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Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 15 2007, 03:28 AM

Introduction

The circle of fifths ... a lot of people ask what it is and how to use it, as if they hope it will solve all of the worlds problems. Whilst it won't do that, it is a very useful tool, and can help us in a number of ways. This lesson will describe what it is, and how we can get a lot of mileage out of this musical geometrical figure.

The Circle

So what is it? The circle of fifths is an arrangement of musical keys in a circular format that allows you to easily understand the relationship between those keys, and work out the number of sharps and flats there are in each key. If you need to learn a little more about keys I suggest you look at my music notation lesson http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=4363.

Each Segment of the circle has a key associated with it, and we can make inferences about the properties of keys next to each other.

Lets have a look at a special GMC version of the circle:



As you can see, it is fairly simple, a list of all 12 keys, laid out in a specific order (of which more later). Note that each Major key also has its relative minor key listed underneath. In terms of notes, the Major and its Relative minor are identical, so they share the same slot on the circle of fifths. If you want to learn more about relative minors, check out my lesson on the subject http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/guitar_forum/index.php?showtopic=3009.

Another thing to note is that this really is a circle - once you have been around the circle once, the pattern repeats itself, so there is really no beginning or end, as you would expect from a circle.

The 5ths

So the circle part of the name is fairly obvious, what about the 5ths part? If you move around the circle clock wise, each key is separated from the preceding key by a 5th interval. C to G is a 5th, G to D is a 5th, and so on.

If you go around the circle anti-clockwise, the keys are related by a 4th interval. Why is this? Well a backwards 5th is a 4th - lets see why. Imagine we are starting on the note of C. As we have seen above, a 5th interval is a G (C D E F G). But if we play that backwards, how do the notes G and C relate to each other? (G A B C) - a 4th. It might seem a little crazy that you go around one way and its 5ths, yet the other way is 4ths. the important point here is that we aren't traversing notes in a scale backwards and forwards, we are actually looking at the relationship between 2 notes as an interval, and we usually figure intervals moving upwards from the first note to the second. So to work out the interval between G and C, we don't count backwards (G F E D C), we count forwards (G A B C) and we get a 4th interval.

So, move clockwise and we are switching between keys separated by a 5th interval, and anticlockwise we are switching between keys separated by a 4th interval. For this reason the circle of fifths is also known as the Circle of 4ths.

Another way to look at it that might make a little more sense is that clockwise you are going up a 5th, anticlockwise you are going down a 5th. Its just that going down a 5th is exactly the same as going up a 4th in interval terms as I described above.

Related Keys

This is all very well but what does it give us? One of the important things the circle of fifths gives us is an easy way of finding keys that are musically related to each other. Keys next to each other differ by only one sharp or flat meaning that they actually share 7 of their 8 notes - this means that they are very similar sounding, and moving from one key to a key adjacent to it on the Circle is a musically pleasing and easily understood change, cnsisting of the sharpening or flattening of just a single note. For for instance, if you are in the key of G, the Circle immediately tells you that G and C are closely related keys and would be good candidates for a key change. (It can also tell us that a key and its relative minor are closely related since they share all the same notes).

The reason for this closeness between keys separated by a 4th or 5th interval is easy to understand if you look at the formula for the major scale - remember that the gaps are specified by the formula 2-2-1-2-2-2-1
If we pick a couple of representative keys, C and G major, we can lay them out underneath each other and examine the differences. The scale of C starts with C as the tonic, G starts with G as the tonic (of course). As you can see from the diagram below, the formulae are offset by 5 steps (because of the 5th interval) and that means that they don't match exactly. They are pretty close however, and as you can see, the only difference is that a 2 and a 1 are flipped in the G major scale, which has the effect of sharpening the F to an F#, bu that is all since the next step (the G note) is pulled back in line with the C major scale because of the 1 semitone step after the F#:



This shows us why there is a close match between keys separated by a 5th, which explains why they sound good together. If you tried this same exercise with keys separated by a 2nd or 3rd, you would get many more differing notes, making those keys more distantly related.

The same is true for keys separated by a 4th. Lets do the maths:



Its a similar story. In this case, again we have one different note, the Bb, all other notes are identical.

