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The Circle of Fifths

A Great Tool for Learning Music Theory

The circle of fifths is an almost magical tool for musicians! Magical in its simplicity. Here is an ingenious invention to help you find major and minor key signatures, scales, chords and more.

First things first...

Before we look at the picture of the Circle of fifths, you first need to know what it is made up from. Maybe it seems a bit confusing at first, but it is actually rather easy:

First, remember that we have only 12 different notes? On the piano keyboard you can easily see them as:
The 7 white keys with the basic notes: A,B,C,D,E,F, and G.
And the 5 black keys with note names derived from the white keys: C# or Db etc. (7+5=12!)
Second, remember what a perfect fifth was? No?
A perfect fifth is the interval between two notes that are exactly 3 1/2 steps or tones apart.

Fifths: The Circle of Fifths

Lets take a "walk" on the piano keys!

Start from a C very low in the base (to the left). Play a perfect fifth up...G! Right. Continue another perfect fifth...D! You've got it!

Circle of fifths on keyboard

Now continue like this and you will get: C-G-D-A-E-B-F#...What?!

-Why a black key?

Remember that between B and F there is a diminished fifth, only 3 steps, so we have to take F up 1/2 a step. OK? Let's continue, where were we? Here we go:

Circle of fifths on piano keys

F#/Gb (the same key!)- C#/Db-(eh..let's call them "flats"(b)from now on) - Ab- Eb - Bb - back to the white keys now...

F - and...yes! We are back on C again!!

You just traveled around the piano on 12 different keys,

all a perfect fifth apart!

The Circle of Fifths:

The clock has 12 hours. Neat! We can use the clock as a template! Start at 12 o'clock. Let's decide that C is here. Going to the right, around the clock and you will return to C again.

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OK. Now how on earth is this useful?

You can use the circle of fifths to easily see all the 12 tonalities or key signatures in major- and if you look at the inner circle also the relative minor!
You can easily learn how many sharps or flats a scale or key signature has: 1 o'clock (G) has 1 sharp, 2 o'clock (D) has two and so on....
-Hey- stop a minute! I can't see any 8,9,10 or 11 sharps or flats?
Yeah, that would be unnecessary. Instead of having one circle with only sharp key signatures and another with only flats, which would then give us an awkward key signature with 11 sharps or flats at 11 o'clock..
...We use the fact that the black keys can have two names, and rename them after 7 sharps/flats. (There is a little overlap as you can see.)
So the circle of fifths you see here is "merged" with what could have been a circle with only sharps and a circle with only flats. One side is with sharps, and the other with flats. C is "natural" since it uses only white keys.
In this way- going to the right from C until about 7 o'clock gives you 7 key signatures with sharps. And going to the left of C, again 7 "hours" backwards- gives you 7 Key signatures with flats. Cool!
You can easily see what chords work well together: Pick one, let's say F major. The neighboring two, Bb and C together with F are the most important chords i F major- AND you can easily change them with their relative minor chords right underneath!
So, in F major you can use: F, Bb and C major plus d, g and a minor chords for a "smooth" harmony! Go to the piano and try it out!!
Plus- if you work with functional chord analysis- there are your Tonic(I)(Pick any note), Sub dominant (IV) (To the left of the one you picked), and Dominant (V)(To the right), chord functions.
And finally, for all the music theory geeks like me- isn't the Circle of Fifths just beautiful!!

I find this tool amazing. Imagine then that it was invented by dear old Pythagoras (Greek mathematician sixth century B.C) in the days when music and mathematics were always studied together.

Recommended Resources:

Click Here to download the internet's best-selling guide on how to read sheet music in less than 7 days.

Related Pages:

The Key Signature

Learn Piano Scales Easily with the Circle of Fifths!

Layout of the Piano Keys

Music Intervals

Printable Piano Music Scales

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