You’ve probably heard of the circle of fifths. But how exactly does the circle of fifths work and how do you actually use it? This is a good question within music theory. In this blog article, we’ll tell you what this circle is all about and how the circle of fifths can help you make music and learn to play the piano. You too can easily learn it and get the answer to the question “How does the circle of fifths work exactly?”.
What is a circle of fifths?
If you want to learn about it, you should first understand what it’s all about.
If you’ve already studied harmony a little, you will quickly realize that this is a relatively extensive area. However, you only need to understand a fraction of it to make good music. But you should really have internalized this small part. This statement in relation to the circle of fifths would mean that you initially only deal with 1-3 keys in depth.
It’s basically an arrangement of all 12 major and minor keys at intervals of fifths – which is where it gets its name – if you look at the circle of fifths in a clockwise direction. If you were to reverse the direction, it would be a circle of fourths. However, the term circle of fifths has simply become established in everyday language.
The number of accidentals in a particular key can be read off using the circle of fifths. It also tells you how individual keys are related to each other. It gives you a deep understanding of keys, scales and chords – which is definitely a reason to learn the circle of fifths!
Where does the name come from?
Now you may be wondering why the circle of fifths is actually called the circle of fifths. First of all, “circle” refers to a circle. And it is called a circle of fifths because the individual keys are arranged around the circle at intervals of fifths. A fifth is an interval consisting of seven semitones. The major keys are notated using capital letters and placed on the outer edge of the circle. The parallel minor keys are located in the inside of it and are written in lower case letters. C major is located where the 12 is found on a clock, i.e. at the very top in the middle. You can regard C major as a kind of starting point of the circle of fifths from which you can continue.
To determine the right half of the circle, we go up a fifth from ‘c’ on the piano keyboard. This results in the following keys in the circle of fifths: C → G → D → A → E → B → F sharp. While the key of C major has no accidentals, each ascending fifth adds a further sharp accidental: G major has one sharp, D major two sharps, A major three sharps and so on.
To complete the keys on the left side of the circle of fifths, we always go down in fifths from “c” on the piano keyboard. This results in the following keys: C → F → Bb → A flat → D flat → G flat. With each descending fifth in the circle of fifths, a b is added as an accidental. F major therefore has a b, Bb major has two b’s etc. Now you already know how the circle of fifths is formed.
So you can keep that in mind:
ℹ️On the right side of the circle are the sharps and on the left side the flats.
The # keys are often used in classical and pop music, while the Bb keys are mainly used in jazz. Keys always have their own character. To put it bluntly, the # keys are somewhat brighter, while the B keys are somewhat more melancholy.
Circle of fifths and the enharmonic equivalency
Perhaps you’ve already noticed the place at the bottom of the circle of fifths: Here you will find both sharp and flat keys: G-flat major and F-sharp major. You may already know that black piano keys can also have two names. This is known as enharmonic equivalency. An enharmonic equivalent occurs when when the same note is given two different names due to different accidentals. For example, if an “f” is raised by a sharp, it becomes the note “f sharp”. If a “g” is lowered by a ‘b’, it becomes the note “g flat”. However, “F sharp” and “g flat” are on the same key. It is therefore the same note, but it can have two different designations, depending on which initial note and which accidental we are currently using.
Mnemonics
When it comes to memorizing the sequence of notes in the circle of fifths, many budding musicians like to use mnemonics to memorize the sequence of notes in the outer major keys. An example of a mnemonic for the number of sharps in the circle of fifths would be the following:
“Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bacon"
Here you start at the second position of the circle of fifths, as no accidentals are used in the key of C major. Similarly, the following mnemonic can be used “the other way round” for the accidentals of the Bb’s on the other side of the circle of fifths:
„Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father“.
How does the circle of fifths work with parallel minor keys
Each major key has a corresponding minor key. The minor keys are shown inside the circle and are notated with lower case letters. The parallel minor key is always three semitones (= a minor third) lower than the corresponding major key. Both parallel keys use exactly the same notes and always have the same accidentals. C major and A minor are the only keys that have no accidentals in the circle of fifths.
