Circle of Fifths - Introduction:

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Beverley Bates
5 years ago
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1 Circle of Fifths - Introduction: I don t consider myself a musician, although I enjoy music, and I don t count myself as an organist, but thoroughly enjoy playing the organ, which I first took up 10 years ago. Like Hugh, I have a fascination for Mathematics, and following a recent phone conversation with him I am responding to his suggestion of presenting an article on the Circle of fifths and its uses. I do not claim to be an expert, so this is a simple outline of what the Circle of Fifths is. It was originally first introduced by Johann David Heinichen, to give him his full name, in 1728, but the diagram used today is very different and much more helpful than his original. If you imagine a normal clock face, but with the 12 different notes arranged as in this diagram, you have the basic Circle of Fifths. C is placed at the 12 o clock position, and if you move clockwise, each successive note is a fifth (i.e. three tones and one semi-tone higher, or if you prefer 7 semi-tones) and this is why it is called the circle of fifths. Astute members may realise that if you go anticlockwise the intervals are fourths. So some folk think it should be named the Circle of Fourths. I don t know, but they may be left handed (come on, surely I m entitled to one joke.) The first thing I want to point out is that this is an easy way to remember the various major keys we use as well as the number of sharps or flats that each contains, and the order in which they are added. Diagram 1 - Major Scales C major at the 12 o clock position has no sharps or flats, but as you go clockwise you add a sharp at each key letter, and similarly, if you go anti-clockwise from C you add a flat at each key. Diagram 2 should make this clear. So you can see that the Key of E major has 4 sharps, and similarly the key of Db major has 5 flats. You may have noticed the key 6 o clock has 2 labels. The sharps are identified if you progress clockwise, and the flats if you progress anti-clockwise, from C. F# and Gb are identical notes, but you can play in either 6 sharps or 6 flats, depending which you choose. Equally B and Cb, as well as Db and C#, are each the same note. The difference is that the key of B major has 5 sharps and the Key of Cb major has 7 flats. If you played a piece of music written in each of these keys, it would sound identical, but the one written in Cb would be the more difficult to read. Technically you could go on to Fb major (which is the same note as E, of course) but you would be reading music in 8 flats and that is getting ridiculous. Diagram 2 Purely for information Db(C#), F#(Gb) and B(Cb) are known as enharmonically equivalent notes. So now you know. Another very important group are, of course, the minor keys, and this same circle can help us to find them as well.

2 The only diagram you need to commit to memory is Diagram 1, and all the other bits of information, that will enable you to use it. All subsequent diagrams are for illustration purposes and act as a guide for us, as, I hope, you will see. Circle of Fifths finding Minor Keys Diagram 3 shows the minor keys, attached to their major relative. For example, A minor has no sharps or flats, which, as we all know, is the same as the key of C major, and C minor has 3 flats, which is the same as Eb major. Diagram 3 Diagram 4 To find the minor key related to any major key use the 3 o clock rule which I have just invented, and Diagram 4 makes this clear. Select any major key, the example here is Bb and read the corresponding minor key 3 hours further round the clock equals G minor. Therefore you will see from Diagrams 3 and 4 that all the minor keys are a 3 hour shift from the major keys. This means that you do not have to remember where each of the corresponding minor keys are, but how to identify them, so my 3 o clock rule means you only need the simple diagram 1, unless by now you have committed it to memory. Finally in this section, I want to show you how to find the notes that make up the scale of any key you choose. In Diagram 5, to find which notes make up the scale in the Key of G major, find G on the circle, go anticlockwise one note and that note and the next 6 notes clockwise making 7 in all, are the notes you need. The eighth note is the G an octave higher, of course. The notes are not in the scale order, but are the ones for that particular key and this works for all keys on the circle, whether sharp or flat. The key of E would include the notes obtained by this method as A E B F# C#(Db) G#(Ab) D#(Eb) Diagram 5 As in most things, describing this seems to make things more difficult and a little confusing, but I hope the diagrams bring some clarity. Next, I want to show you how to find the particular sharps and flats in any key.

3 Circle of Fifths finding the actual sharps and flats in any key Diagram 6 is a repeat of Diagram 1, which is the only one you need to remember, if you remember(!) and it can show us the order of the sharps and the flats in any key. The sharps are introduced in order starting at and including F and adding one at every clockwise step. Therefore, the sharps are introduced in the order, reading clockwise round the circle, F, C, G, D, A, E, and B. You can use more complicated methods. For instance select your chosen key, in this (see Diagram 7) example A major, go anticlockwise round the circle, miss the first note and collect all the others back to F. So in reverse order to the way they appear on the stave, they are G, C, and F. Diagram 6 The flats are introduced from B and going anticlockwise to F, (see Diagram 6 again) so they enter in the order Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, and Fb. Again there are more complicated methods to determine which they are. Here are 2 examples. Select Key, in Diagram 8 I have used Ab to illustrate. Go anti-clockwise one step, select that note and then go clockwise selecting each note until you reach Bb. You should have, again in reverse order to how they appear on the stave, Db, Ab, Eb and Bb. Diagram 7 Alternatively, you select the key, again Ab in Diagram 9, go directly across the circle and reading clockwise, select each note giving it a flat, until you reach B. Diagram 8 Diagram 9 You list the flats, again in reverse order to how they appear on the stave, Db, Ab, Eb and Bb.

