The Circle Of Fifths - The ULTIMATE Guide!

When guitar players are improvising a solo, how do they know what to play? The answer is what musicians call a key. This is not the same as, say, keys on a piano. Confusing, I know, but I'm here to explain and answer all of your questions. But first, welcome to Music Theory. On this channel, I explain and analyze all topics related to music, music theory, and music history. This video is part of a series I'm making that explains all the basic fundamentals of understanding music and music theory. So if you're interested in learning how to read, write, or even just better understand music, be sure to check out the other videos on this playlist. If you're more interested in music history, I've got you covered. I cover lots of different topics to do with various parts of western music. Please keep in mind as we move forward that, as always, everything I'm referring to in this video is exclusive to western music and western music theory. Hypothetically, musicians could use their ears to know which notes sound correct, but if you ask me, most of the time that's a gamble I'm not willing to take as a band leader. In music, the key of a song indicates which notes are going to make up the foundation of a piece of music. For example, a song in the key of G major is going to be focused around the notes of the G major scale. And thus the chords that correspond with the notes of a G major scale. This saves people the time of guessing which key the song is in, and of course minimizes the chances of them playing something undesirable. It's like telling someone the recipe instead of having them guess which ingredients are in the dish. Some people have very developed palettes, but that takes years of experience. All of that said, a musician still has the responsibility of knowing and understanding the key of G major and the G major scale. Otherwise, that information at a band rehearsal is pretty useless to you. So let's talk about it. Quick review. The space between two pitches is known as an interval. In the major versus minor episode of this series, we discussed how to build major and minor scales based on intervallic relationships. For example, the major scale is built from the following sequence of intervals. Major 2nd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, major 7th, and perfect 8th. You can start from any note, follow this formula, and you'll end up with a major scale. If you're not familiar with this concept, go back and watch that video. Each scale has a designated number of sharps or flats based on the pattern of intervals. Here are all of the major keys. It's the musician's responsibility to know how many sharps or flats are in each key. So if the band leader calls the key of B, they'll know that F, C, G, D, and A will all be sharp in that piece. Or in E flat, all of the B's, E's, and A's will be flat. I'm going to show you soon enough how to memorize these keys. Now, here's the tricky thing about these sharps and flats. When you play a song in, say, the key of E flat, every single B, E, and A needs to be flat for it to sound like it's in the key of E flat major. What this means is, if you're writing a piece of music on a staff, you'd have to write a flat with each B, E, and A throughout the entire piece. While this doesn't seem like a huge deal, when it comes to writing longer pieces of music, or if you're writing in a key that has many sharps or flats, such as D flat major, things start to get time-consuming and a little messy. It also leaves a lot more room for error. You certainly don't want one instrument playing B natural while the rest are playing B flat. So, back in the days when music was still handwritten, they came up with a system of key signatures. Key signatures make those same pieces in E flat and D flat look a lot cleaner. The key signature can be found at the beginning of a staff on a piece of music, just after the clef. They indicate which notes will be sharp or flat throughout an entire piece, unless otherwise specified. You can change a single note in a measure by adding an accidental. The term accidental in music refers to sharps, flats, or naturals that aren't part of the designated key. However, that note with an accidental would automatically revert back to the original key signature in the very next measure. Otherwise, you'd need to write the accidental in again, or designate a whole new key signature if you want to have a key change. While the system overall saves a lot of time and confusion, it does add one more step to the process of learning music, which is to know which key signatures designate which keys. There's no way around memorizing key signatures, and there's no shortcut that's going to work for you in the long run. What I recommend doing is creating a set of flashcards and going through them until you know them. I've actually made a set for you already on Quizlet, which I've linked below. Back when I was in music school, my professor would randomly go around the room and ask students key signatures. If you didn't know it within a few seconds, he would mark you down a grade for the day. This may seem harsh, and it certainly was anxiety-inducing at the moment, but this is the reality of being a professional musician. When someone calls the key, you have to know what notes to play. Otherwise, you're out of a job. So, let's learn them. Since C major is the key with no sharps or flats, we'll start there. From there, we're going to separate our keys into sharp keys and flat keys. If you're unaware, the term sharp in music refers to a symbol that designates something is a half-step higher than the written note. The symbol itself is the same one you'd use for the number sign or a hashtag. To figure