Circle of Fifths
In my experience tutoring, the circle of fifths was one of the most difficult topic to get my students to remember. The problem with not remembering the circle of fifths is that is one of the basic building blocks to understanding music theory. You cannot learn to analyze music harmonically without understanding key signatures and how they are all connected. You should learn your key signature so well that if your professor points to you and says "What major and minor key has 5 flats" and you should have a rapid fire answer of Db major and bb minor. So how do you get to that point? Eat, breath, and sleep the circle of fifths. Here's a list to studying the circle of fifths.
Now for the flat keys. This time we'll use four flats. If you look at the second to last flat in the key, you will see Ab which just so happens to be the name of the major key with four flats. Finding the minor flat is not that simple but is possible. If you go up a major third from the last flat added you have your minor key. So the last flat added in the key with four flats is Db. Go up a major third to f and you have the name of the minor key with four flats.
In my experience tutoring, the circle of fifths was one of the most difficult topic to get my students to remember. The problem with not remembering the circle of fifths is that is one of the basic building blocks to understanding music theory. You cannot learn to analyze music harmonically without understanding key signatures and how they are all connected. You should learn your key signature so well that if your professor points to you and says "What major and minor key has 5 flats" and you should have a rapid fire answer of Db major and bb minor. So how do you get to that point? Eat, breath, and sleep the circle of fifths. Here's a list to studying the circle of fifths.
- Relative keys are connected. You can find the relative minor key by going up a major 6th or down a minor 3rd from the tonic of the major key. For example, if you are trying to figure out the relative minor key to C Major, you can go up a major 6th from C to a or you can go down a minor 3rd from C to a. Either way, you find a which is the relative minor to C Major. To reverse this to find the relative major to a minor key, you just have to go up a minor 3rd or down a major 6th. So if you are looking at b minor you can go up a minor 3rd to D or go down a major 6th to D. The relative major to b minor is D Major.
- Flash cards. Put the key signature on one side and the major and minor key on the other side. Learn the cards both way, which means to study using both sides of the cards. Study by looking at the key signature side one time, then practice by looking at the written key another time.
- Have someone quiz you. You'll want them to give you a limited amount of time for each key signature. If you didn't write down the answer before the time runs out then you have to move on. This will let you know which key signatures you need to work on the most.
- Come up with a mnemonic. The mnemonics I learned to remember major sharp and flat keys were Good Dogs Always Eat Before Furry Cats (sharps) and Five Big Elephants Are Dragging Garbage Cans (flats). If you can come up with your own mnemonic for learning the sharp and flat major and minors, you will have a good building block to memorizing the circle of fifths.
- Learning the order of flats and sharps is also important for learning the circle of fifths. There are also common mnemonics for this. Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle is used for memorizing sharps and Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father is used for memorizing flats. However, my favorite way ti remember flats is BEAD Greatest Common Factor.
- There is a fun trick I found to looking at what keys are related in a way. There are seven sharps and seven flats. If you take two major keys with the same letter name in it, the same goes with minor keys, the flats and sharps between the two will equal seven. Let's use G Major and Gb Major for example. G Major has one sharp and Gb Major has six flats. 1#+6b=7. Now let's do one in the minor. f# minor has three sharps and f minor has four flats. 3#+4b=7. This trick only comes in handy if you can remember or have the information about one of the keys already in front of you. So if you know how many sharps are in A Major and can't remember Ab major, just subtract three sharps from 7. 3# (A Major) - 7=4. By subtracting you have figured out that Ab Major has four flats.
- There is an easy trick to figuring out what the key signature is by looking at it. However, this trick is not so easy unless you have the trick memorized so be warned.
Now for the flat keys. This time we'll use four flats. If you look at the second to last flat in the key, you will see Ab which just so happens to be the name of the major key with four flats. Finding the minor flat is not that simple but is possible. If you go up a major third from the last flat added you have your minor key. So the last flat added in the key with four flats is Db. Go up a major third to f and you have the name of the minor key with four flats.