4 Circle of Fifths finding the related chords for any key Chords which are close together on the circle sound good together, and those either side of your chosen key can be used to play an entire song, but it may lack colour and appear a little dull. These 3 chords are often described as the I chord, the IV chord and the V7th chord. Here is the example in Diagram 10 of the key of C, giving the 3 main chords of F, G7 and C. Diagram 10 As a general principle chords like to move anti-clockwise, (see Diagram 11) and you will know from experience that at the finish of any price of music a 7 th chord usually precedes the final home chord. Hence from these diagrams, you will recognise that G7 resolves into C major. This principle follows for all keys - e.g. B7 E Eb7 Ab F7 Bb, so if you know the V7 chord you can find the key the piece is written in. This simple knowledge will enable you to make a simple key change by hitting the preceding dominant 7 th chord which is always found next door one step clockwise on the circle. It is worth noting that if you want to accompany someone in a particular key, or simply play a new piece in that key, just strike the dominant 7 th and away you go. This works for major or minor keys, so G7 is good to start either a C major or a C minor piece. To take away the boring sound of this 7 th chord, as you hold it, play passing notes with your right hand which link 2 of the 3 notes that make up the major version of the chord. For example, using G7 play either B, A, Ab then G with your right hand, or walk up with B, C, C# and then D, and these can produce quite simple, but attractive melodic introductions. Diagram 11 One final practical tip for this section. In most of your music you will find whole segments of chord sequences that appear to be taken from the circle. For instance, it is not unusual to discover the sequence, D7 G7 C7 F all in a row, within just a few bars. Therefore you can take a walk with your left hand round and round the circle in an anti-clockwise direction for as long as you like, playing D7 G G7 C C7 F7 F Bb7 Bb etc., and you will be practising accompaniment patterns of many pieces. Circle of Fifths making the related chords more attractive We said before that chords which are close together on the circle sound good together. There is a relationship between adjacent chords which sound correct and musically attractive for any particular key. The terminology for this is diatonic chords and there are 7 for each key. In Diagram 12, we see those identified for the key of C. You will see that C with those either side, F and G are major based, with the 3 further round the circle

5 are minor based, namely D, A, and E. The seventh chord is B diminished. In any piece of music in the key of C, these are the common chords that you will find, but Em and Bdim will be rarer. The reason for this is that the Key of C has no sharps or flats, so in the sequence - A7 D7 G7 C A7 has to lose its C# and becomes Am7 D7 has to lose its F# so becomes Dm7 But G7 can be played as it is. Diagram 12 The outer blue band can be rotated anywhere round the circle to determine the same format for other keys. Circle of Fifths final thoughts - Bass pedal notes In Hugh s topic How do you form your chords, he states, The simplest way of spicing up the basses is the alternating bass: If the chord does not change, replace every other fundamental bass with its fifth. You will all recognise by now that you already know these fifths, from the circle. (Diagram 13 is a copy of Diagram 1, which you now know by heart, don t you?) To find the fifth of any base note, you now know it is next door in a clockwise direction. Diagram 13 Chord substitutions The circle of fifths helps in making chord substitutions. Diagram 14 You can use the chord immediately opposite the assigned chord, so in Diagram 14, for a G major chord, you can substitute a Db major, or their corresponding 7 th chords. You can also use the seventh chord either side of this substitution chord as a passing chord before the substitution chord. This is particularly effective toward the end of a piece. It is quite common for Jazz musicians to do this. It is wise, however, to do this only occasionally to achieve the best effect.

6 Choosing a Key Keys can form a vital part of your performance. I always thought that keys didn t matter, and preferred to play everything in C, because there are no sharps and flats to worry about, so it was easier. Actually every key has a colour or character. The circle of fifths is a good guide. Darker, mellower keys fall to the flat side of the circle, and brighter, sharper keys falling to the right side. In general the more flats there are, the mellower the music, whereas the more sharps brings a brighter feel to the music. This is why many musicians take the music down to create a mellower feel to their performance, and arguably a more pleasing sound reproduction. In church we sometimes take the music up a full tone for the final verse, which I used to think just gave the piece a lift, but now I realise it is because we are going from a mellower key to a brighter and sharper key. Because we have so many different instruments, with nearly all of them having no form of Transpose button, we have to play the piece in a different key. So Bb to C, F to G or C to D are among the easier to handle. Rather than use transpose, learn to play pieces with a genuine key change. I hope this short explanation of the Circle of Fifths has been of some help and interest. Peter Anderson

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Key Signatures Lesson 2 Circle of Fifths and Fourths evirtuoso-online Lessons www.evirtuoso.com The Major and Minor Keys previously discussed are also used in the Circle of Fifths and Fourths. The circle