Key Signatures

What we just learned above leads us into interesting territory - that of key signatures. Its worth reading my lesson on musical notation here to understand a bit more about them. What the circle does is allow us to understand the different flats and sharps that belong with each key. As we saw above, moving clockwise from one key to the next introduces one additional sharp into the new scale. Moving anticlockwise has the effect of removing one sharp (or as we move through the key of C which has no sharps or flats, we start adding flats - this comes to the same thing, we are moving a note up or down a semitone in each case, its just that the notation changes when we move through C). This allows us to deduce the order of the keys and the number of sharps or flats they have as we move around the circle as follows:



Down at the bottom of the circle, something very interesting happens. You'll see that I marked that slot as "F# Major or Gb Major". How can it be both? It can be both because those 2 keys are enharmonic which is a term that means that they share the same distribution of sharps and flats. But don't just take my word for it, lets check that out. Our first clue is that Gb and F# are actually the same note, and we would expect that applying the major formula twice to the same note would get us the same scale! Lets work it through.

We are still working with the major scale, so our formula is still 2-2-1-2-2-2-1. Lets start with Gb, and figure out the notes:



Now, lets do the same with F#:



Now we can compare the notes. They are pretty similar when you work through the sharps and flats:

F# = Gb
G# = Ab
A# = Bb
B = Cb
C# = Db
D# = Eb
Gb = F#

Well that all looks ok, apart from E# and F - what is this mysterious E#? In earlier lessons I told you that there was no such note as E#. That's a little white lie that makes things easier to start with. In actual fact, there really isn't a note of E#, but for notational reasons it can be useful to use the term. If you sharpen an E you get an F, so in fact E# is really the same as F, the subtle difference is that although they are the same note, they are working differently in the context of key signatures. F on its own is an unadulterated note that hasn't been sharpened or flattened. E# is used as notation to show that although we will be playing an F, we understand that it is an E that has been sharpened by the key signature.

Ok, now that we know that E# is really an F, we can now see that the 2 scales are identical, or enharmonic. So flats and sharps meet in the middle in our wonderful circle of fifths.

Now, if you wanted to you could push the flats further around the circle anti clockwise, and the sharps clockwise, and and up with even more sharps and flats. Although you do occasionally see pieces with 7 flats or 7 sharps, it is very unusual and a little pointless. As you move further round things start to get really out of whack, and you start to need double sharps and double flats to make things work out (a little like the concept of our E#).

Deriving the Circle of Fifths and Associated Scales

Just in case you are ever stranded without access to the increasingly useful circle of 5ths, here is a way you can build it up from first principles with just a little bit of knowledge, and a couple of simple rules.

Let start at C - we know that C has no sharps or flats and is the start of the circle. First we want to build the circle up clockwise, and we know that the keys are 5th apart. Lets write down a scale of C:

C D E F G A B C

The 5th of the scale is G, so we now know that G is the next key around the circle. We also know from our earlier key comparisons that the difference between the 2 scales is a single sharp - the 7th note of our new scale (go check if you don't believe me - this falls out from the formula for the scale as we saw before). Knowing these two key facts we can now write out the scale for the next key in the circle, which is G major, by starting with our C major scale above, taking notes starting from the 5th of the scale, and sharpening the 7th note that we get to:

G A B C D E F# G

We can do this again to get the next key and scale - this time we start with our new scale of G, count 5 notes to get to the 5th and write notes from there sharpening the 7th

D E F# G A B C# D

Do this another 3 times and you have the clockwise half of the circle.

Now we need to figure out the anticlockwise half of the circle. Again, we start with the scale of C:

C D E F G A B C

Since we are going anti clockwise, our new scale starts on the 4th of the scale - which is F. An from our key comparison above we saw that moving anti clockwise results in a flattening of the 4th of the new scale, so we can write down our new scale like this:

F G A Bb C D E F

And once again, we apply the same rule to get the next key and scale - the 4th is Bb, writing notes and flattening the new 4th when we get to it gives us:

Bb C D Eb F G A B

And so on - eventually we will get to the 6th slot and our circle will be complete!

This exercise has also revealed something else of use to us - the order of the sharps and flats. If you were paying attention when you built the circle, and wrote down each new sharp as you came upon it you should have got F C G D A E B - this is useful to know, and most theory lessons would have you remember that sequence with a some sort of mnemonic - but we just figured it out from scratch using the circle of fifths, based on our understanding of how scales alter when they differ between 5 intervals - this is the very rule that early musical theorists used when building key signatures for the first time. The same is true for the flats - B E A D G C F.

