Welcome to The Circle, our voyage into the mysteries of The Circle of 5ths. In a previous post we explored the natural resolving nature of the I-VI7-II7-V7-I (C-A7-D7-G7-C) chord progression. Today, we take the concept one fifth clockwise higher on the circle and create the I-III7-VI7-II7-V7-I chord progression (C-E7-A7-D7-G7-C).

The ukulele simply loves this chord progression! Think of Five-Foot-Two, The Charleston or any other number of songs written in the first half of the 20th century. The songs just chug along through the dominant 7th chords until they return to the home key:tension-tension-tension-tension-resolution!

Observation: Make any chord a Dominant 7th chord and it will want to resolve a 5th interval counter-clockwise on the circle. The tension of the Dominant 7th chord is broken when it resolves on a Major chord.