Key Signatures - Circle of Fourths and Fifths - ANSI A

What the Heck Can I Do With This?

The Circle of Fourths/Fifths, is the order of the sharps (♯) and flats (♭) that are the 15 major and their relative minor keys that comprise the majority of songs and chord progressions that we encounter. Giving us a way to memorize the order of the 18 major scales and their derived modes .

If there is a secret decoder ring for remembering some of the principles of music — this is one of them.

Here are a few ways to tackle memorizing this order of keys.

First: It's Just an Alphabet

And this is something you already know. Music uses the first seven letters of the alphabet: A B C D E F G . It then just starts over at A and keeps going over this A B C D E F G cycle. You've already know this for quite a long time.

Order of Sharp (♯) Keys

• C G D A E B F♯ C♯

Order of sharps (♯) in the major/relative minor keys: F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ E♯ B♯ C♯ . It goes from no sharps for the key of C Major to all seven notes sharped for the key of Major . Two of the three easiest keys/major scale notes to memorize.

Order of Flat (♭) Keys

• B E A D G C F

Order of flats (♭) in the major/relative minor keys: B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ F♭ . It goes from no flats for the key of Major to all seven notes flatted for the key of Major . Two of the three easiest keys/major scale notes to memorize. The third of the three easiest keys/major scale notes to memorize.

A Few Things to Notice

• The word BEAD There are not many words available if you where to create a word search with just A B C D E F and G .
• Three keys are relatively simple to memorize: C, C♯, and C♭.
• Counter-clockwise (to the left) around the circle moves in the interval of a perfect fourth : C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ . BEAD is in there as flats: bead flat. F is the fourth of C , Bb is the fourth of F , etc…
• Counter-clockwise (to the left) around the circle moves in the interval of a perfect fourth : C F B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ . BEAD is in there as flats: bead flat. G is the fifth of C , D is the fifth of G , etc…
• Clockwise (to the right) around the circle moves in the interval of a perfect fifth : C G D A E B F♯ C♯ . Bead is backwards: deab (dee e ab).
• Memorizing the cycle first as fourths (to the left), I found to be easier the other direction. The word bead helps.
• There are three Enharmonic Equivalent keys: C♯/D♭, F♯/G♭, B/C♭ .

Beyond this it's off to Harmonic Analysis for Scale Selection and Chord Substitution – where this information is a valuable tool. A lot of chord progression, i.e., songs move around this cycle.