Circle of 5ths

[jumpinjeff]

Hi Lisa18wheels, I can’t help with the memorizing thing but I can help philosophically based on my own experience. I hit roadblock after roadblock with memorization and even once memorized, making it practical and accessible to my fingers remained problematic. I found success when I broke it down to keys and sequences in the keys (especially regarding the songs I was learning and loved to play). All the while I kept?keep the concept of the wheel in the back of my head and when stuck I would refer to it. The wheels order, “rote”, was not my goal. Over time the relationships became more clear as a matter of familiarity and repetition. If you are composing maybe use it as a reference? I had greater success messing with scale, scale degrees, tonality, harmonic scales and triad scales etc interlaced with the CAGED concept. All those things are the building blocks of the Wheel. Seemed more doable in pieces. It is maybe why I liked Tony’s teaching method so much: worked in my addled brain. I didn’t have to memorize it, I could play by sound once I worked out the basic concept.

[N-lightMike]

Hi @lisa18wheels ,

Here’s how I was able to “memorize” the circle of fifths. (I don’t really memorize, I see relationships that allows me to reconstruct it.)

So lets’ start with the mnemonic, “Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bats”. These are all seven notes in the “5ths” order. If you go backwards, they are the 4ths order.

Now, notice the the first sharp is F. But F is sharped in the key of G, because the key of C has no sharps or flats. So we start with the key of G, but our mnemonic is the order of sharps. So, G has 1 sharp, F. Then D has 2 sharps, F and C. Then A has 3 sharps, F and C and G. Starting to see the pattern? We can jump to B since it is a fixed pattern. If we start counting from G, B is number 5, to there are 5 sharps. What at they? F, C, G, D, A. Now, you can work out the “cross overs” on your own as they get too muddy to cover here. I will mention them at the end just so you know what I mean by the “cross overs”

Now, let’s go back to C and go in the other direction. Again, our string of letters in that particular order is important (F C G D A E B). The key of F has 1 flat. What is it? Start at the other end and go backwards. It is a B. Continuing to the left, the next key is B, and it has 2 flats, B and E. The next key is E and it has 3 flats, B, E, and A. See the pattern? This pattern is a little more complicated, so let’s not jump ahead. Ok, the first key with a flat is F, then B, then E, then A, then D. We’ll stop at 5, and I’ll explain. The flat notes are B, E, A, D, G.

Now, starting at the top you have C. Going to the right by fifths, you have the keys of G, D, A, E and B. Those are the most common keys with sharps. Then going to the left by fourths, you have F, B, E, A, and D. Again, most common.

Here’s where it gets muddy. C# and Db are called enharmonic notes since they are the same note with 2 names. So, the key of Db with 5 flats is an enharmonic key. There is also a key of C# with 7 sharps. They have the same notes with different names. (Yes, you end up with an E# which is actually an F). You can work this out yourself. So, going farther around the bottom of the circle, you have the key of Gb with 6 flats, and is the same as the key of F# with 6 sharps. (The key of F# has an E# and the key of Gb has a Cb). One more, the key of B has 5 sharps and is the same as the key of Cb with 7 flats. You can use pencil and paper and work these out for yourself.

Notice, that all of this uses the same 7 notes in the same order like they are in a circle. The order remains the same no matter which direction you go or where you start. When we started adding sharps, the first one was F. So, when you get to the key of C#, the last letter to be sharped was B. But when we started adding flats, the first one was B, so the last one added when we got to the key of Cb was F.

Anyway, because of that simple mnemonic giving me the order of the 7 notes, and working things out in my head literally hundreds of times, I was able to type all of this out of my head very quickly. Most people just use the Circle of 5ths.

MG 😀

[PamB]

Mike, thanks for your excellent explanation. I, too, also learn by patterns and relationships so now I understand the Circle of 5ths…..lightbulb moment for me!

[N-lightMike]

Yes, @Pam B, I know this seems complicated. But, I can easily remember the relationships displayed in the Circle of 5ths using this method. Like I said at the bottom, most people just choose to have a Circle of 5ths available to look at. But @lisa18wheels asked how she could learn/memorize the order of accidentals. She wanted to be able to recall the sharp/flat order without using the Circle of 5ths. So, I guess the mnemonic was really the short answer in my comment. I like that Carl pointed out the guitar strings can be used to remember the order of the progression of notes. That’s probably a better short answer. (I don’t think I’m capable of giving a short answer. 🤣)

MG 😀

[Michelle-PSL]

Wow – this is so beyond me. I bought The Chord Wheel. That’s probably the closest I’ll get to the Circle of Fifths.😊

[Guy_H]

Hi @lisa18wheels , I have a poster of the CoF in my music room for reference. It’s a must have in the musician’s tool box. Haven’t really tried to memorize it deliberately but I believe that using it as reference it’s getting burned into my brain 😯 Of course there are lots of explanations on You tube and like most thing you may have to try a few before you find one that resonates with you. Here’s one I liked <b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”><yt-formatted-string force-default-style=””>8 Facts About the Circle of Fifths that you May Not Already Know.</yt-formatted-string>

<b style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”><yt-formatted-string force-default-style=””>Cheers</yt-formatted-string>

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by  Guy_H.

[Carl1909]

For the sharp keys, I just look at my guitar and see the strings G D A E, where G has one sharp, D has two, etc. For flats, I remember I don’t like the F chord, so 1 flat is F, the I look at my guitar and 2 flats is key of B flat, 3 is the key of E flat

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by  Carl1909.

[N-lightMike]

I really like this idea @Carl. Using the guitar strings would replace my mnemonic. But, we have to do 2 things to make if complete. First, we have to see it like a circle. So we can start at B, and go to E, then circle back around, and go to A, then D, then G. Those are the flats in order.

But that brings us to the 2nd thing. We have to realize there are 2 more notes. We are missing the C and the F when using the guitar strings. That’s not a big deal as the C is our reference with no accidentals. How do we go from a C to a G for the sharps? Easy, if we substitute the B string for the C, we go up to the G, then D, then A, then E, and circle around, the high E goes up to the B. Now, we just have to remember F always comes after (or before depending on the direction, 5ths or 4ths) the B.

MG 😀

[Marty75]

I say don’t lose sleep over the Circle of 5ths…. It’s much easier to drink it. 🧐😎

• This reply was modified 4 years, 12 months ago by  Marty75.