Navigating the Circle of Fifths
1. What Are You Talking About? 🤷🏻
The Circle of Fifths is essentially a visual representation of some of the most important concepts to understand when learning music and is a great tool to use when trying to understand how notes, chords and scales relate to each other other.
However, the image of a circle of fifths itself is less important than the information that it tells us, and once the information is learnt and understood then the visual image of a circle of fifths serves only as a reminder of these key concepts. This is why it would be very unusual for a musician to pull out a picture of the circle of fifths or even make reference to the circle of fifths when playing, writing or learning a piece of music.
So the circle of fifths is a great tool for beginners to start to understand how notes, scales and chords relate to each other…but eventually over time any aspiring musician will understand the relationship between notes, scales and chords without needing the visual guide of the circle of fifths.
2. Note Relationships 🎵
So, what concepts does the circle of fifths show us?
Well, firstly the circle of fifth is a demonstration of how music came up with the “12 note system”. In Western music, we break music down into 12 different notes. On a piano this is much more visually clear to see as we have 7 white notes and 5 black notes.
These notes repeat over and over as higher and lower pitched versions of the same notes.
The circle of fifths is how we came to land upon this way of dividing up the notes. The human ear can actually distinguish between 240 different notes before reaching another version of the same note (e.g. between a C and the next C we are actually capable of hearing 240 different pitches).
However, in Western music we divide the notes into 12. The “fifth”, which are notes that are 5 letter names apart (e.g. A B C D E), have a very strong relationship to each other in music. This is because a fifth is 1.5X the vibration (e.g. A is 440 hertz and E is 660 hertz) so they synchronise very frequently and therefore sound consonant together. If we play a C and a G (C D E F G - a fifth) then these resonate together very strongly. However, if we then start on a G and apply the same idea (G A B C D - a fifth), a G and a D sound very strong together. If we continue with this logic we are actually working our way around the Circle of Fifths and it takes 12 notes to eventually return back to the same letter - these notes have come to be the 12 notes that we use in Western music and they make up the notes on the piano!
If you are interested in more details about why the “fifth” (5 notes apart: e.g. C D E F G - C to G) is such a strong relationship, then check out this Monday Music Tips Article which explains this fully. - THE POWER OF THE HARMONIC SERIES IN MUSIC
3. Keys and Scales 🎹
The Circle of Fifths also tells us the different scales that we come across in music, if we start at the top of the Circle of Fifths we have a C and the scale of C contains no sharps or flats (C D E F G A B). If we move one step to the right, we arrive at G and a G major scale has 1 sharp in its scale (G A B C D E F#). Moving again around the Circle of Fifths we get to a D and this scale has 2 sharps (D E F# G A B C#). We can continue moving around the Circle of Fifths clockwise adding one sharp to the scale each time!
In the same way we can move from a C counterclockwise, and doing so adds flats, so 1 step counterclockwise gets us to F and this scale has 1 flat (F G A Bb C D E). Moving again to the left gets us Bb, and a Bb scale has 2 flats (Bb C D Eb F G A).
At the very bottom of the circle of fifths we get F#/Gb which are where the sharps and flats crossover because these scales are the same when we play them on the piano, but F# major is read with 6 sharps (F# G# A# B C# D# E#) and Gb major is read with 6 flats (Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F).
Each major scale also shares its notes with a minor scale and these are shown on the inside of the Circle of Fifths. A C major scale is the notes C D E F G A B and has no sharps and flats. An A minor scale is related to a C major scale as this scale shares the same notes, but starts on an A instead; A B C D E F G. We can find relative minor scales without the Circle of Fifths by moving down the piano by 3 half steps (C - B Bb/A# A), however the Circle of Fifths demonstrates how these minor scales relate to each of the other scales as we work around the circle!
The scales that are most closely related are often used when writing music and are very frequently used when changing key in a piece of music as they have a lot of shared notes and therefore don’t sound like such a big change to the music. The closest related scales to a C major scale are F major (one step counterclockwise and has one note different), G major (one step clockwise and has one note different) and A minor (relative minor - the same notes).
3. Keys and Scales 🎹
As well as the Circle of Fifths showing us which scales are closely related, we can also see which CHORDS are closely related! You may or may not have heard before that a 12 bar blues uses chords 1, 4 and 5. In fact, in most styles of music chords 1, 4 and 5 are considered to have a strong relationship and feel very stable. The reason for this is because these chords are the chords that are associated with those closely related scales.
C major scale - C D E F G A B
CHORD 1 - C E G
CHORD 2 - D F A
CHORD 3 - E G B
CHORD 4 - F A C
CHORD 5 - G B D
CHORD 6 - A C E
CHORD 7 - B D F
Using a C major scale, chord 1 is a C major chord, chord 4 is an F major chord and chord 5 is a G major chord. In the circle of fifths; G is one step clockwise from C and F is one step counterclockwise from C, so not only are these the most closely related scales but they are also the most closely related chords and can tell us both chord 4 and chord 5 in any given scale!
Matthew Cawood
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