out our first sharp key, we're going to start with the key that's most closely related to C, which is G. The reason for this has to do with the overtone series, which I've talked about before. When C is the fundamental, its first overtone is its octave, but its second overtone is its fifth, which is G. This makes the two of them sound really friendly with each other. But why? It'll make sense if I lay out the C major scale. Since I know G is the fifth of C, I'm going to lay out the same scale, but starting with G. They don't sound the same. They're close, but something's missing. Let me check the intervals in the G scale. This is what they should look like. G to A is a major second. G to B is a major third. G to C is a perfect fourth. G to D is a perfect fifth. G to E is a major sixth. And G to F is a minor seventh. It's only 10 half steps when it should be 11. But not to worry, there's an easy fix. I can raise that F the extra half step by adding a sharp. So the G major scale should actually be G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, and G. Much better. What that means is there's only one note difference from the C major scale, which is the seventh. So these two keys share six common tones with each other. This is why they sound so good together. So what that tells us is that G is the first sharp key, since it has one sharp. If a song is in the key of G, its key signature will show one sharp at the beginning of the sheet music step. It's important that the sharp is written on the F that sits on the top line of the treble staff, and the second to last line on the bass staff. You'll never see a key signature where the F sharp is placed anywhere else. Okay, to find our next sharp key, we move up another fifth. The fifth of G is D, so D major is the key that will have two sharps. And we know that one of them is F sharp. So here's the G major scale. I'll write those same notes starting with D. You can use the method I just showed you with C and G on your own, but I'm going to spoil it for you to save some time. The seventh note is going to be the one that needs adjusting again. So I'll raise that seventh note by a half step, which makes it D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C sharp, and D. The two sharps in D major are F sharp and C sharp. So G and D, again, share six common tones with each other. They get along really well. D shares five common tones with C, so they're still friendly, but not as close as C and G. The D major key signature on a piece of music will look like this. The C sharp will always sit on the third space of the treble staff and the second space of the bass staff. This pattern will continue as we move forward. We're just going to continuously add another sharp to this list, so let's do that. The fifth of D is A. Here's the D major scale and the same scale starting on A. I add a sharp to the seventh degree of the scale, which is G, and the key of A major has three sharps, F sharp, C sharp, and G sharp. The key signature will show the G sharp on the top of the treble staff and the last space of the bass staff. Hopefully this is all making sense so far. I'm going to speed up the process again to save some time, but know that as I move forward, the sharps I'm adding are always the seventh degree of the new key. The fifth of A is E, so E major will have four sharps, F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, and D sharp. This D sharp will sit on the fourth line of the treble staff and the third line of the bass staff. A fifth above E is B, so B major has five sharps, F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, and A sharp. The A sharp will sit on the second space of the treble staff and the first space of the bass staff. A fifth above B is F sharp, so F sharp major has six sharps, F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp, and E sharp. E sharp is placed on the last space of the treble staff and the second to last space on the bass staff. And finally, the key with seven sharps will be a fifth above F sharp, so C sharp. C sharp has F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, A sharp, E sharp, and B sharp. In other words, everything is sharp, so this one's pretty easy to remember. Again, the absolute best way to memorize these sharp keys is to simply test yourself with flashcards until you know them instantly. You may have heard about people using mnemonic devices, which, of course, you can use if that works for you. But to make it even easier on yourself, just look to the word bead to remember four, five, three, and two sharps and fill in the rest. Let's continue. We ended on C sharp, so a fifth above that would be G sharp. Except every note in C sharp is already sharp, so how would the key of G sharp look? Something like this. F double sharp is a thing, by the way, and it actually looks like this. But what a nightmare of a key signature. We already have F sharp, so where do we stick the extra sharp? Well, we'd have to replace it with that double sharp symbol. But the issue with that is that F double sharp is actually just G. For this reason, it becomes incredibly confusing for the person reading the music, especially if we were to continue using this pattern. For example, A sharp, B sharp, C double sharp, D sharp, E sharp, F double sharp, G double sharp, A sharp is actually A sharp, C, D, D sharp, F, G, and A. Very confusing. I'm pretty sure you get the picture. We can't use double sharps, but we have lots of other keys that need key signatures. Let's go back to C for a second and think of it from a different angle. Rather than thinking about the first overtone of C, let's consider the fundamental that has C as its first overtone, which is F. Using that same logic, F has to be