This tutorial is a companion resource of the Interactive Circle Of Fifths Tool , a music learning software available on this site. The Circle Of Fifths , also called Cof , was invented in the 1670s by Nikolai Diletskii in his 'Grammatika'; this incredible device embeds all the music theory you need to know for doing a lot of funny things.

Indeed, at the end of this tutorial, you'll be able to use the Circle of Fifths to:

• Identify sharps and flats for each music key
• Know the chords that belong to a key
• Create chord progressions
• Modulate to other keys
• Construct chords of different types

The Circle of Fifths diagram will have the relative minor neatly laid on the inner circle to make it easy to find the relative minor. To get a better understanding of feelings in notes see this article: The Myster of Keys Explained. C-sharp natural minor scale. The Solution below shows the C# minor scale notes, intervals and scale degrees on the piano, treble clef and bass clef. The Lesson steps then explain how to identify the C-sharp minor scale note interval positions, choose the note names, and scale degree names. The Circle of Fifths is a great tool in aiding musicians to learn and memorize all the basic diatonic key signatures. The diagram presents all the diatonic major and minor keys, in order, based on the amount of sharps or flats.

Don't feel overwhelmed by such amount of information, the Circle of Fifths makes it easy to understand and master the tasks listed above.

You may want to open the Interactive Circle Of Fifths on a separate page so that you can follow this tutorial and experiment the concepts with the tool.

Are you ready?

Let's unveil the hidden mysteries of the Circle Of Fifths!

Exclusive For FaChords Readers: Guitar Lessons That Really Work - 14 Days Free

We have partnered with Guitar Tricks, the most popular Online Guitar Lessons website in the World, to give you 14-Day Free Trial Access to their awesome learning platform.

You'll access a proven system that provides you with all you need to go from beginner to advanced level quick and easy.

2.5 million of people have already learned how to play the guitar with Guitar Tricks, you could be the next!

Table Of Contents

These maps show you the tones in a chord all along the fretboard. They are incredibly helpful because allow you to:

• Create new voicings on the fly, across all the neck
• Improvise targeting the right notes
• Unlock the fretboard and expand the CAGED system.

In the new ebook, Chords Domination, you'll find the fretboard tones maps for 44 different qualities of chords. Check it out:

Introduction

The Circle of Fifths is a geometric representation of how the 12 notes of the chromatic scale relate to one another. If you look closely at the diagram you will see each note is a Perfect Fifth (seven semitones, or seven frets on the fretboard) higher than the next (going clockwise).

Not sure what is a Perfect Fifth? Then, before going forward, you should take a look at our tutorial on music intervals . It will explain what intervals are and how to find them on the fretboard.

The G is a fifth away from the C in the major scale. Going clockwise on the Circle of Fifths the next note will always be a fifth away. Now if we move counterclockwise on the Circle of Fifths, we are a fourth away, F is the fourth note of the C major scale.

So our clockwise sequence is:

• C
• G
• D
• A
• E
• B
• F#
• C#
• Ab
• Eb
• Bb
• F
• C

As always music theory can quickly get a little garbled which is why the Circle of Fifths is so very helpful. It allows you to quickly see how each note in the scale relates to the next , and how it all falls into a convenient loop or circle.

How To Memorize the Circle Of Fifths: Memory Trick for Guitar Players

Now here's a little trick for memorizing the Circle of Fifths with the help of the guitar fretboard.

If you know your guitar notes names , it will be easy to follow the Cof (Circle of Fifths) right on the neck. We start from the C at the 3rd fret of the A string , and we go up by one Perfect Fifth, note after note. With the help of fretboard octaves (again, if you don't know what octaves are, please go to the music intervals tutorial) our Circle Of Fifths can be laid out horizontally in the pattern shown here below:

No need to memorize the Circle of Fifths if you know your fretboard notes!

Awesome! We see that it's enough to learn this fretboard pattern for knowing the sequence of the notes in the Cof!

Just don’t forget that when we move:

• clockwise (left to right on the fretboard pattern), we are moving in fifths,
• counterclockwise , we are moving in fourths (right to left on the fretboard pattern)

Before approaching sharps and flats, We need to clarify what enharmonics are. If you are already familiar with the subject, feel free to skip this section.

