How to build and use the Circle of Fifths

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By vistew
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The Major and minor Circle of Fifths

Use the circle of fifths to learn the notes within the major and minor scales.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Step 1

A blank Circle -- The smaller circles are optional, but I use them later

The Circle of Fifths is a useful tool for learning the key signatures for different keys. The first thing you need to do is build your Circle of Fifths, although a picture of one has been provided it is small and building your own will prove useful. To build your circle first draw a large circle, large enough to write in.
Step 2

We will start with the Major keys which will be drawn on the outside of the circle. At the top of your circle write in the letter C. Proceeding clockwise around the circle, count to the fifth of the scale to find the next major scale letter you will write. Therefore C will be followed by its Perfect Fifth, G, which is followed by its Perfect Fifth, D, etc all the way to C#. This will list for you all the keys that have key signatures with sharps.
Step 3

Now, starting with the C again, you count backwards to find all the keys that have key signatures with flats in them. These keys will be written counterclockwise around the circle starting with C. Your goal is to find the note that C would be the Perfect Fifth of, the easiest way to do this is to find the note's (C's) Perfect Fourth. So, the Perfect Fourth of C is F, F's perfect Fourth is Bb, etc. As you continue to make your way around the circle you may notice that some of the notes are the same thing, just written differently, for example, C# and Db, these notes have the same sound and are played with the same note on the keyboard, they just have two names. These notes should be grouped together. Moving clockwise around your circle you should end up with these 12 keys/groupings.
C, G, D, A, E, B/Cb, F#/Gb, C#/Db, Ab, Eb, Bb, and F.
Step 4

Beneath C, on the inside of the circle, write the letter a for a minor. C Major and a minor are called "relative" keys because they share the same key signature, therefore they are grouped together on our Circle. The same process is used on the inside of the circle to list all the minor keys as was done on the outside of the Circle with Major keys. Therefore, you should end up with these 12 minor keys/groupings.
a, e, b, f#, c#, g#/ab, d#/eb, a#/bb, f, c, g, d
Step 5

Finally, you can write in the number of sharps and flats each key/grouping should have. I prefer to do this in smaller circles on my larger one. (See the image.) C major and a minor have NO accidentals in their key signature, meaning there are no sharps or flats. From there moving clockwise, count up by 1# for each key/grouping. Once you have gotten up to 7 sharps, stop. That's the most accidentals a normal key signature can have. Repeat the process using flats moving counter-clockwise from C Major/a minor.
You should end up with the following list of accidentals:
C, a -- 0
G, e -- 1#
D, b -- 2#
A, f# -- 3#
E, c# -- 4#
B/Cb, g#/ab -- 5#/7b
F#/Gb, d#/eb -- 6#/6b
C#/Db, a#/bb -- 7#/5b
Ab, f -- 4b
Eb, c -- 3b
Bb, g -- 2b
F, d -- 1b
Step 6

To know what notes are given the Sharps or Flats remember these 2 lines:

Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father
Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

The first line tells you the order of the flats as used in a key signature based on the first letter of each word. (Therefore, Ab Major, which, as seen in our chart, uses 4 flats, will have B,E,A, and D lowered in its scale/on the key signature.)
The second line is used in the same way for keys with sharps in their key signature.
Now any time you need to know the key of a piece based on its key signature, or anytime you need to know they key signature for a scale you want to use, refer to your handy dandy Circle of Fifths.