friendly with C the way that G is. Let's compare their scales. Here's the C major scale, and here's that same scale starting on F. Something's off again. Let me check the intervals the same way I did the last time. Again, this is what they should look like. F to G is a major second. F to A is a major third. F to B is an augmented fourth, or a tritone, which is a half step higher than it needs to be to be a perfect fourth. I can try to correct this using sharps. Obviously, making B sharp doesn't solve the problem, but I can make A sharp. F, G, A, A sharp, C, D, E, and F. But then I run into a new problem. I already have an A, which breaks a rule that we have in written music. Letter names in a scale must be used once and only once. There's no way around having two As, which is confusing as all heck. Except there is, where sharps move pitches up a half step, flats move pitches down a half step. As you can see clearly on a piano, A sharp and B flat are what are called enharmonic equivalents. In other words, they're different names for the same thing. So, I can make A sharp, B flat, and the problem is solved. In F's key signature, this B flat will sit on the third line of the treble staff, and the second line of the bass staff. We can find the remaining flat keys using the same process we used to find the sharp keys, except this time we're moving down in fifths. A fifth below F is B flat. Here's the F major scale. And the same scale starting on B flat. B flat to C is a major second. B flat to D is a major third. B flat to E is an augmented fourth. Aha! So again, we'll lower that fourth degree by a half step, and we get E flat. B flat major has two flats, B flat and E flat. E flat will be in the top space of the treble staff, and the third space of the bass staff. You've probably connected the dots by now. Just as we always adjusted the seventh in the sharp keys, we'll always adjust the fourth in the flat keys. So again, I'll speed up the process. A fifth below B flat is E flat. So, E flat has three flats. B flat, E flat, and A flat. A flat is on the second space of the treble staff, and the first space of the bass staff. A fifth below E flat is A flat. So, A flat has four flats. B flat, E flat, A flat, and D flat. D flat is on the fourth line of the treble staff, and the third line of the bass staff. A fifth below A flat is D flat. So, D flat has five flats. B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, and G flat. G flat is on the second line of the treble staff. A fifth below D flat is G flat. So, G flat has six flats. B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat, and C flat. C flat is on the third space of the treble staff, and the second space of the bass staff. A fifth below G flat is C flat. So, C flat has seven flats. B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat, C flat, and F flat. F flat is the first space on the treble staff, and below the bass staff. Again, some people also use the word bead to remember the first four flats, which only leaves G flat, C flat, and F flat. If you're anything like me, it's helpful to have visuals when you're trying to learn something. After all, these are a lot of key signatures to remember. The good news is they came up with the visual centuries ago, believe it or not. They took all of these keys in order and organized them in a circle. It's known as the circle of fifths. The circle of fifths can be traced all the way back to the Baroque era. Many believe that it was invented by our friend Pythagoras, but there isn't a ton of evidence to support that. This probably has to do with Pythagoras' discovery of the perfect fifth and the scale known as the Pythagorean scale. You can watch my video on this to know more about that. However, the perfect fifth as a concept can be traced all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia, where music and music theory were a huge part of their culture and way of life. The fifth is a naturally occurring phenomenon as we discussed, so it makes sense that it's been around for so long. The oldest depiction of the circle as we know it was from a 1677 music lesson book by composer and theorist Nikolai Doletsky. The book was called Grammatica, and the chart was intended to explain music theory in order to learn or improve western-style composition. The circle of fifths is specific to which is why we designate it as a western-style tool. In 1728, the chart was updated by Johann David Heineken, and this is the version we still use today. The circle of fifths can be thought of as the color wheel of western music. It's presented in a similar fashion and acts as a visual display of musical relationships. Musicians use this tool to understand and demonstrate these relationships, but many also use it to notate, compose, analyze, and transcribe music. The letters clockwise around the circle are organized in fifths up. We now know that moving up in fifths will give us all of our sharp keys, so if we start at C and move clockwise, G is the fifth above C, D is the fifth above G, A is the fifth above D, E is the fifth above A, B is the fifth above E, F-sharp is the fifth above B, and C-sharp is the fifth above F-sharp. These are our sharp keys on the right side, and for reasons discussed earlier, after C-sharp, we use flats. D-flat is the fifth above G-flat, A-flat is the fifth above D-flat, E-flat is the fifth above A-flat, B-flat is the fifth above E-flat, F is the fifth above B-flat, and C is the fifth above F, and we come full circle. That also means that the counterclockwise motion is moving down in fifths. F is a fifth below C, B-flat is a fifth below F, E-flat's a fifth below B-flat, A-flat's a fifth below E-flat, and so on. Some people like to envision the counterclockwise motion