The circle of fifths is one of the most powerful and creative tools we musicians have. It allows us to understand chord/scale relationships, find creative chord progressions, and transpose music to any key we want. It's a theory powerhouse resource that’s invaluable to any musician.
Whether you're a brand new musician taking your first steps into the world of music theory, or an experienced player that's been getting by using trial and error, there's tremendous value waiting for you within the circle of fifths.
It's one of the most powerful tools we have and can help with everything from visualizing chord progressions, identifying chord/scale relationships, and is an incredible songwriting assistant that enables you to create dynamic and interesting chord progressions.
While at first glance it can seem a bit intimidating, don't worry! It's actually very easy to use.
In this guide, we'll walk you through how the circle of fifths all works, and explain how you can use it to supercharge your creativity and understanding of music.
What You Can Do with the Circle of Fifths
It’s common for musicians to feel a bit intimidated by the circle of fifths. It does look pretty complex!
But taking a little time to familiarize yourself with how it works can unlock a wealth of benefits when it comes to music theory and songwriting.
As a music theory tool, the circle of fifths can help you:
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Understand key signatures so you can quickly figure out how many sharps or flats are in a key.
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Quickly identify relative major and minor keys, which is super helpful for songwriting and improvisation.
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Identify chord progressions so you can play along with your favorite songs.
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Ease your way into more advanced musical ideas like the circle of fourths and fifths, common movements used in classical and jazz music.
As a creative tool, the circle of fifths helps with:
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Understanding chord progressions and harmonic movement, which is great for figuring out how to play your favorite songs or writing your own.
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Utilize modulations and creative chord changes that you wouldn’t regularly discover by just staying within a single scale.
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Make your chord progressions more colorful and interesting with borrowed chords.
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Improve your improvisation prowess by visualizing chords and their relationships.
How to Read the Circle of Fifths
One of the most powerful things about the circle of fifths is that it's able to deliver lots of useful information in a relatively small area.
Let's take a look at how the circle of fifths is laid out and how it all works.
The Outer Circle
The big or capitalized letters in the outer circle represent all 12 of your major keys, starting with C major at the top which has zero sharps of flats.
As you follow the circle clockwise each step is a perfect fifth from the previous step, and adds 1 extra sharp (#) note.
Example:
Moving clockwise from C major you have G major which has 1 sharp, then D major which has 2 sharps, and so on. This is the 5th note from the root.
But if you go counterclockwise you move by a perfect fourth, and instead of sharps, you add flats. This is the 4th note from the root.
Example:
Moving counterclockwise 1 step from C to F contains 1 flat note, going 1 more step to Bb has 2 flats, and so on.
The Relative Minor
The inner circle works the same way as the outer one. Moving clockwise still adds sharps and climbs by perfect fifths. Moving counterclockwise moves by perfect fourths and adds flats.
The difference is they are all minor scales.
You’ve probably noticed that each minor scale sits directly underneath a major scale. This is what we call the relative minor. All this means is that they share the same notes as each other.
Example:
C major contains the same notes as A minor, and F major contains the exact notes as D minor.
Chord Relationships
Another useful thing you can do with the circle of fifths is find nearby chords that relate to your current chord.
This gives you ideas for where you might want to move to on your next chord change and is super helpful when improvising, or coming up with progressions for your own songs.
We can also easily find important interval and chordal movements based on the direction and how many steps we take. Here are a few examples of how this works:
After spending some time with the circle of fifths, and with a little practice, you'll soon be traversing through keys and progressions with ease.
Feel free to download Noisy Clan’s Circle of Fifths Cheat Sheet as a convenient reference to help familiarize yourself with how the circle is laid out.
Getting Creative: Using the Noisy Clan Decoder
One of the downsides to the traditional circle of fifths is that there are a lot of notes and information that is not relevant to the scale/key you're playing.
It's easy to get lost with all that extra information.
This is where the Noisy Clan’s Decoder: Circle of Fifths can help. We removed the distractions by focusing on the Key at hand. The example below shows you starting at the Key of C.
All you need to do is rotate the wheel at the top until your desired key is on display and you're shown only the important information relating to that key.
It shows you which chords exist within that scale, the order they are played in, the relative minor scale, and even some handy chord suggestions so you'll always have somewhere to go with your music.
Here's a quick example, let’s say you need to play in E:
All you do is rotate the wheel until E lines up with 'key' at the top, and you’re done! Try it here on our Digital Decoder online.
Now all the notes, chords, and relative minor information are all on display with no other clutter. It even tells you exactly which notes are sharped and flatted under 'Signature' so you don’t have to rely on memorizing a mnemonic.
This is extremely helpful in keeping you on track and in key when jamming with other musicians.
It's also a wonderful visual learning aid if you want to memorize your scales.
Using the circle of fifths for guitar? You’ll love the Guitar Circle of Fifths Poster as a convenient reference for guitar chords and scales.
Circle of Fifths Made Easy
Thanks to the Noisy Clan Decoder, the circle of fifths has been made more accessible and easier to use than ever.
You can jump in and get playing immediately without any fear of drifting off track. This makes music theory FUN.
You can pick the Noisy Clan Decoder up for yourself here.
Interested in more information about the circle of fifths? Check out our list of The Top 10 Circle of Fifths Videos for some great tips on getting the most out of the circle.
