Eventually, every aspiring musician is faced with learning about the flow of music, how it 'gravitates' from one place to another. One of the means in which many songs employ that movement is by taking advantage of the
Cycle of Fourths. Thankfully, some nice big brain decided to create a way to demonstrate this device in an easy to understand diagram:
As you notice, at the 12 o'clock noon position is C. Proceed to the right and you find F, which also has one flat (Bb). In the C major scale, F is the 4th note of the scale. Continue to the right and we find Bb, which has two flats (Eb, Bb); Bb is the 4th note of the F Major scale. See a pattern here? Eventually, as you travel around the cycle, you end up right back at the beginning, in C.
As you proceed around the dial, each subsequent 4th adds one more flat, so for part of this cycle, the memorisation is easy, just follow a clock face in the number of flats at each position from 1 to 5, the Db, which has 5 flats.
We can find examples of this movement in a lot of songs, which I'll demonstrate. Let's look at the first 5 bars of All The Things You Are, after the intro. This
is from a "lead sheet", and is not bass clef notation. Follow the chords, not the notes.
Even though we're playing the first two bars in minor chord forms, the flow still follows the Cycle of Fourths, from the F to the Bb, to the Eb, to the Abmaj7 to the Dbmaj7. Each change is a motion in 4ths from the previous chord played.
Here's another example, the first ending of Green Dolphin Street (lead sheet here too; follow chords, not notes):
As you can see, the flow of these segments is really smooth, whether major or minor in nature, even when mixing it up. This is not difficult theory, it's easy to understand, and the basic intuitive flow that music tends to 'telegraph' to us in the writing process.
To help you play through these examples, and I encourage you to do this, use the diagram of chord forms outlined here. You will find that many Standards employ the Cycle of Fourths, like Autumn Leaves in the beginning four measures.
This is by no means an exhaustive examination of the Cycle of Fourths, but rather an introduction, and examples of its application in the real world. Look for examples of its use in the songs you already know and in the songs you are learning. You'll see it everywhere!
In the next installment, we'll look at the Circle of Fifths, the other half of this wonderful wheel.
Next time!