What is the Circle of Fifths?
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.
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.
Much Love,
Zak