Music — Open Yale Courses. Circle of fifths. Circle of fifths showing major and minor keys Nikolay Diletsky's circle of fifths in Idea grammatiki musikiyskoy (Moscow, 1679) In music theory, the circle of fifths (or circle of fourths) is a visual representation of the relationships among the 12 tones of the chromatic scale, their corresponding key signatures, and the associated major and minor keys.
More specifically, it is a geometrical representation of relationships among the 12 pitch classes of the chromatic scale in pitch class space. Definition[edit] Structure and use[edit] Pitches within the chromatic scale are related not only by the number of semitones between them within the chromatic scale, but also related harmonically within the circle of fifths. Octaves (7 × 1200 = 8400) versus fifths (12 × 700 = 8400), depicted as with Cuisenaire rods (red (2) is used for 1200, black (7) is used for 700). Diatonic key signatures[edit] The circle is commonly used to represent the relationship between diatonic scales. Play . History[edit] . Interactive Circle of Fifths User's Guide. The Interactive Circle of Fifths ("the Circle" for short) is a tool designed to help musicians to: figure out the key of a piece of music easily transpose music to a different key compose new music understand key signatures, scales, and modes The concept of the circle of fifths is not a new one (see this Wikipedia article for more information), but there is more to this simple, yet profound structure than the traditional diagram can easily convey.
The Interactive Circle of Fifths goes beyond the limitations of a static diagram without sacrificing clarity and simplicity. This User's Guide will help you get the most out of the Circle, while introducing some basic music theory concepts. However, this is not intended to take the place of an introductory music theory course. Using the Circle Offline: You can easily download a copy of the Circle to use when you don't have an Internet connection: The Circle starts out with the key of C Major selected. (seven sharps) through C (seven flats). .
Chord Progressions. Online theory.