It’s not always easy for teachers to come up with cohesive, compelling ways to teach their students even basic concepts. But something as abstract and dense as, say, the Circle of Fifths? Good luck!  And yet, a teacher named Benjamin Kapilow was undoubtedly up to the task.  What is the Circle of Fifths? The Circle of Fifths visually organizes the twelve chromatic pitches in Western music into a visual, clock-like diagram. Understanding this diagram helps explain how virtually all musical elements are organized and connected. So, having mastery of it enables musicians to sight-read, aka translate sheet music, instantly.  However, music students are often instructed to simply memorize the Circle of Fifths without getting to learn how it applies to an instrument or singing, making it feel like a random assortment of conceptual ideas rather than a tool.  That’s where the “Circle of Fifths” song comes in.  View this post on Instagram In a now-viral video shared to Instagram, we see Kaplow’s entire music class grooving to a song he wrote himself to give them hands-on learning of the sight-reading concepts he had introduced earlier that week: including solfege patterns (you might know them as “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti”) in minor syncopated rhythms, wherein accents are placed between counts instead of the strong downbeats, which gives a song a bouncy feel.  Beyond the impressive craftsmanship, what’s so endearing about this (that many viewers appreciated) is that Kaiplow had a clear “vision” for each of his students during this performance, assigning certain solos and lines to just the right person. Still, it was clearly a collaborative effort.  “I love that the teacher clearly knew their students and gave each student the line they thought they’d eat the hardest,” one person aptly put.  Another joked, “Is y’all’s teacher Lin-Manuel Miranda?” And for those of us who still have no idea what’s going on but dig the tune, you’re not alone.  “Still don’t understand the circle of fifths, but this slaps lmao,” commented one person.  Creating DIY lesson plan songs is something Kapilow regularly does for his class because it’s fun, ensures no one knows the song already, and can readily test students’ sight-reading skills.  “Then I can target what they need to work on in the song,” he told Upworthy, adding that, technically, “Circle of Fifths” just shows up in the lyrics, since the actual lesson about it will happen later in the semester.  Photo credit: Canva Photos – music, teaching, students, teacher, singing These days, we hear a lot about how hard it is to keep students engaged in the classroom. But then you see something like this, and it makes you remember that fun and novelty remain tried-and-true teaching tools. Bless the teachers who pour their creative juices into their curriculum and really infuse joy into what they teach.  The post Teacher creates ‘Circle of Fifths’ song for his kids to sing on the spot. The solos are everything. appeared first on Upworthy.