I bought my first guitar ($9.95 plus $5.00 for a fiberboard case) back in 1952 or '53. I was very lucky with this guitar in a number of ways. The first was that the bloody thing was actually playable! The intonation was on, the frets were accurately placed, and the action was low and soft. It did, however, sound a bit like it was made of apple-crate wood, which it was. The salesman threw in a free pick, which I never used.

The second lucky thing was that the salesman tossed in a free copy of Nick Manoloff's Spanish Guitar Method, which included a handy-dandy patented Nick Manoloff Chord Wheel.

CLICKY

(Click on the images and they increase in size. The second image is the backside of the bottom disk of the chord wheel, for quick reference.)

Two cardboard disks attached with a metal eyelet, with "windows" in the top one. Dial a key and it tells you what chords are available in that key.

I got curious, so I peeked behind the top disk (they were suffiently flexible) and lo! I got my first lesson in music theory. The chords were arranged in what I learned later was the "Circle of Fifths." It not only gives you chord families, it also shows how the keys are related to each other.

It merits a great deal of serious study.

I have absorbed all this, reinforced by two years of music theory study at the U. of Washington, and another two years at the Cornish College of the Arts (a sort of conservatory). The Chord Wheel and the Circle of Fifths are not the be-all and end-all of music theory, but knowing the Circle of Fifths is a tremendous help in learning chords and chord relationships, and it's a very important aspect of music theory. I no longer need to use the Chord Wheel (it's all in my head), but I still have it around here somewhere.

Don Firth