Finding the Order of Sharps and Flats

Now, another trick - we know that to figure out the new sharp for each key around the circle, we just sharpen the 7th note of the new scale - just as we did above. The circle can help here. If you look at a particular key, say G and want to figure out the 7th note, just go back 2 steps on the circle - this gets us to F, which is the note we would sharpen when writing down the key of G, the first sharp in our list. We can extend this to each of the sharps, and you will notice that if you start 2 segments anticlockwise from the G, the key is F. Reading clockwise from F gives us F C G D A E B - the order of our sharps!

This works because two 4th intervals added together in this way actually gives us a seventh. This is because when figuring intervals we always count the note we started from and the note we ended on. So, if we start at G and move through two complete 4ths it woks like this:

G A B C
C D E F

Notice that we had to use C twice, and that in total we went from C to F, which is a seventh, not an octave as you might think.

The practical upshot of this is that the order of the sharps can be read off from around the circle, starting 2 steps anticlockwise from the first key that has any sharps (G).

To get the flats, the easiest way is to just reverse the order of the sharps, but you can also get that from the circle with a little effort.

Chord Progressions

One final trick from the ever useful circle - it will also quickly show you the subdominant(IV) and dominant(V) chords for a particular key, often used to build progressions. Once again, pick a key (F say) . Look Clockwise for your dominant or V chord © and anti clockwise for your subdominant or IV chord (Bb). These are the 3 most important chords in any key, and the Cricle helps us to easily locate them.
The Finished Circle

Ok, now we have talked about all the things the circle can do for us, lets put it all together in one big diagram - the GMC Cricle of Fifths!



Final Word

So there you have it - the Circle of Fifths. Use it to:

* Build a I,IV,V chord progression
* Pick a key to modulate to
* Spot a relative minor
* Work out the number of sharps or flats in a key
* Work out the individual sharps and fats in a key


Not bad for a humble little circle!

As usual, comments and questions in the forum!

Parts of this lesson were based on material provided by Tsuki - thanks!

Posted by: JVM Jun 15 2007, 03:32 AM

I haven't read it yet - BUT THANK YOU ANDREW!

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 15 2007, 03:52 AM

You thought I was just joking right ?

Posted by: JVM Jun 15 2007, 03:56 AM

Well, I knew you were up to something or other, so I figured it would be this What's next on the checklist?

I'm still digesting this, but I'll probably have a couple of questions for you later.

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 15 2007, 04:01 AM

I'm thinking maybe the complex chords lesson - I've been putting that one off for a while cos its going to be a big one ...

Posted by: Stratman58 Jun 15 2007, 04:33 AM

Much thanks...reading now.
Enjoy the compliments Andrew cuz I'm sure I'll have a nice load of questions to ask after this read!

Posted by: fkalich Jun 15 2007, 04:40 AM

good stuff andrew. appreciated.

Posted by: Kaneda Jun 15 2007, 11:09 AM

The usual side notes (I haven't read the entire lesson yet, but did a quick search to see if it was mentioned)...

Just to show how, in spite of all the things that seem inconsistent and illogical, all things in music are related somehow:

Pick a note on the circle + the four next notes clock-wise, say, starting from C:

C G D A E

Put them in order, starting from the first note:

C D E G A

... and you have the C major pentatonic scale. Start from the fourth note instead (in the original order):

A C D E G

... and you have the A minor pentatonic.

This can be done starting from any note in the circle to build pentatonic scales Bb F C G D => Bb C D F G is the Bb major pentatonic scale. G Bb C D F is the G minor pentatonic.

The fact that the notes in the pentatonic scales lie close together in the circle of fifths is related to why the pentatonic scales are, once again, "easy" (as I've mentioned in other threads) to improvise in.

Posted by: Kristofer Dahl Jun 20 2007, 11:47 PM

That's a hell of a ugly guy in the middle of the circle!

No seriously - you are doing a fantastic job Andrew!

Kris

Posted by: edgor67 Jun 21 2007, 12:59 AM

I'm gonna have to read it again. Especially to Work out the number of sharps or flats in a key and Work out the individual sharps and flats in a key. Pretty interesting. It makes it sound so easy. How do you get to that big note in the hub of the circle. Is that a K note? Its all enharmonic my brother!

g

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 21 2007, 09:17 PM

Its K# - cos Kris is a sharp kinda guy

Posted by: Kaneda Jun 21 2007, 10:41 PM

Finding the notes of all the major and minor scales

One more thing it's useful for - finding the notes of a major or natural minor scale/key. This is again related to Andrew's explanation of finding the order of the sharps. To find a major scale, you simply pick the tonic of the scale (the "root note"), go one step counter-clockwise, and starting from that "note", you pick the next 6 steps clockwise on the circle. For example, we want to find the notes of C major:

We go one step counter-clockwise from "C major", and get to "F major". So the first note we know is in the C major scale is "F". Then we pick the next 6 notes clockwise:

F C G D A E B.