In western music, there are 12 notes in the chromatic scale, each one a semitone away from each other. On your guitar, each fret represents one of these notes and every fret is one semitone. These notes in the chromatic scale are;

• C
• C#/Db
• D
• D#/Eb
• E
• F
• F#/Gb
• G
• G#/Ab
• A
• A#/Bb
• B
• and then back to C

The notes with a slash are known as enharmonic notes , and they are the same pitch as each other. For example, C# is enharmonically equivalent to Db they are just spelled differently. Depending on which key you are in will determine the spelling.

If you are in the key of E then you will spell the note C#, if in the key of Ab than you will spell the note as Db.

Now, of course, this can cause some immediate confusion, which is why we have the Circle of Fifths.

How to use the Circle of Fifths to organize music keys

The Circle of Fifths packs an awful lot of data into a small circle. On the outside are the names of the major keys while on the inside are the names of the minor keys.

As we mentioned above the key of G is five steps above the key of C, and just as well the key of Em is five steps above the key of Am. (If you use your fingers to count each note alphabetically you will see they each interval adds up to five).

The CoF also will denote how many sharps or flats are in each key. The sharps are on the right side and the flats on the left. Starting at the top with C we have no sharps or flats as there are none in the C major scale.

From there each fifth adds another sharp, until we reach the bottom and then it goes backwards with flats until we come back to C again.

Now you will notice at the bottom of the CoF that some keys have different spellings and can either be denoted with sharps or flats.

Remember from above that these are enharmonically equivalent it just depends on which the composer wishes to use. If you are not sure how many sharps the Key of B has, well just count from the beginning of the CoF (excluding the natural key of C) and you will have five sharps.

If you want to know how many flats are in the enharmonic equivalent of B, which is Cb, well count backwards and you will get 7 flats.

By knowing the number (if any) of sharps or flats, we will have the key signature readily available by the CoF. (As you read on keep checking back with the Circle of Fifths tool , that way you understand exactly what is written. The Cof is so wonderful because it simplifies all of this!)

The sharps are added a 5th away each other. Notice that the new sharp is the root of the tonic one semiton below (G key, F#

The flats apper a 4th away from each other

How to create chord progressions with the help of the Circle of Fifths

Now let’s work on building some chord progressions.

First a quick trick on how to find any major scale using the Cof.

To find the C scale we simply go counterclockwise one step and then count seven clockwise .

So one step counterclockwise is F and then counting forward C, G, D, A, E, and B. And there you have the C major scale. This works the same for every major scale, move back one and then up seven. (Of course after you find the right scale it helps to put it in order).

Chords Degrees

There are a few different methods to build chord progressions using the CoF. First though we need to remind ourselves of the Nashville Number System and Romand Numerals Notation .

It was devised as a way to show scale degrees to those musicians who knew little about music theory. However, it turns out that it is also a handy system to teach said theory!

To find the chords of a key, just rotate the degrees

Now the numbers are written in Roman numerals so you will see a major key notated like;

• I
• ii
• iii
• IV
• V
• vi
• vii°

One of the most popular progressions ever in music is the I-IV-V or the 1-4-5 , depending on how it is shown. Since we have been dealing so exclusively with the key of C, lets change it up to test our CoF knowledge. We will find the 1-4-5 progression for the key of D .

Remember when we move backwards on the circle we move in fourths, forwards we move in fifths. So if we look at D it’s easy to see the fourth behind it is G and the fifth in front is an A. The 1-4-5 chords for the key of D is D-G-A .

If you happen upon a band jamming in 1-4-5 or I-IV-V all you need to know is the key and your CoF and you are golden.

Now here is another way to find your 1-4-5. First find the D major scale, to find that we move one back and count forward seven;

G D A E B F# C# if we put it in order D E F# G A B C# and the 1-4-5 of this scale is again D-G-A.

This method helps if we want to find more complicated progressions. Another super common pop music progression is I-V-vi-IV or 1-5-6-4, so in the key of D that is D-A-Bm-G .

Now try to find the Doo Wop progression I-vi-IV-V or 1-6-4-5 for the key of Eb. One back and seven forward gets us;

Ab Eb Bb F C G D put in order we get Eb F G Ab Bb C D so the Doo Wop progression in the key of Eb is Eb-Cm-Ab-Bb .

How to use the Circle of Fifths to change key

Creating songs with chords that belong to the same keys can work, but if we want to be creative, during the song, we can modulate to other keys . That means our song will have chords that belong to more than one key. Let's see how to use the Circle of Fifths for key modulation.

