music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w. rush

theorists find it convenient to The Circle of Fifths organize all the possible key signatures into a chart that shows their relationship to one another. this chart, called the circle of fifths, displays each key as a spoke on the circle, beginning with c major at the top and adding accidentals, one at a time, to the key signatures around the perimeter. we’ll return to this chart as we continue learning about how composers use keys. C F 0 G 1 1b # b #

as you move clockwise around the circle, you add sharps to the key signature. as you move counterclockwise around, B you add flats to the key signature. D b 2b 2#

to determine the key signature for a key, look to when adding flats to see which “spoke” of the circle a key signature, add them it’s on to determine how many in this order: flats or sharps it has, and add accidentals to the key b E 3b signature appropriately. beadgcf 3# A b # for example, when adding sharps, e flat major use the reverse has three flats, of the order above. so it should look like this: 4 4 b the keys down here line up # A enharmonically... for example, E the key of d flat major will sound b just like the key of c sharp major. so could you 7# 5# continue the 5 7 enharmonic b 6 b deal and have # the key of C B f flat major? notice how that 6 b yes, if you want beadgcf pattern # a double flat pops up all over C D in your the circle of F key signature: fifths? b # b weird! G b nooooo! licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more