to move up in fourths, which is technically correct, whichever way works best for you personally, because the end result is the same. As you now know, each letter that you see on the outside of the circle designates a major key, but you may notice there are also letters on the inside of the circle. These are the relative minor keys of the major keys just outside the circle. A-minor is the relative minor of C, which means the notes in their scales are the same in a different order, which also means they'll share a key signature. E-minor is the relative minor of G-major, B-minor to D-major, D-minor to F-major, and so on. You can quickly find the relative minor of a major key by moving a major sixth above the root, or a minor third below the root. The other thing to note is that towards the bottom of the circle, there are two key signatures sharing one spot, for example F-sharp and G-flat. This is because these keys are in harmonic equivalence, which we spoke of earlier. This means that they're technically the same scale, but with different names. As I've said before, in music, context is everything. One is a flat key and one is a sharp key. They cannot be combined. You have to choose one or the other, but their notes are exactly the same and they sound the same. When choosing one over the other, people will often consider the instruments playing the piece, the type of piece it is, etc. But we don't have to get into that here. As usual, this is a ton of information at once, so I want you to take your time with these concepts and really make sure you understand them. Before I close this one out, I want to show you a few handy ways to use the circle to better understand music. I've created a free printable to help you memorize your circle of fifths, and again, I've linked a quizlet where you can study these flashcards. One of the simplest and most obvious ways to use the circle is to help you remember key signatures. If you see that your sheet music has four sharps in the key signature, you can start at C and count up in fifths like we did earlier. You'll find that E major is the one that has four sharps. The circle can help you figure out your major key chords if you really need it as well. If you start from any root note, let's take G, the key immediately clockwise is, of course, the fifth, but the key immediately counterclockwise is also the fourth. You could also use the relative minors on the inside. So again, if we're in the key of G major, C is the four, D is the five, A minor is the minor second, E minor is the minor sixth, and B minor is the minor third. You have six chords that work flawlessly together, laid out right in front of you, but you could also use that to build progressions in any key. Let's say you wanted to figure out the 4-5-1 pattern in the key of E flat, or you wanted to find the 2-5-1 pattern in the key of B. How about the 6-4-1-5 in the key of A flat? You could try playing around with the chords around your root note and you'll get some pretty common chord progressions. Using the circle to memorize the progressions as a musician is going to make your life, and your ear, a heck of a lot better. Coming back to the comparison of the color wheel, the circle of fifths works similarly in the sense that the notes or keys close to each other will sound more consonant, while the notes or keys opposite each other will sound dissonant. As we discovered just a few minutes ago, this is because the farther away a key gets from the root, the less common tones they share. C and G share six common tones, while C and A only share four. You can use this to your advantage while you're writing, if you want a chord that's going to be surprising, unexpected, etc. You'll want to experiment with the ones opposite your root note. We haven't gotten to the concept of modulating yet, but modulation is the change of one tonality to another. In other words, it's a key change. This same thought process with consonants and dissonance on the circle can help you choose where to move if you want a key change in your song. For example, modulating to the relative minor of a major key will be very smooth, since they share the same scale. So you'd modulate from C to A minor, for example. Another very smooth modulation is a major key to its fifth, since again they share six out of seven common tones. An example of this would be modulating from A major to E major. You might have an idea where I'm going next, but the fourth, which is counterclockwise, is also a very natural key to modulate to. So if you're in A major, you could modulate to D major. But looking at the circle, you'll know that modulating from C major to, say, A flat major will be much more difficult, since it's far from C on the circle. Knowing that before you start composing or trying to modulate can save you a lot of time, if that's not the sound you're going for. We can talk more about how to modulate in a separate video. If you use the circle consistently when you begin learning these concepts, you'll have that visual sort of memorized for the rest of your music journey, when you're thinking about key signatures, chord changes, and key changes. I really, really hope that you found this video helpful. If you did, please give it a thumbs up and let me know in the comments. Also, share with others who might find it useful. I also really hope you're enjoying this Music Fundamentals series, and I really appreciate all of the support it's gotten so far. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments. And don't forget, I do have a blog linked in the description where you can read these scripts and even download some free visuals to help you on your journey to better understand Western music. Thank you so much for watching!