Hey Friend,
Today I've got to be brief. I have to be in to work early, so the rushing has already started!
I got an email from Michelle N. asking a question about the Circle of Fifths. She writes:
Hi Dave, are these instructions only applicable to reading music? Or do they also apply to tablature?
Initially, I thought that would be fairly easy to answer, but the more I pondered the question, the more I realized there wasn't clear, straight-up answer. So I'm gonna try and do this justice without getting too deep.
The answer is Yes. And No. Clear? I didn't think so...
The Circle of Fifths is a tool we can use to quickly know how many sharps or flats belong in a key (this is called the key signature) without having to memorize. It also tells us what major and minor keys line up together (a concept called relative major and relative minor). So yes, it can help us read standard notation (musical scores).
It also tells us the perfect fifth interval ( the fifth note in the major scale) for the key before. Remember how we counted up five notes to figure out the next key and how many sharps it would have? I think that's just a little bonus.
So far, none of that really helps with reading tabs, though.
But here's the kicker. Knowing the pattern for a major scale and understanding how to figure out which notes belong in a scale transcends reading tabs or sheet music. It's a more fundamental understanding of how notes interact with each other and create pleasing sound versus something we might cringe at hearing.
It's one thing to know which notes belong, but it's another to know where to place your fingers on the guitar neck to play a scale. If you're more attuned to fret number (tabs) than you are to notation, then you can quickly recognize a pattern in the numbers when you're playing a scale.
Man, that time went quicker than I expected! I'll have to pick this up tomorrow... but...
It's Friday! May your work day go quickly and your weekend go slow!
Peace~
Dave | 
