Understanding the Circle of Fifths

There are 12 different musical pitches in music theory and each one is denoted by a letter name such as A, B, C, D, E, F, G, C#, Eb, F#, Ab, and Bb.  

The above pattern is the one you need to remember. From C, it repeats once again. The notes also sound pretty much the same; their pitch only gets higher or lower. 

Moreover, musicians use it to create more rhythmic-sounding music and songs as it allows them to understand harmony, intervals, transpositions, chord structure, and more. Today, in this blog, we are going to show you how to use Circles of fifths and make one yourself. Furthermore, we will provide vital information on tracking down sharps and flats in Circles of fifths and how you need to remember them.

What is the Circle of Fifths?

Circle of fifths is one of the most amazing tools for learning scales efficiently. You can then use it to practice bass chord series. In addition, you can also practice arpeggios all over the guitar neck with ease. The name “circle of fifths” is given based on the jump you need to make when going from one section to the other, going up or down by an interval of a perfect fifth. 

With this, you will learn concepts of guitar and piano in more than one key, which helps you internalize the 12 diatonic keys. 

Now, if we put these 12 pitches in a special pattern called the Circle of fifths, at first, it might not look much to you, but learning how to make a circle fifth is just a start, as it can help you remember various properties and patterns that are common in music theory.

The Structure of Circle of Fifths (Circle of Chords)

To construct the Circle of fifths, you first draw a circle, then cut the Circle into 12 equal parts. Now place the C chord at one o’clock, and from there, place G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#, Ab, Eb, and Bb to complete the Circle. 

Find the sharps in any key using the Circle of Fifths.

As a beginner, we know it must be hard for you to find the sharps and flats, but if you know the Circle of fifths, you won’t have to face this problem again. 

• Step – 1: First, you need to understand or, in other words, remember that the first sharp in a key signature is always F sharp; 
• Step 2: The second sharp in a key signature is always C sharp, which is also known as a perfect fifth. 
• Step 3: Likewise, the third is always going to be G sharp, and from there, it goes all the way to B sharp. 

You have to remember that when you learn that the Circle of fifths works like a clock, the key of F is present at 1:00 o’clock, so the sharp is at the 1st position while the flat is at the 7th.

Identify the flats in any key using the Circle of Fifths.

When you follow the chart counterclockwise, you can see flats are present on the left-side of the circle. As a result, when moving from F to Bb, then Eb and so on till F#. So fifths that are moving anticlockwise from one o’ clock to seven o’clock.

Chord Progressions and the Circle of Fifths

In a circle of fifths, two adjacent keys will share six of seven notes on their scales. Compose a chord progression that ascends by fifths for the first few chords. Then, when you are looking to shake things up in your song, you start jumping across the Circle of fifths to a chord that sounds similar. On the other hand, it also creates a transitory feeling in a song and makes the chord progression move in a new direction. 

You can use a combination of distant chords in the Circle to create a more pronounced musical shift. You can use this to charge a sound with a certain impact. Use these principles to make innovative chord progressions that add new layers of emotions to your lyrics. 

How to Transpose Songs Using the Circle of Fifths

Transposing is shifting or restarting a song’s melody and chords at a different pitch level. With transposing, you can shift the music to a higher or lower pitch from the original. When transposing, make sure you keep the exact intervals that were present in the base melody and chords. 

Transposing is used to accommodate and follow the common pitch in which everyone feels more comfortable playing or even singing. On the other hand, some instruments are bound to produce a higher or lower pitch than what is present in the sheet music. As a result, to cope with the change in pitch, one needs to use transposing. 

• Step – 1: For transposing you first need to find the target key in the Circle of fifth and from there write down the key signature. 
• Step – 2: Once the new key signature is found, you can start writing down the new notes using the same scale degree you used when creating the song. 

The key signature will apply to most notes in transposition; however, if your song has accidentals, you also need to apply accidentals in your transposition.

Example:- Transposing From C To F

Let’s take an example of transposing C to F using the Circle of fifths:

• Step 1: For this, you first need to write down the key signature for F, where you will use one flat for the B-flat. 
• Step – 2: Then, you need to write down scale degree numbers, such as C uses scale degrees 1 (C), 3 (E), and 4(F). In a similar way, use the note of F to create scale degrees 1 (F), 3 (A), and 4 (B-flat). 

With this, you will be able to find all the key signatures addressing the required flats in the transposition. Now, if there is an accidental in measures of the original music, then you have to apply the accidentals in the same manner as you have applied flats and sharps.

How Musicians and Composers Utilize the Circle of Fifths for Creating Music

When musicians create songs, the first thing they do is find the key in which the song will be played. By marking out the key, they will know which notes to include and which chords to play together to form a harmonic function. 

There are multiple ways to find a key, but musicians and composers use tonic or scale degree 1 as it is the most stable sound and can be easily identified. Once the tonic is in place, one can find the rest of the notes by just remembering the positions of sharps and flats in the signature key present in the Circle of fifths.

Learn Modulation and Key Changes using the Circle of Fifths.

You may have found that plenty of musicians keep their songs in the same musical key throughout without making any changes or modulation. But others do perform key changes, and that too with impeccable smoothness. This change in the key is done by shifting to a related key. 

The Circle of fifths gives music composers hints as to which key is related to the other and shares a somewhat similar sound. For example, if two keys are present next to each other on the Circle of fifths, then their key signatures will be quite similar, with the exception of accidental.On Torrins you will find various music lessons related to guitar,bass and piano. Start your music journey with our free guitar lessons, free bass lessons and free piano lessons.