If you like these lessons, definitely check out www.zombieguitar.com/ It is a one-of-a-kind site dedicated to helping guitarists to understand the fretboard and create their own music. You will love it!!

This is the best explanation you will find on YT of using the circle of 5ths.

Hi Brian I've played guitar for eons now and had a stop start relationship to theory. For me you've helped cracked the code to teaching for simpletons like myself. Not quite ready for the tattoo yet.Cheers from down under

If anyone would take anything out of this I would hope it would be: "EVERYTHING is derived from the major scale" Thank you for the clear to the point statement bro, I'm hoping more people pick up on that one

Excellent instruction here takin what can a very confusing topic and effectively explaining it.

Man, you look like someone I wouldn't want to mess with on the bus, but holy crap you are an awesome teacher!!! And getting the circle of fifths tattooed, that's badass. Thanks for the great video.

That was amazing of you to explain something so twisted up . And then untwist it for us. Quite a great accomplishment. I have been really wondering which is overall the most efficient method in trying to share musical concepts with other musicians. You clarified things extremely well........Thank You Brian 🤜🏻⚡🤛🏻

Thanks Brian. Your tutorial knocks it out of the park.

Great lesson Brian. Incorporating the printed charts really helps me a bunch. Hearing something spoken doesn’t always make its way to the memory bank, not for me anyway. If I read it at least once it might stay put…maybe….You’re very good at explaining what seems at first glance to be very confusing. And, as far as the Roman numeral system, I’ll stick to the Nashville system.

Working on a stage with new musicians with no charts I use a fingering system. No, not that one, although sometimes I have considered it. I use the actual keys. If we're in the key of G, one finger held up for 1 # for the key of G major. If I go to the key of D, two fingers held up for the key of D. 2 #'s. If I have to go to the key of F, one finger held down for 1b, which is the key of F. If the progression goes to Eb, three fingers held down. If the progression goes to the key of C, the OK or zero fingered symbol is used. This means, "no sharps or flats". If the tune starts out in G minor, I hold up one finger and then make a "slash" sign which means key of G minor. This system works great if you're doing a gig with an orchestra behind you which plays for the other acts and you want a "Taa-Daaaaaaa", or "circus ending" for your tune. Talk to the orchestra leader beforehand if possible, who understands your system, and ask him to watch you. When the song ends, with your hand to your side or behind your back, whichever is easier for the leader to see, make the proper fingering. Fingers up for sharps, fingers down for flats. The group I worked with had a guitarist who would signal the orchestra behind us, and they would always give us what I call the "circus ending". The audience thought the orchestra was part of our act. Give it a try.

Been watching a ton of music theory and learning techniques for a long time and you finally help it all make sense with this video and you 8 week lead video! WOW Thanks

EXTREMELY GOOD EXPLAINATION.

Really great video again! At 14:35 you say the most important sentence. Even though a song is in minor you count the numbers of the chords from the major perspective. I always was confused how to view the numbers for minor songs. :D thanks for clearing this up Brian! ;)

Brian, this lesson was an absolute EYE-OPENER. Many thanks!!

That cleared up what I've been searching for and it's so helpful

Brian, once again, an area that I believed I understood you brought to an other level. Thank you!

Another great lesson like all yours always are Thanks for your knowledge and time and sharing with us all.

Brian..thanks. Great clear explanation!

Good lesson Brian, thank you for sharing.

Great lesson, Brian. I am working hard on trying to understand this type of information right now in my playing, so videos like this are a great help. I have saved this video to go over it a few times. Thanks.

Well, this clears up a lot of confusion for me. Thanks!

Great info. This gave me a breakthrough! Thanks

Brian you have a very good way of explaining music theory and how to apply it. Keep up the good work.

Good job of explaining Big B. Thanks as usual. 😎👍👌💯🎸🎸🎸

Best teacher in the world!

This video is GOLD!!

Thank you so much for explaining so clearly. Super handy for Steel guitar in ACEGACEG tuning

You got this !!!!🎸. Thank you 🙏

Great teaching !

Good lesson Brian. I need to go back and go over everything a few times to digest everything, but I got the main point. Thanks.

Thank you! finally made sense.

There are different ways to think about this which can be confusing. Personally if I am in A minor key I prefer to think of Aminor as my one chord not as the 6th of the key of C. I then know to flatten the third sixth and seventh of the A major scale and I don't think about C at all. I get the other way which you prefer thinking of it as key of C and playing a 6 1 5 4 or whatever but as above works better for my way of thinking. Each to their own but need to understand both to communicate properly. Good video

I'm using something kind of in between these 2 systems. I use Roman numerals but only from Major perspective but I also like to use slash chords (ie V/V) as I like to view chords through functional harmony

Brian good lesson and very clear explanation. Rgds from Madrid (Spain)

Great lesson, broken down so even a simpleton like me can understand, thanks !

Very Cool video, I'm surprised I've never heard of using digits for chords is called "The Nashville System". I learned something new! I love your theory lectures!

Great lesson as always Brian. Thanks for the upload. ^-^

Very informative, thank you.

This was great.

For me it's more natural to name Am the i if song is in Am and name it vi if song is in C. But I do understand Brian's point too, having one name for the Am in C key signature

Great stuff.

Very good

I think my brain's ready to explode. Man, I just wanna rock!

Brian Kelly is the best music theory teacher on KZfaq that I've found.

