Circle of Siths?! (Oops... Circle of Fifths!)

If you find the Circle of Fifths mind-boggling then lets demystify it. It can seem like a lot to take in when you are first introduced to it but the more you learn about it the simpler it all becomes. Just like the more you find out about Anakin's motives for joining the Sith the more you sympathize with him. 😆

Circle of Fifths

So what is a circle of fifths?

A circle of fifths is the relationship among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signature, and the associated major and minor keys.

Before we begin discussing the circle of fifths even further there are a couple of things you need to know:

1. The Musical Alphabet

2. Accidentals for each major key

3. How to find relative minors

Let's begin.

1) The Musical Alphabet

The musical alphabet is composed from the first seven letters of the english alphabet:

A B C D E F G

2) Accidentals for each major key

This is where our fun with the circle of fifths begins! First, we are going to place at the very top of our circle the key which has no flats, nor sharps, C. From here on out all we have to know is how to count to five and remember that the musical alphabet repeats itself over and over again as so:

A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G

Knowing these two things will allow us to find the keys that follow in order of how many accidentals they each have. Since C has zero it is now our job to find the next key which will have one accidental, followed by two accidentals, three accidentals and so forth.

Now, starting from C we are going to count as follows:

1 2 3 4 5

C D E F G

C being counted as one and G as five. This lets us know that the key with one accidental is G. Is our accidental going to be a sharp or a flat? From here on out, going clockwise from the C will be sharps and going counter-clockwise is going to be our flats. So G has one sharp. To discover our next key that will have two sharps we will follow this same process starting from G.

1 2 3 4 5

G A B C D

We are going to keep following this process until we have circled back around to C.

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

D E F G A A B C D E

1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

E F G A B B C D E F

1 2 3 4 5

F G A B C

Our circle of fifths should now look like this:

You will notice that the F and the C both have a sharp in front of them and the reason behind that is because both the F and C have already been raised to be a sharp in the sequence of creating our circle of fifths.

To make this easier to see, let me show you the order of sharps from a previous lesson.

When we look at the G major key in the chart it indicates that it has one accidental. If we look to the right of that chart it lets us know that the accidental is an F#. If we look at the D major key, it lets us know that the two accidentals used are F# and C#. It is this straightforward answer why our final two keys of F and C are both #. Another way of understanding this is if we looked at the way scales are formed but that's a topic for another lesson. ;)

Okay, so we went clockwise and we found our order of sharps, so how do we do it for our flats? It is pretty much the same process but going counter-clockwise. There is an insignificant debate about whether we can consider this being a circle of fourths, mainly because of the way we count in order to get our order of flats but for the purpose of keeping it in fifths I will continue counting by fifths and later show you why it can also be considered a circle of fourths for our flats.

Unlike with our sharps where we counted going ---> this way, for our flats we are going to count to five going <--- this way.

5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

F G A B C B C D E F

5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

E F G A B A B C D E

5 4 3 2 1 5 4 3 2 1

D E F G A G A B C D

5 4 3 2 1

C D E F G

We should now have all our major keys in our circle of fifths.

Back to why it could be called circle of fourths for our flats. Let's take the key of C as an example. For this key we used:

C D E F G

with C=1 and G=5. From C to G we have an interval of five but if we look at C to F we have an interval of four as F=4 in our counting. If we follow this fourth interval logic when we start from F we have F G A B, F=1 and B=4. If we continued counting in fourths this way we would also have been able to find all of our flats.

Looking at this we encounter that we have flat symbols in front of our B E A D G and C. The reason for this is the same as why F and C had sharps.

Let's take a look at our order of flats below our circle of fifths.

We can see how in our F major key our accidental is a B flat, thereby making our next key with two accidentals a Bb. Following this logic, because Bb consists of Bb and Eb, our following major key with three accidentals would have to be an Eb.

HINT: For sharps, my theory professor in college taught us this trick that though doesn't quite work for all major keys, it is helpful in figuring some out.

If we notice, G can really be done in one stroke which can signify one sharp. D can be done in two strokes, so it has two sharps. A can be done in three strokes, so three sharps. E can be made with four strokes, so four sharps and B can be made with five strokes, so five sharps.

What about flats? Are you ready for this hint? Let's look at our order of sharps,

C G D A E B F# C#

In order to remember our order of flats all we have to do is place our order of sharps backwards and add flats to them.

C F Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb

3) How to find relative minors

Once again, all you need to know is how to count to six and you are set! Lets start with finding the relative minor for C major by following our musical alphabet sequence until we get to number six.

1 2 3 4 5 6

C D E F G a

In order to find the relative minor to a major key is by counting to six and whatever letter is number six will be our minor. In this case since we are starting with the C, following our musical alphabet sequence, our number six lands on the A and since what we are looking for is a minor then our A is automatically our relative minor for C major. If we follow this process for our remaining keys, making sure to keep in mind which notes have accidentals, we will be able to find all of our relative minors.

1 2 3 4 5 6

G A B C D e

1 2 3 4 5 6

D E F# G A b

1 2 3 4 5 6

A B C# D E f#

1 2 3 4 5 6

E F G# A B c#

1 2 3 4 5 6

B C# D# E F# g#

1 2 3 4 5 6

F# G# A# B C# d#

C# has seven sharps, which just means that our seven letters in our musical alphabet are all sharp. Since we know that the relative minor for C is a minor then our relative minor for C# major is a sharp minor (C# --> a# minor).

So what about our relative minors with flats? Here's another hint, just like our majors that have flats are the opposite of our majors with sharps, so are our minors the opposite, but with one twist. All our minors that have a sharps in them, excluding a# minor, lose their accidentals and whatever is left, which would be e, b, and a#, get flats added to them.

Relative minors with sharps/flats

e minor d minor

b minor g minor

f# minor c minor

c# minor f minor

g# minor b flat minor

d# minor e flat minor

a# minor a flat minor

Our circle of fifth's is now complete and should look something like this...

Ready for the relations we've created?

Not only have we discovered the relation between the major and the minor keys but our circle of fifths has also allowed us to discover the chord progressions that go with our major keys. Chords built from our scales follow this guideline,

I ii iii IV V vi vii(diminished) I

This guideline lets us know that I, IV and V are major chords and ii, iii, and vi are minor chords. If we look at our example that's exactly what we get.

For this example we are focusing on our C major key. To the left of the C, which is our I chord, we have its IV chord, F, to its right we have its V chord, G. Below these major chords we have the ii chord=d minor, iii chord=e minor, and the vi chord=a minor.

This is the pattern, the middle top note will be your I chord and right below it is the vi chord. The note to the left will indicate the IV and ii chords. Lastly, to the right you will find the V and iii chords.

Here are more examples:

Knowing these patterns come in handy when you are trying to compose your own songs and need to know what chord progressions will fit with the key you're writing your song in.

There you have it, the Circle of Fifths. 😁