And a very quick way to tell the minor corresponding key to each major key is simply the inner circle. The C major key has a relative minor of A , and so on for each note on the CoF. Now this is known as modulating to a relative key. And that is our next lesson on the CoF.

In music modulating is moving from one key to another, or also put as moving from one tonic (root) to another tonic.

So modulating to the relative key is very simple as its clearly written out right as you look at the CoF. The modulated relative keys will have the same key signatures.

This change can be difficult to notice for the listener.

Now what of we wanted to modulate to a parallel key ? This is another very easy thing to do as the parallel key of a C major is simply a C minor . They can trade places in a song when necessary as they both share the dominate chord.

We can also modulate to another closely related key . To do this we find keys that have similar notes to one another. This is very simple with the CoF as all we need to do is look at the keys that are beside them . The key of G and the key of D have many similar notes and thus can make a great and workable change in a song.

A good way to make this change to a closely related key would be using a similar chord that both keys share . When switching from the key of G to D we can use the D major chord as both keys share this chord making a smooth transition.

You can also modulate by step if you like, but you first have to find the scale of the key you are in. Once you find it you can modulate by half steps or whole steps if you like. So moving from C major to C# major would be a half step modulation. Which follows C major to D major would be a whole step modulation.

There is even a form of chain modulation by using various ideas from above mixed. For example you can start with closely related keys , change to parallel keys , and then add on a relative key change to get these specific key changes in your song:

C G D C Cmin Eb

Has This Site Helped You? Please Read This! (and Get Awesome Ebooks)

Since 2013, FaChords Guitar has grown a lot (12.000 subscribers and counting!) and server bills are getting bigger every day, so, to keep the site free for everybody, I'm following the Justin Guitar Honor-System: if you can afford it, please consider supporting FaChords Guitar by buying the ebooks:

Chords Domination: Play Any Chord You Want Across All The Fretboard

This ebook is for those players who want a deeper understanding of the chords they are playing. You'll find more than 800 chord voicings all along the fretboard that will help you learn how to move freely on the neck and play any chord you want in any position.

The book is packed-full with color-coded diagrams that show chord tones, note names, and finger positions, a handy visual chord formula table, and the tones fretboard maps of 44 different chord types.

Along with scales, key signatures, chord building, and modulation, we can also use the CoF to transpose our songs . Now some transposing involves changing the notes so it will fit the pitch of the instrument.

Normal concert pitch is in C, and some woodwinds and brass instruments are in the pitches of Bb, Eb, and F. However as guitar players we will basically always be in concert pitch so this form of transposition will not be used often.

Instead we may have to change the key signature of the chords or the progressions. As we have shown above this can be done in a variety of ways through finding the scales, or modulating. With the CoF we can accomplish just about any musical task.

Transposing a song 1 whole-step up (from C to D)

The easiest way to transpose a song from one key to another, is to set the root of the new key as degree I in the Circle of Fifths, and find the chords as seen below.

How to construct chord with the Circle Of Fifths

So far we can tell the way in which each note relates and the different key signatures by the CoF, but we can also build entire chords and chord progressions with it.

To review, a major chord or triad is made up of the root, third, and fifth. Now to find a C major chord we take the C scale;

C D E F G A B C

• The root is C
• The third is E
• The fifth is G

If we connect these on the CoF we get a triangle shape. If you move this exact same shape in any direction you will get other major chords.

If you want to find a minor chord like C minor (root, minor 3rd, and fifth);

C Eb G The triangle image is reversed

We also have triangle shapes for diminished and augmented chords . Remember a dim chord is root, minor third, and a flattened fifth. And an augmented chord is the root, major third, and sharp fifth.

As an exercise, try to find those shapes on the circle!

If you memorize these shapes you will be able to move the triangles in any direction to find the notes of other chords. There also some quadrilateral shapes that can be moved to find various chords.

We can extend this concept and construct four chords notes:

• A major seventh chord is made up of the root, major third, perfect fifth, and major seventh.
• A minor seventh is the root, minor third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh.
• The seventh chord is simply made up of the root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh.

Ninth chords do have moveable five sided shapes, but that can get a little complicated when shifting it. After time and practice with triangle and trapezoid shapes eventually you will be able to visualize the building blocks of most every chord on the CoF.