Been using Nashville system (originally learned Roman numeral) for years (bass player here). Been trying to get the rest of my band(s) into the Nashville system. Slowly but surely they have been , sort of, understanding it but often revert to just naming the chords in the progression. It’s problem for them to some degree when the female singer says during rehearsals “ I want to try this a few steps lower/higher.” By knowing the Nashville method I can quickly tell them the actual chords to use. I think they secretly hate that the bass player can tell them that information lol. I’ll send them a link to this lesson. It’s so well done Brian.

Greetings, well done. Thank you. pax, PL

Love that Taylor guitar! Is that the 814? Also - really a big fan of your videos. Been a subscriber for a long time and I watch a lot of guitar-centric KZfaq channels, but you always break down the theory in a way I can understand. Thanks for all of it!

You both have an extensive knowledge and the gift to convey it. I am trying to learn the pedal steel guitar. Without the Nashville numbering system it would be impossible. The pedal steel for country is tuned in E9 tuning. There are ten strings. The fifth Is on the 5th and 10th string, the third is on the 3rd and 6th, and the root, which is E is on the 4th and 8th. Then the other strings are 7th, 7th major and 9th. By position the bar, you play the chords, by hitting the different pedals and levers you get the different chords marked at I ii iii IV V vi vii diminished. The Nashville number system makes it easy to play and play in every key.

thanks you so much man, b chords always confused me

hi Brian just to let you know, i think your lessons are great, you put them across in a really easy to follow way or should i say a good down to earth way of explaining things and i will be getting the lifetime membership sometime in the near future. You just seem too be able to make things jump out at me and let me understand a lot easier. Many thanks for your youtube lessons also i am a great believer in the circle of 5ths and you seem to be the only one that uses it all the time for referance, WHAT A GREAT TOOL IT IS. Any chance of a pic of your tattoo ot the circle of fifths as i have been thinking of having it done. MANY THANKS AGAIN. Keep on rockin in the free world.

A really good explanation that made it a lot easier to understand. Much appreciated

Yup good info imo

I feel like one point of confusion with writing a chart in major or minor has to do with where the progression is going. So, near the end of the video you play the progression. Am-F-C-G and I would definitely chart that in major since there’s no V or even v to i relationship. So it would be confusing to write that in minor because there’s nothing to indicate minor. So, if I had a progression that was like Am-C-Dm-E7, I would write it as i-III-iv-V7. Because a key isn’t just what chord the song starts or ends on, it’s about the pull of the progression. If you choose to end somewhere other than tonic, you should feel a lack of resolution, or at least feel like you’ve modulated. I prefer using a sort of hybrid method where I use Roman numerals for the chords and Arabic numerals for the other stuff like the bass note of slash chords for instance. I’m not about to start using figured bass for a chord chart lol

Very concise explanation of both systems. Thanks Brian.

9:50 i think you shoulda mentioned that what you just did was chord substitution, since V and viio are both leading chords they often replaced. and in fact it's often argued that diminished chord is incomplete V7b9 chord without a root, so playing G7 could totally pass as your "diminished"

Steve stines fuc$%ng ads are killing ur videos bro. 3 so far during this video

Hi Brian, i have some questions for the numbering of a song which has the 7 as normal minor chord and the 2 as major (if i am right please check this :D) It is the song "All The Stars" by Kendrick Lamar which has the following progression: AbM7 - Fm7 x2 Cm7 - Gm7 Cm7 - Bb In the Nashville system i would write the following: 1 - 6 x2 3 - 7- 3 - 2+ So here my questions: Is the 7- and the 2+ the correct way (and the others of course too :D ) How would i add the additional chord information (like 7th or 9th)? Just put it behind the "Nashville number"? Thanks in advance.

Great lesson Brian.With the circle of fifths diagram I was getting confused trying to remember which direction to go( clockwise or counter clockwise) to find the chord number.Ten I realised you just have to follow the musical alphabet. Is that correct?

I do not play the guitar rather I play the piano. However, Can you please tell me how you would count the way you strummed the guitar at 11 minutes. I am trying to play a rhythm that accompanies the guitar player in my band but I do not know how the count the various ways the strum. Any resource you could point me to on youtube that explains how they count would be helpful as well. Thank you. Great overview video!

Very helpful! So I just joined the Zombies. Question: how a progression of I-VI-II-V7 or I-VI7-II7-V7 be expressed in Nashville Numbering System? Thanks,

In the Nashville numbering system, how do you denote the upper extensions? You didn’t explain that part.

Hey im a beginner and does it matter if I solo in a c major key and the background is an a minor key? And vice versa for every major and their relative minor key??? AND is it true that the 6th degree of any major key that’s its relative minor???

What about the progressions that aren't Nashville and don't start with 1 or 6. I've seen them about.

Dear Brian, "minor perspective" =tonal center minor chord; "major perspective"= major chord as tonal center. I'm right?

Outstanding lesson Brian! First time I saw the Roman numeral minor notation with bIII etc. If in a mode or other scale do people refer to that as the 1 chord? Like D Dorian or playing in F Harmonic minor. Thanks!

There are no minor chords in the Nashville Number System scale! The NNS scale is as follows using the C scale... 1=C Major, 2= D Major, 3= E Major, 4= F Major, 5= G Major, 6= A Major, 7= B major. See?...no minor chords, no diminished chords, all Major chords. This scale (1,2m,3m,4,5,6m,7dim) is NOT the NNS. It is similar to Roman numeral and figured bass systems which date back to the 17th century.

nice tattoo

Naketazo

Just call the chords by their name, for instance F#m, D, A and E, and let the bandmembers find out for themselves what the progressions and key are, and how they relate.