Put them in order, starting from the tonic ("root note"): C D E F G A B

To find minor keys, we just start from the relative major (since it shares its notes with that) - and again go one step counter-clockwise, then pick the 7 notes clockwise. If we want to find the notes of Eb minor, we go one step counter-clockwise from Gb major (the relative major of Eb minor), and then pick the 7 notes:

B Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F

Order them:

Eb F Gb Ab Bb B Db (the B would actually be written as the enharmonic Cb in music notation, but that's a side note - see Andrew's explanation of "E#" in the lesson)

The ease of pentatonic scales

So, this brings us to why pentatonic scales are "easy" - even when the song changes key in the middle, you can often continue playing the original key's pentatonic scale, and it will sound "OK". Why?

Because often, when we change keys, we just go a step clockwise (or counter-clockwise) on the circle of fifths. Again, like Andrew explained - closely related keys.

We found the pentatonic scale notes (see my previous post) by picking the tonic ("root note") and the next 4 notes clockwise. Now, let's we apply the idea in this post to find the notes of the key we're playing in. For example, let's look at the notes of C major, C major pentatonic, G major (the closest key to C major clockwise) and F major (the closest key to C major counter-clockwise) in "circle order":

The three keys (and their relative minors) all include the notes of C major pentatonic. Which means we can actually play very freely in the two keys closest to C major using C major penatonic. This goes for the relative minor scales too. The A minor pentatonic will "fit" with E minor (the relative minor of G major) and D minor (the relative minor of F major). Going further than this one step away, things get more "dangerous" "Except" in one case...

Sound of the blues

Blues players sometimes use a minor pentatonic scale over it's parallel major key. E.g. A minor pentatonic over A major. That corresponds to playing a pentatonic scale three steps away from the actual key. How can they get away with that?



Two notes out of place: C and G. However, put them in order:


Those two notes out of place are a (minor) third and a (minor) seventh from the tonic of the scale (in this case A to C and A to G). "Dangerous" notes if played at the wrong time. However, quickly playing the C# after C and the G# after G resolves the feeling of "wrong notes for the key" and makes them sound like "blue notes" - the alterations that have a lot to do with the sound of jazz and blues. They'd still sound wrong to many a baroque or classical composer, but we hear them as "right"

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jun 22 2007, 03:05 PM

As ever Kaneda, thanks for your insightful additions

Regards,

Andrew

Posted by: edgor67 Jul 14 2007, 03:36 AM

I hope you realize that this is an important section. I'm sure a lot of us are reviewing the theory section.

Posted by: sillyman Jul 21 2007, 09:22 PM

say ur playing over a backing with the chords C G and D. could u just improvise wit the Gmajor scale or would that cause clashes?

Posted by: Kaneda Jul 21 2007, 11:28 PM

You can always play clashes no matter what diatonic scale you choose - for example, F# (which is a note of G major) would cause clashes over full C and G chords (depending on how and where it's played). The only commonly used scales virtually free of "clash-danger" are the pentatonic scales, when playing in the key they correspond to.

But yes, G C and D belong to the key of G major (they're even the important I, IV and V chords respectively), and thus a G major scale is actually the most obvious choice for playing over such a chord progression.

Posted by: sillyman Jul 22 2007, 12:52 PM

would that clash stick out like a sore thumb or would it be barely noticeable

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Jul 22 2007, 01:44 PM

Try it and see!

In general, quick passing notes that clash arent noticeable and contribute color to a melody, but if you for instance start or end a phrase on a clashing note and leave it out there in plain view for a while the yes it probably will clash.

However, this may be an effect that you are looking for, so if it sounds cool to you its ok!

Posted by: Rockwouldbe Jul 22 2007, 02:06 PM

when you play something you should be able to play it in all the scale .

so if you are practicing som wierd chord try do it in the order of circle and then you will end up doing it in all the keys.

i use tons of times i seriously recommend it.

