![]() ![]() The circle is therefore a list of tonics - the starting notes of all possible major scales - and their appropriate key signatures. On the circle (or line as above) you can count left three steps (3 fifths) and that gets you to the same place: B minor will use the same key signature as D major. ![]() So A minor uses the C major key signature D minor uses the F major signature, and so on. To remember the key signature for the major key on any tonic, count the perfect fifths from C to that note, ascending or descending.įrom that you can also tell the key signature for the minor key of the same name: every minor key uses the key signature for the major key one minor third up. But with the octave tuned in 12 equal steps as it is on modern instruments, the "enharmonic equivalents" sound exactly the same. If the keyboard were to be tuned unequally these would not really be equivalent, and then the circle would have to be more of a spiral. Gb is equivalent to F# and Bb is equivalent to A#. If you bend that chart into a circle you can overlap the last few in each direction: Db, with 5 flats, is enharmonically equivalent to C#, with 7 sharps, for example (that is, the two notes are on the same piano key but have different names). Tonic note: Cb Gb Db Ab Eb Bb F C G D A E B F# C# The downward direction ends at Cb with 7 flats. Another perfect fifth downward brings you to Bb major, which has two flats, and so on as before: Eb has 3, Ab has 4, etc. In the other direction, go down a fifth from C and the major key on that note, F, has one flat. When you reach C#, though, you need to stop because you now have seven sharps and that's as far as we go. For each fifth you ascend from C another sharp is added to the key signature: D major has 2 sharps, A has 3, etc. Go up one perfect fifth to G and the key of G major has one sharp. Starting with C major the key signature has no sharps or flats. It could as easily be drawn in a straight line, actually. Question: Please explain the circle of fifths, first in the order played, and then the first note of each that is played (triad or root or inverted? Are they all played within the same octave, and do they progress naturally? - T.S.Īnswer: The circle of fifths is a pedagogical device that illustrates the order in which key signatures add flats or sharps. ![]()
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