Circle of fifths and accidentals
The number of accidentals in a particular key can also be read off using the circle of fifths. In the circle of fifths, you can see at a glance how many sharps or flats a key has. Let’s take A major as an example. Using the circle of fifths, you can see that there are three sharps in the key of A major (or F sharp minor). These are “F sharp”, C sharp” and “G sharp”. Incidentally, the accidentals are always arranged in the same order:
- Order of the sharps: f sharp, c sharp, g sharp, d sharp, a sharp, e sharp
- Order of the flats: b flat, e flat, a flat, d flat, g flat, c flat
Learning the circle of fifths to determine keys
Once you’ve been given the task of determining the key of a particular piece, the circle of fifths is an ingenious tool.
Example: If there are three B flats as accidentals at the beginning of a piece, then this is an indication that the piece was composed in the key of E flat major or in the parallel minor key of C minor. You can usually tell whether the piece is in E flat major or in the parallel minor key by looking at the last bar of the piece, or more precisely the final chord. If the piece ends with an E flat major chord, then the piece is most likely in E flat major. If, on the other hand, it ends on a C minor chord, then the piece is in the parallel minor key of C minor.
Regardless of whether it is a piece in major or minor: if there are three flats as accidentals at the beginning of the staff, then you must remember the accidentals when playing the piece. Instead of a “b” you play a “b flat”, instead of the “e” you play an “e flat” and instead of the ‘a’ you play an “a flat”.
Circle of fifths and scales
Now it goes one step further. The circle of fifths also helps you to find the right notes in a scale. Example: If you’ve to play a scale in D major, you can see from the circle of fifths that there are two sharps in the key of d major – “f sharp” and “c sharp”. So you automatically know that there are two black keys to play in the d major scale. The “f” is raised a semitone step by the sharps and becomes “f sharp”. The ‘c’ is also raised a semitone step by the sharps and becomes “c sharp”. Apart from the “f sharp” and the “c sharp”, you only play white keys.
This is also the case with the B flat keys, except that the note is lowered by a half step. In the key of Bb major, for example, there are two B flats: the “b flat” and the “e flat”. This means that we have two black keys in the Bb major scale: the “b” becomes “b flat” and the ‘e’ becomes “e flat”.
Circle of fifths and chords
Understanding the scales is important. You can imagine the process as follows:
- First you find the right notes on the piano keyboard by eye.
- Then you develop and practice the whole scale of a key with the correct fingering.
- Then you practice the church scales, often called “modes”, in the corresponding key
- …and voilà: we have already arrived at the chords.
Because scales and chords are practically the same thing. While we learn the individual notes of scales (usually) from bottom to top, the notes of the scale are layered in thirds in chords.
Chords and scales
So we have the following notes for a C major chord: c, e and g
The C major scale below is c, d, e, f, g, a, b (note: we use the international notation)
The D minor scale below is now d, e, f, g, a, bb, c and d.
As you can see, it is enormously helpful if you can not only recite the keys in it, but also know the keys well yourself. This may sound like an overwhelming project at the moment. That’s why we start the Zapiano® piano courses in just a few keys at a time. We look at these in depth. Because once you’ve understood the principles, it’s super easy to apply these concepts to all other keys. And then, in the end, it’s not just a theoretical construct, but it helps you to learn new pieces much more quickly.
Conclusion
By now it should be a little easier for you to use the circle of fifths. Just give it a try and try to determine the key of the piece you are playing using the circle of fifths. Assuming the piece is in G major, you can also practice the G major scale. As a little exercise, you can also try drawing the circle of fifths yourself on a piece of paper to learn the circle of fifths. You’ll see that it doesn’t take long at all to internalize the circle of fifths!
Give Zapiano® a try
In the interactive Piano Starter 1, you will learn even more about how the relationships work. Also, you will learn how to transpose pieces to other keys using the circle of fifths without having to think too much. To learn piano with Zapiano®, all you need is a piano (or even a keyboard to start with) and a tablet. You then place the tablet on your music stand and can learn lesson by lesson. If anything is unclear, you can always ask your question directly below the lesson. As a Zapiano® student, you also have the opportunity to send us a video. Just record your piano playing and upload it once a month. A Zapiano® Coach will then watch it and get back to you with valuable tips and tricks.
Would you like to try out Piano Starter 1? Then sign up for a free trial lesson here.