CIRCLE OF FIFTHS AND MODES

Earlier we mentioned finding major scales with the CoF, we kept it easy with only that scale. However now that you have a better grasp on the CoF let’s take a final look at how to find all other scales or modes . There are seven modes in western music;

• Ionian: starts on the first note of major scale
• Dorian: starts on second note of major scale
• Phrygian: starts on third note
• Lydian: fourth note
• Mixolydian: fifth note
• Aeolian: sixth note
• Locrian: seventh note

These scales or modes are what give music that certain feel or mood to a song. An Ionian major scale like we already learned above will have an upbeat and happy sound , while the Aeolian will have a minor and melancholy type feel. Play each mode to get an idea of how they sound.

And how do we use the CoF to find these modes?

With C at the top of the circle this chart shows us which note will be which mode. G comes after C on the CoF, and G is a fifth above C, thus G will be the start of the mixolydian scale !

And of course like all aspects of the CoF we simply rotate these words for each scale . Just like with the shapes, scales, and some modulations from above rotating is the key to the CoF! If you want to learn more about modes, don't miss our interactive tutorial on modes for guitar

Interactive Tool To Learn The Circle of Fifths

As the Circle of Fifths becomes easier to grasp you will truly see that it is not only useful as a music tool, it is absolutely essential. If you want your guitar playing and music knowledge to soar to great heights, you will get to know every aspect of the CoF!

To help you study further here is an interactive tool to help you practice the Circle of Fifths. Enjoy!

Circle Of Fifths Diagram Guitar

To stay updated on new tutorials, subscribe to the free newsletter (you'll also get access to the download area with lots of free printable resources)

Typical discussion about the Circle of Fifths is largely for beginners and intermediate music theorists, and the tricky part is there's no way to avoid using other technical jargon that a beginner may not know when explaining it.

We're going to keep it as simple as possible with explanations of any new terms.

So get ready for a wild ride made easy as we work our way from the foundations to the purpose and finally to the methods of exploiting the Circle of Fifths in your songwriting and music theory endeavors.

Here's the honest truth: You may not use this initially. You'll find more isolated ways to understand key signatures, chord progressions, and other tricks to keep you on track.

But later, once you have a firm grasp on everything involved in our circular friend, there is no better organized way to sort it all out in your head on the fly than this.

The important part is exposure. Knowing this tool exists is half the battle. Seeing it and working with it over and over is how mastery occurs, just like playing your instrument and writing songs.

Apply that same energy here and everything else you do musically will benefit greatly.

Almost all Western music follows the following patterns, and even other cultural styles follow the same concepts in their own way. It can be used for tons of modes like your typical Ionian major scale, Lydion, Dorian, Phrygian, etc.

Once you can manipulate it in your mind, the doors are blown wide open for sophisticated songwriting.

Quick History: The Circle of Fifths was invented by Nikolai Diletskii in his late 1670's treatise on composition called the Grammatika. In 1728, Johann David Heinichen improved upon the design to bring us the modern version we use today.

So how does it work? Perhaps the best way for this to be made easy is to explain the components and then describe the ways you can use it. Then the entire picture falls into place. Here is the entire Circle:

That's the web version. If you want to print out a full resolution version on paper, use the link in the caption above. The PDF file will fit right on your normal 8.5 inch by 11 inch printer paper while looking sharp and crisp! Laminate it and leave it on your desk, fold it up and throw it in your pocket, and make good use of it!

Below, we'll show you the best interactive circle (or click here: The Chord Wheel) that has a spinning transparency wheel you can use in your studio when writing songs.

The Basic Building Blocks of the Circle of Fifths

The first of these patterns is the key signature. A key is a set of seven notes collectively called a scale. The scale is built by a specific relationship between the notes.

These relationships are different depending on if you're in a major or minor scale, for instance (and it goes deeper, but thankfully we're sticking to the diatonic scale!).

When you hit the eighth note, you're back to the start of the scale on the first note which is called the tonic. But now you are one octave higher. If you play the tonic and the first octave above it, you'll hear the same tone twice with one higher in frequency in unison. But they still sound great.

This is called consonance. Due to the mathematical relation between the notes they sound pleasing together to our ears. It's called dissonance when they seem to clash.

Chords are built with a grouping of notes played together that are all consonant and pleasing. The basic form of a chord is the root of the chord, plus the third above it, and then the fifth above the root as well.

You can then duplicate a note, usually the root, to use as a bass note to form a bass melody, and you can even invert chords and other tricks. It's all built on chords and easier than it sounds.