Eyal

Posted by: sillyman Jul 23 2007, 08:57 PM

thanx alot andrew and kaneda

Posted by: Hemlok Aug 8 2007, 03:14 PM

Hey has the Circle of Fifths image disappeared?

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Aug 8 2007, 03:16 PM

Works ok for me ...

Posted by: Hemlok Aug 9 2007, 12:20 AM

Oh excellent it does work, sorry I was having internet troubles.

Posted by: DeepRoots Sep 11 2007, 06:37 PM

wow- only now have i had the patience to sit down and stud this topic- this circle is invaluable!

Posted by: Understudy Sep 13 2007, 11:16 AM

I have been ready Andrew's theory for 3 days now. Just finished the circle and I can't thank Andrew and Kaneda enough. Trying to get all of the formulas down and now the circle, a little overwhlming at first but I am getting this as I go along and re read sections. Great stuff and thanks again ! I actually think I can read a little music after all this too lol

Posted by: bart m Sep 13 2007, 11:34 AM

i'm dyslexic...so i prefer the circle of fourths...lol

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Sep 13 2007, 07:10 PM

That's fine, just go backwards and it will all work out!

Posted by: ¤ME¤ Dec 25 2007, 02:49 PM

does the circle also aply to making riffs?
for example i play riff i C and that G or F would be a good candidat?

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Dec 25 2007, 02:51 PM

Not really - the circle of 5ths is about relationships between keys and chords, riffs use much closer notes and the Circle won't really help you with that ... although it can help you choose related chords to play under the actual riff.

Posted by: FretDancer69 Feb 4 2008, 05:26 AM

Awesome lesson andrew, i spotted a couple of typos:

i think you mean a © instead of the copyright symbol

Also:



i think that is supposed to be a subtitle.

Sorry for all the bother Andrew, i know i bother you alot.

I gotta read this great lesson again because im confused about some parts. Thanks for the lesson, the circle is indeed invaluable, i never realised that until now.

Thanks

Posted by: FretDancer69 Feb 10 2008, 01:04 AM

Hey guys, what would be some easy-to-remember mnemonics for the order of the flats and sharps?

Sharps is: F C G D A E B

Flats: B E A D G C F

Posted by: seagull Apr 7 2008, 10:20 PM

I'll try to explain the way I see it, sorry if its not exactly clear. Andrew will certainly be able to explain it better, just wanted to try.

For the sharps you can say that it starts with an F-sharp when you're in G-major. Then if you're tonic is D-major its both F and C that are sharp. When A-major is the tonic, it is F, C and G that are sharp.

You'll probably see that the pattern of the sharps is actually following the circle of fifths, starting with a sharp F, C, G etc. If you look at the circle, it is also the way of the fifths when moving clockwise. So the order of sharps follow the fifths starting from F-major. Of course you'll have to distinguish between notes and tonics. Meaning that the fact that G-major has a F# doesn't mean, that it has anything to do with the tonic of either F-major or F#-major.

So to sum up the sharps: F C G D A E B (C is marked bold as it is the "starting point" which has no b's or #'s)
Contra the Circle of fifths: F C G D A E B (Still, C is the starting point)

You see, the progress of sharps is the same as the progress of fifths.


As to the flats, they are: B E A D G C F.
Now, it's some sort of the same as with the sharps, only that it's the other way around, and that there are some other differences.
When F-major is the tonic, there is ONE "b", and it is on B. I figure it out by looking at the circle of fifths, seeing that the tonic to the left of F-major is Bb-Major (hence, a "b" for B ), and then when Bb is the tonic, there are TWO "b"s, one for B and one for E. Conveniently the next tonic is Eb, which is indicated by the previous "b" in Bb-major. And so it continues.

I hope this helps you, even though when I come to think of it, it's a very bad explanation.
I do understand it myself, it's just that I'm not good at explaining it to others - especially in writing.

Posted by: FrankW May 18 2008, 12:07 AM

Thanks for the CAGED and Circle of Fifths lessons, man. I'm reading, digesting, scratching my head, and kicking myself for not learning this stuff years ago...

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn May 18 2008, 01:06 AM

Heh, glad you are enjoying them! Let me know if you have any questions at all

Posted by: myhandyman Jan 2 2015, 06:21 PM

very cool, but i'm just going to have to take baby steps understanding is one thing, memorizing is another I got be patient with this Einstein relativity pie =mc2 stuff !