Basically the Circle of Fifths, arranges all 12 major keys in order of the amount of sharps or flats in each key. This is achieved by ascending or descending by a perfect fifth from the root note. If you don’t know what we are talking about, click here to read our intervals blog post.
Why should I know the Circle of Fifths?
The circle of fifths is incredibly important for all musicians and music producers. Once you understand it, you’ll be able to use it to know which notes are in a particular key, and how to transition to new keys, either when you’re jamming or when you’re writing a piece of music.
The Circle of Fifths
How does it work?
Well lets say we start on C and increase by a perfect fifth we get a G this means we would have a G major scale, with the notes G A B C D E F#
If we start on G and increase by another perfect fifth we get a D, thus meaning we have a D major scale and the notes in D major would be, D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#
If we start back on C and go down by a perfect fifth we get F. Now with F we have the notes F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E Then if we continue by down by a perfect fifth again we get Bb (read and spoken as B flat) with the notes in Bb major being Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A
Starting to notice a pattern?
This is so handy with key changes, because we either know which note to focus / or not focus on before changing key and we will know what notes will be in the key we want to change too.
DJs utilise keys all the time, one reason is to mix in key and the other reason is because when we ascend by a fifth we increase the energy in the room. When you decrease by a fifth, we bring the energy down, or it can have the effect of making the music feel deeper.
Begin to memorise the circle of fifths and you’ll notice your music theory knowledge beginning to increase in all areas. If you’d like to quickly level up your music theory, then check out our Music Theory Lessons or Music Theory Course.
You can download your FREE A4 circle of fifths chart below! Simply click here to download your free chart.
Basically an interval is the distance between two pitched notes. For example the distance between C and D is a major second. The reason why it’s important to understand all of the different intervals, is because:
1. They are the core building blocks, of chords and scales. Once you know intervals, it becomes a lot easier to build chords on the fly, this is very handy when working with other musicians. You’ll also know what notes need altering, in order to achieve a particular sound.
2. Knowing intervals will allow you to write music that represents certain moods and emotions.
For example if someone wants me, or I want to write an eerie song with lots of tension or suspense, I would write music that would utilise plenty of Tritones, Major Sevenths & Minor 2nds. Plenty of horror & ghost movies use these intervals. A classic example is the JAWS theme, which is simply a minor second repeating itself.
If I want to write music that is inspiring and uplifting, I would write melodies which contain lots of perfect fifths. For example the main Star Wars theme by John Williams.
How to work out intervals
Well it is pretty simple, we know we have 12 notes in the Western musical system. That means we also have 12 intervals, within 1 octave. If we use C as our “root”, root meaning our starting note, and we move up by 1 semitone, we land on C#, the distance between C and C# is called a minor second. If we go from C to D we have moved 2 semitones, so we get a Major second.
Above is the piano roll in Ableton Live. This is a C – D showing a Major second interval.
C – E we get a minor third. Now you’ll see in the Interval Table below, that I have both D# and Eb
. This is because if we look at the piano below, we technically have the same note. Which note you use, would depend on the key you’re in.
For example, let’s say we are in the key of F#, a minor third from B is a D# not an Eb.
This is because when we are in a standard major or minor key, we cannot repeat the same note. We will cover this in more detail in future blogs.
It’s important to remember that this Interval chart starts on C, but can be translated to any note, or key. For example, if we use G as our root note, B would be a major third, and Bb (B flat) would be our minor third. If you would like to practice this on your own then I recommend checking out Tenuto. https://www.musictheory.net/exercises/interval-construction This exercise gives you a note then requests you to add the note which completes the intervals shown. If you’re new to this, then make sure you change the settings so it only asks you the 12 intervals that are on our chart.