The entire reason I built the conversation up to chords was to introduce the concept of the fifth. There are three types of fifths based on the number of semitones above the root the fifth lies:

• Perfect fifths (7 semitones)
• Diminished fifths (6 semitones)
• Augmented fifths (8 semitones)

In the Circle of Fifths, we only deal with perfect fifths going clockwise around the circle. If you move counter-clockwise you'll find the perfect fourth from the root, which is why you rarely but sometimes hear this referred to as the Circle of Fourths.

It makes more sense to rotate to the right and think with the perfect fifth interval, which is why everyone does it that way (like how a clock works). It follows the Western equal temperament system of tuning we all use in tonal music.

If you're still unsure what a fifth interval is, look up a picture of a piano keyboard and Middle C. Then count seven white keys to the right. On the 8th count you'll find yourself back on C.

You counted an octave. Now consider each count a 'half step' while including the black keys and count seven half steps, and you'll have formed a perfect fifth.

It's 'perfect' because it's not major or minor and works in both major and minor scales and chords. Keep counting around in seven half steps while referring to our big Circle of Fifths image above and you'll see yourself land on each scale degree as you go.

That's how the piano keyboard and even fretted instruments work. Frets on the fretboard are laid out this way too, but with a different explanation to travel through the circle progression.

A Quick Music Theory Detour

It should be pointed out that although I'm talking about the 7 scale degrees above, the circle includes all 12 tones of the chromatic scale. Some will include the key signature of every major and minor key too.

If you want to dig deeper, look up the concept of pitch-class space and pitch class, both built on this same chromatic circle.

It's a perfect way to use geometry to visualize the relationship between tons of musical concepts, especially consonance and dissonance, especially in the ideas of 'structure implies multiplicity' and 'cardinality equals variety.'

Even in equal temperament tuning systems it works cleanly, closing the circle perfectly by slightly flattening the perfect fifth to a 3:2 interval ratio (with respect to its just intonation).

The truth is, without this flattening it misses closing the circle by 23.46 cents, which is about 1/4th of a semitone, which is exactly the Pythagorean comma interval.

If you're enjoying this adventure so far, you'll like looking up Pythagorean tuning and the wolf fifth, an incredibly dissonant interval. There's so much to this, even in non-equal tuning systems like the quarter-comma meantone tuning system, 5-limit tuning, and 53 equal temperament.

The circle just works. It's one of the most beautiful tools ever created. It's even translatable, like the circle progression through the diatonic chords. It's amazing, I tell you.

Examples for Using the Circle of 5ths

This thing wouldn't have stuck around since the 17th century if composers didn't have real world uses for it, like harmonizing melodies, building chords, modulating to another musical key, etc. It lays out diatonic function completely.

Musical theorist Richard Franko Goldman maintains that the Circle of 5ths is valid from J. S. Bach to Richard Wagner. All of the work of the greats through time can be translated to fit the circle.

The entire common practice period starting with Baroque music all the way up to the Barbershop Harmony Society uses it, and even The Beatles and Carlos Santana. Don't let anyone pooh-pooh it (they just don't want to learn it).

Don't freak out, though. You'll never use the whole circle in one song, just a section of it. Let's take a look at some of this harmonic function, all fundamental aspects of any musical composition.

Chord Progressions

The most popular chord progression in the world, in which most pop music recycles over and over is the:

I - IV - V - I

When you look at the progression above, you'll notice two things... these are Roman numerals and they are all using capital letters to denote each scale degree.

Roman numerals are used in music theory to indicate notes in a scale and chord and in this case the chords in the key. There are major chords and minor chords, which are denoted with capital letters and lower-case letters, respectively.

This means we are looking at the major chords of a key built on the tonic, the fourth, and the fifth. If you proceed through them one measure at a time in each of the main 12 major and 12 minor keys of Western music, you'll recognize each immediately. You'll likely hear a cadence you know, too. Praise tonality.

Now, what's interesting is if you find the tonic of your key on the Circle, you've already found the 4th chord and the 5th chord in the key and can construct a catchy song in less than 10 seconds.

Find the tonic of your key. In one example lets use the common folk key of G-Major. If you move one step clockwise, you find the 5th chord of the G-Major key. If you move one step counter-clockwise, you've found the 4th chord.

You can see how this works in C-Major below:

Each key only has 3 major chords in it. You just identified all three almost immediately with help from our friend, the Circle. You'll notice if you take one more step out in either direction you find the 2nd and 7th Chords. This half of your circle expands your chord choices in creating progressions.

