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#1
07-10-2006, 08:52 PM
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| Circle of Fifths What exactly is the circle of fifths? and what is its use?  |
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#2
07-10-2006, 10:43 PM
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| The circle of fifths is nothing but the sequence the notes pop out if you separate them with fifths: c g d a e h f#/gb db ab eb bb f… and you guess it: c! which makes for circularity in a well-tempered system. As the harmonic connection between dominant and tonic is perceived to be an important one in western traditional tonality, parts of the circle of fitfths is the backbone of many traditional chord progressions, most notably the II-V-I progression, e. g. d minor-G major-C major. In e. g. The Autumn Leaves jazz song, the chord progression of the beginning of the refrain spans half of the circle: Cm7 F7 Bmaj7 Ebmaj7 (cheat break of the circle) Am7b5 D7 Gm. If we connect it end to beginning, breaking at the cheat break, and only extract roots, we get A D G C F Bb Eb, which is exactly half of the circle of fifths, in the reverse direction. Regards |
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#3
02-11-2006, 03:00 AM
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"THE" Circle of 5ths is a summary of Keys and Key Signatures and how they all relate to one another. The basic layout puts the key of C Major at the top, with Keys with sharps in the key signature placed clockwise around a circle (so like a clock, 1 o'clock is the key with 1 sharp, 2 o'clock is the key with 2 sharps, etc.). Counter-clockwise is keys with flats in the key signature. Most of the time the circle is drawn to overlap at 6 o'clock so the key with 6# (F#M) and 6b (GbM - which is enharmonic to F#M) are at the same place. THen usually one "tail" is added to each side to cover 7# and 7b. All of the keys in the circle are "5th related". To put it as simply as possible, if you move 1 key to the sharp side, the keynote of of that key will be a 5th up from where you are and you will add 1 sharp. THe first sharp added is F# and every sharp added after that is - guess what - a 5th up (so sharps get added in the order FCGDAE  . If you move counter-clockwise around the circle, the keynote is DOWN a 5th, and you will SUBTRACT one sharp (which is the same as adding a flat).To put this to use, if you want to find the key signature for A major, you need to find out how many 5ths A is above C: C-G-D-A - it is 3 5ths above C. That means it has 3 sharps, and those sharps are F C and G. This is kind of cumbersome actually, and it's really better if you simply memorize all of our keys and key signatures. This way you don't have to calculate the number of sharps or flats for a given key, but you just know them! FYI, the minor key signatures work the same way. So in essence, we can say that all Major and minor keys can be printed in an order that shows how they are are related by 5ths, and what consitently changes from a key a 5th up or 5th down from another key. Best, Steve |
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#4
04-11-2006, 10:09 PM
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| Ahh, thankyou both for your replies. So it can mean two things. This is where I got confused. Has anyone ever used the whole circle of 5ths in one progression. Thorolf's example of Autumn Leaves uses half, but does any piece/song use it all? |
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#5
04-11-2006, 10:21 PM
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It would be unusual to use the whole thing, although I'm sure there's some experimental music out there where someone did. Most of the time, the chords either stay in the key, or are used a secondary dominants, so in C, the progression would be: (C) em am dm G C (five 5ths). or E7 - A7 - D7 - G7 - C (Five foot two, eyes of blue is like this). The pop song by Gloria Gaynor, I will Survive goes am - dm - G - C - F - bo - E7 similar to Autumn Leaves. Notice the chord roots are the 7 notes of A minor - the key. This means one of the 5ths (F-B here) has to be diminished rather than perfect. If all the 5ths stay perfect you end up going out of the main key. Again, there are probably instances of this, but they would be in fairly obscure pieces of music. Best, Steve |
