapes

Using the E shape, one can play the following chords:


E shape chords

etc.

Songwriting: Lennon & McCartney

The first songs that were written in 1958 were 'What Goes On' and 'I Call Your Name.' Both of these were written by Lennon and released later. This was followed by two McCartney compositions: 'Love Me Do' and 'In Spite of All The Danger.' By July 1958, they were in the studio recording 'That'll Be The Day.' In addition to Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, they also played Buddy Holly's music. They liked that Buddy Holly wrote them himself.

George Harrison: Lead Guitarist ... Paul on Bass

After George Harrison joined the Beatles in February 1958, he tackled the solos in Sweet Little Sixteen and Dizzy Miss Lizzy. The latter would be played at Shea Stadium 7 years later. Adding yet more songs to their repertoire, they even tacked Lend Me Your Comb.

Many of these songs ended up on the Anthology Series. With respect to the latter, they combined it with Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey. By now their repertoire was large (May 1959), but as yet Paul was not playing bass. McCartney's first step toward becoming an influential and widely admired bassists in rock 'n' roll started with him being browbeaten into taking the job. The switch happened for the first time on Jan. 5, 1961, after the Beatles got back from an ill-fated few months in Germany. Until then, he was playing guitar.

Discover some new chord progressions.