If you stick to this side of the circle you're guaranteed to have a nice, consonant chord progression for your song and can easily create cadences and even write harmony. Of course you can use others but it requires some study and skill to do it effectively.

Remember how I mentioned harmonic function above? Musically, you can see and hear that the dominant chord (V) is closer to the tonic that the supertonic chord (ii), even though if you look at the musical staff you'd think otherwise. This is another example of how useful the Circle of Fifths is, especially once explained.

This tells us that an authentic cadence like I - ii - V - I feels more resolved (has more resolution) than a plagal cadence like I - IV - I.

The reason for this is that, even though the V chord and IV chord are both 'one step' away from the tonic physically on the circle, the IV chord is the furthest away if you consider the distance going clockwise around the circle. Interesting stuff. Whoever created this diagram is a genius.

Finding the Relative Minor or Major of a Key

Circle Of Fifths Diagram Pdf

Every major key has a relative minor key. What this means is that both keys use the exact same notes, including any accidentals (sharps or flats).

The difference is they have a different tonic and the distance relationship between the notes is changed a bit. Since they are the same notes though, this distance won't impede you from using the relative key.

Pro-Tip: One of my favorite ways to write a bridge to a song is to use the relative minor or major key. It will sound familiar due to the same notes being used but give you the opposite mood of the song. It's a nice juxtaposition that you can use as a surprise that leads right back into a chorus with the right lyrics.

In your mind, all you have to do to find the relative minor of a major key is to move 90 degrees to the right (or 3 steps clockwise) and you've found it. To move from a minor key to the relative major is the opposite. Move 90 degrees counter-clockwise (or 3 steps left) and you're done.

If you have a Circle labeled like ours, then you can find the relative minor key on the inside of the circle, where C-Major's relative minor is A-Minor, G-Major's relative minor is E-minor, and so forth:

There is one snag to this method that solves itself as you work with the Circle of 5ths. The naming convention for major keys will usually use a flat accidental, such as Eb (to be read as E-flat), except for F# (F-sharp).

Minor keys largely use sharp accidentals to name the keys except for Bb. The reason has to do with the count of semitones when constructing the chords.

So for instance, D-flat major key may have Db as it's root, but the minor key C-sharp major does as well. Because C# and Db are the exact same note, just named differently.

Once you become more familiar with the 12 major keys and 12 minor keys you'll know which name to use (and thus which key signature you're using).

Transposing Songs on the Fly Using the Circle

If you know the melody of a song and just need to plink out the chords on a piano or strum them on a guitar so your group of non-musician friends can sing along, you can transpose a song quickly if needed, all in your head.

A common use for transposition is when a song is a bit out of range for a vocalist. It's very similar to modulation, to the point where people get confused and used the words interchangeably.

All that you need to do is find the tonic of the key you want to use (usually one or two steps above or below the current key) and you can snag the chords right off of the circle.

This is just like with our chord progressions example above. If you know the song is a I - IV - V - I, then all you have to do is find your new key, and the tonic is I, one step left is the IV, and one step right is the V.

Let's switch from a C-Major song with the I - IV - V - I progression to the same in B-Major:

So by rotating the Circle you can immediately jump to another key!

You memorize this quickly after doing it a few times. But there's nothing wrong with having the circle printed and folded up in your pocket either.

Counting the Sharps & Flats in Each Key

It's a crazy task to try to memorize which of these major or minor keys has what number of flats or sharps and on which notes! The Circle of Fifths helps us with this task.

Starting at C-Major (or 12 o'clock on the watch face of the circle), which is natural with no accidentals, every step you move clockwise adds one sharp to its key signature.

In this example that means G-Major has one sharp, D-Major has two sharps, A-Major has three sharps, and so on. This continues for seven steps until you're back to no sharps.

Using the same method but moving counter-clockwise will add a flat for each step. So starting with the natural C-Major, one step brings us to F-Major with one flat. Another step takes us to B-flat Major with two flats. This continues to seven until you're back to keys with no flats.

This works with the major keys on the outside of the Circle and their minor keys in the inside of the circle, with the understanding that you always start at '12 o'clock.'

Knowing Where to Put These Accidentals on the Circle

Although we've provided an easy to read chart at the bottom of the poster, as seen below, you can memorize the pattern of how many sharps and flats each key has and the order of their appearance on the staff.

The first clue is that the order of accidentals cycles around the Circle clockwise for sharps or counter-clockwise for flats. They both follow this pattern, which is easy to memorize thanks to the word 'bead' being in there:

BEADGCF

That is the exact order of the addition of flats. Run it backwards and you have the order of sharps!

