The Circle of Fifths
Of all the questions I am asked, none are as frequent as questions about how the Circle of Fifths works.
So I am setting up this page just to answer this question. The circle of fifths shows you all the diatonic keys. There are twelve notes which are used to make keys. Each note has a place on the circle. Each note will build a major key and a minor key. So the letter A will key two keys names after it, A major and A minor. A major is found at the capitol A, and A minor is found at the lower case a.
First of all lets look at the circle just so we can identify the different parts of it.
- The outer circle shows the minor key we are referencing.
- The second ring shows the major key we are referencing
- The inner ring shows the number of sharps in either the minor or the major key.
The minor key being referenced and the major key are both related. They share the same scale and have the same number of sharps in the key. The same notes are sharped in each one. This means the minor and major key share the exact same scale. This is very important.
In this first example the keys of A minor and C major both share the same scale and there are no sharps in it. So the scale for each key would look like this.
| Key | Notes in the key | ||||||
| Degree | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| A minor | A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
| C major | C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
Make sure you see how this works.
In A minor the notes are A, B, C, D, E, F, G
In C major the notes are C, D, E, F, G, A, B
Notice the notes are the exact same. The only difference is what note we start the scale on. Other than that they are the exact same.
These keys are related. The C major is the relative major to A minor, and A minor is the relative minor to C major.
They are related because they share the same scale.
Got it? That is really important.
Each scale supports two tonal centers the major tonal center and the minor tonal center. So you can set up this scale to resolve to either the major key and the minor key.
This is the first thing to know when you are examining the Circle of Fifths. So now you can quickly look at the circle and tell
- What keys are related
- How many sharps are in each
- And what the last key was as well as the next key. More on this in a minute.
So now we know that C major and A minor are related and they both have no sharps and no flats.
The numbers outside the circle tell you how many flats there are in a key. Notice that for both A minor and C major there are no flats either.
If you are not sure of what we are talking about, go back and read it again. Next we will build the C major scale.
So here are the notes of the C major scale with the degrees of each note.
Notice the fifth degree of C major is the G note. See the 5 under the G note? The next key is built on the fifth degree of the present scale.
That means when we start with C major, the next key we will build is G major. This is why it is called the circle of fifths. because you go to the fifth degree and start building the next key on that note.
Notice the next key on the circle of fifths is G (when going clockwise around the circle).
Here is a chart showing C major and the fifth degree which is the G note.
So next we will build the key of G major.
The key of G major starts with the G note. We proceed alphabetically and use all seven notes. So when you do this you would proceed
G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
Below is the chart of the keys of C major and A minor, now I have added G major too.
| Key | Notes in the key | ||||||
| Degree | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| A minor | A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
| C major | C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
| G major | G |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F# |
So look what we did. We added a sharp to the seventh degree of this new key. We did this so it would be different from C major and A minor. This is hwo the scale becomes unique.
Rule: When you build a key, you start with the scale of the previous key (in the circle of fifths), for this new key you start in out on the new keynote and add a sharp to the seventh degree of the new key. Go G major uses the same notes as C major only now it starts with G and adds a sharp to the seventh degree of the key. Again, study this until you see this clearly.
So now lets look at the circle of fifths to see how we can use the diagram to show these relationships.
Now you can clearly see;
- The first major key we started with is C major.
- The second key is G major
- Notice G major has one sharp (F#).
If this gives you trouble, you need to go back and read this carefully. Also you may need to get familiar with scales in general if this is generating a lot of questions. All of those questions can be answered.
If you have a lot of questions, don't get hung up on them for now. Just focus on understanding what has been presented so far.
So now we will build the next key. Lets take a look at the G major key to see what the next key will be. Remember we look at the fifth degree of the current key to see what we will build next.
So as you can see the fifth degree of G major is the D note. So D major will be the next key.
When you build the key of D major, remember to start with the G major scale, only now start it with the D note and add a sharp to the seventh degree of the new key. That way it will be different from G major. Look at the chart below.
| Key | Notes in the key | ||||||
| Degree | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| A minor | A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
| C major | C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
| G major | G |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F# |
| D Major | D |
E |
F# |
G |
A |
B |
C# |
So now you should be able to see that we carried over the F# from the G major scale and we added the sharp to the C note, which is the seventh degree of D major.
Do you see a pattern developing yet? Here is the diagram to show you how the circle of fifths shows this information.
Lets do one more key so you really see this.
Remember to carry over all the sharps from the last key and add another sharp to the seventh degree of the new key. So the key of A has three sharps C#, F# and G#.
Here is the chart extended to include A major.
| Key | Notes in the key | ||||||
| Degree | 1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| A minor | A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
| C major | C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
A |
B |
| G major | G |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F# |
| D Major | D |
E |
F# |
G |
A |
B |
C# |
| A Major | A |
B |
C# |
D |
E |
F# |
G# |
Okay now the pattern should be firmly established. This really is all there is to the circle of fifths. Lets recap to make sure we have talked about all of it.
The diagram of the circle of fifths shows this.
- The major key
- The minor key
- The number of sharps
- The number of flats
- The next key
- The last key
- All the major keys
- All the minor keys
So just as A minor is the relative minor to C major, E minor is the relative minor to G major. E minor will use the same scale. So the key of E minor has one sharp (F#).
D major has two sharps (C#) and (F#). So does B minor, which is the relative minor to D major.
A major has three sharps (C#), (F#) and (G#). The relative minor to A major is F# minor. It will have the exact same sharps.
If you want to know more about this I strongly suggest you pick up a copy of Uncle Tim's First Year which will start you on the journey. There are many more questions to answer and that book does a great job of answering all of them. You can order it and the rest of the Uncle Tim Series below.
I hope this helps. By the way, right below that is a complete chart of all the keys and the sharps in them.
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