Key Signature Trick For Accidental Labeling

That's useful if you've got time to count your way around the Circle, but here's another shortcut to save you time. If you're transcribing or someone asks you not only the number of accidentals but what they are for a particular key, you can use this trick...

For sharps, all you have to do is take the tonic of the key and subtract a semitone (a half-step). This leaves you with the last note in the key that has a sharp. When we say last, we mean in the order of FCGDAEB. Here's an example:

Sharps: For B-Major, we start with B and subtract a semitone, which lands us on A#. Now we cycle through the Circle starting at F. This tells us that B-Major has 5 sharps, which are F#, C#, G#, D#, and finally A#.

There's also a trick for flats! Take the tonic of the key and jump backwards a fifth on the Circle by moving counter-clockwise one step. This again will be the last note in the key that has a flat. For flats, we mean the last note in the order of BEADGCF. Here's the example so this makes sense:

Flats: If we need to formulate the key signature for D-flat Major, we start with Db. We move backwards a fifth to Gb. According to BEADGCF, this key has five flats. Now we cycle around the Circle counter-clockwise starting at B and add E, A, D, and finally G. These are our five flats.

These kind of tricks are unbelievably helpful, and eventually you'll find that you begin to memorize them and no longer need the shortcuts.

Mnemonic Devices To Remember The Circle of Fifths

A mnemonic device is a tool to help you commit information to memory. There are a handful for the circle to help you remember the order of the notes. In these cases, we create a phrase that tells a story full of imagery and the first letter of each word represents the notes moving either direction around the wheel, depending on if you're focused on sharps (clockwise) or flats (counter-clockwise).

• Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
• Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket
• Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bacon
• Fair Cinderella Goes Down At Every Ball
• Funky Chickens Go Dancing And Eat Burgers
• Good Dogs Always Eat Before Furry Cats (sharps)
• Five Big Elephants Are Dragging Garbage Cans (flats)
• Big Elephants Always Drive Go Carts Fast
• Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father

As you can see, there's as many of these mnemonic devices as you can imagine, including dirty ones if that's what helps you remember. You can pick one from above or come up with your own.

Notice that two of the above are marked bold. These two mnemonic devices are also the order of the sharps (GDAEBFC) and flats (FBEADGC) for major scales. You can just as easily create some for the minor scales, which go in the same order from a different starting point.

Interactive Circle of Fifth Chart with Minors / Majors & Flats / Sharps

There have been a lot of attempts out there to make interactive charts in the form of wheels that you can spin around to help you visualize the Circle better for whatever key you're in. I've seen them for guitar and keyboard that make no sense.

In the end, the tried and true is still and likely will always be The Circle of Fifths Chord Wheel by Jim Fleser:

Called The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians, it expands even on our own Circle of Fifths Chart above in two ways:

• It's interactive with transparent overlays that spin to keep you on target.
• It has two more outer rings that give you further chord progression options.

What you'll notice is that it's re-stacking the rest of the Circle above the I, IV, and V in a way that keeps you from having to do mental gymnastics rearranging it in your head. For less than the price of lunch, you can't beat it for quick practice.

It also shows enharmonically equivalent chords and keys, which is helpful if you've memorized it in a different way than we chose to display it. An example would be F# / Gb, which are enharmonic equivalents both con, at the 6 o'clock position on the circle.

They are the exact same keys but written in different ways. F-sharp major contains six sharps and G-flat major contains six flats on different notes that turn out to create the same set of notes in the key.

What you get is the wheel on the front of a 12 page booklet that teaches you how to use it beyond what's obvious just from looking at it. It's just a short rehash of what we've talked about in this article.

But this format is nice because it keeps the wheel heavier and stiff as you use it and then can be neatly stored with the rest of your music theory books when not in use.

That's the Circle of Fifths Explained!

The best studio monitors and best studio headphones might bring you audio clarity, but they won't help you know what keys and chords you're hearing. But the Circle can...

Whether you need chord progressions, to transpose a song, help transcribing music, or remember which keys have which accidentals, the Circle of Fifths is the catch-all tool to get the job done. All it takes is practice.

It's worth having The Chord Wheel book around at home, our printable PDF in your pocket, and finally having the Circle memorized and in your mind and ready for action... and you've taken the first step by reading The Circle of Fifths Explained!