Circle of Fifths: An Introduction
Back in February I started a series introducing music theory concepts, starting with Time Signatures. This will be the second entry to that series, this time talking about major and minor scales, and using the circle of fifths. As the title suggests these blogs are designed to give anyone interested an introduction to the subject. Later I will be expanding on these ideas, and going into more complex areas.
Major Scales
Each scale degree’s name and function
Before we look at the circle of fifths, it is important to talk about scales, and why we need them. When writing or analysing most types of music, scales tend to form the harmonic backbone. Scales give the composer a set of notes that will go together; you’ll be able to form chords as well as a melodic line. If used correctly these notes should sound good together!
The scales we’re going to be talking about today all have 7 notes. We can refer to each note by its scale degree (that is its number in the context of the scale). Each scale degree has a name and a different function. The first note is called the tonic and feels the most stable, meanwhile the seventh note is called the leading tone, and it desperately wants to resolve back to the tonic. To the right is a little diagram giving the different names of the scale degrees. The arrows point to where most notes want to resolve to, for example the supertonic wants to resolve either to the tonic or the mediant. These relationships are what gives the scales its character.
We’re going to begin with the major scale, as it’s probably the easiest to follow.
A Major scale has 7 unique notes, one version of each pitch - meaning 1 A, 1 B, 1 C etc. To construct a major scale we can take any note and follow this formula:
WWSWWWS
The W stands for Whole tone - 2 steps. The S stands for Semitone - 1 step. For C major this would create C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C. The C would be the tonic, the D would be the Supertonic, and so on. There are 12 different major keys, the best way to remember which is which is by learning how many sharps or flats a scale has. For example the C major scale as no sharps or flats. This brings us to the circle of fifths, which is a tool created to help work out which key has what!
Circle of Fifths
Circle of Fifths with just the major keys
In order to use the circle of fifths, we need to know how to construct it! The circle of fifths is built up of 12 notes a Perfect 5th apart (that is 7 Semitones) in clockwise order.
We start with C at the top, then counting 7 Semitones (C-C#, C#-D, D-D#, D#-E, E-F, F-F#, F#-G), we land on G. You can see a complete circle of fifths to the right. Note that for the bottom entry I have used Gb and F# (the same note enharmonically), this is to give us access to the most common scales. Technically we could either continue clockwise F# - C# - G# - D#, or anticlockwise Gb - Cb - Fb etc. But as these are less common (or useful) scales, it’s better to keep things simple.
Circle of Fifths with sharps and flats
Now that the notes are in the correct order, we add numbers representing the amount of sharps (#) or flats (b) that each scale has (see left).
Suddenly the order of the notes begins to make sense! You can see that C at the top has a 0, while the Gb and F# both have a 6. The numbers to the right represent sharps (#), while the numbers to the left represent flats (b). For example D major has 2 sharps, while Ab major has 4 flats.
Now we know how many sharps and flats each major scale has, but we also need to know which sharps and flats each scale has. Thankfully there is a way!
To do this we need to understand that there is a special order of notes in music:
F C G D A E B
This pattern repeats a lot in music. In fact, if you haven’t already spotted it, it’s even in the circle of fifths. This order covers every note available to us, from the lowest notes (the double flats (bb)) all the way to the highest notes (the double sharps (x)).
From lowest to highest it goes: bb - b - natural - # - x. There is an F C G D A E B in each of these categories, when we reach the B, we then move up to the next value. For example: F C G D A E B - F# C# etc. You can see this in action on the circle of fifths.
You can learn this order using Acronym. The famous one is Father Christmas Goes Down And Eats Beef, but I’ve heard plenty of other alternatives.
The great thing about this pattern is that it gives us the order of the sharps (forwards), and the flats (backwards). Below is a table showing the order of each.
Sharp and Flat order
Circle of Fifths and Table
Using both this table and also the circle of fifths (right), we can work out what each major scale has. All we have to do is look for the number next to the scale on the circle of fifths, and that tells you how many notes you need to take from the FCGDAEB (#) or BEADGCF (b).
For example D major, as established earlier, has 2#s. Using the table, the first 2#s are F and C.
Therefore D major contains the following notes: D E F# G A B C# D.
Another example, Ab major has 4bs. Using the table again we can see that these 4bs are B, E, A, and D.
Therefore Ab major has: Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab.
Minor Scales
Now we have grasped Major Scales, we can now move on to minor scales. As they follow a different intervalic pattern to the major scale, each scale degree has a different character to it, giving you different musical colours to play with. There are 3 different types of minor scales to learn: natural, harmonic, and melodic.
The Natural Minor
Complete Circle of Fifths
The Natural Minor is the simplest scale to form. In order to know how to build one, we need to understand that each minor scale has a relative major scale. What this means is that each minor shares a key signature with a major scale. For example D major has 2#s, so does B minor, therefore D major is the relative major of B minor. To find the minor scale’s relative major, all you have to do is go up 3 semitones. For example for B minor: B - C, C - C#, C# - D, D major. Or of A minor: A - Bb, Bb - B, B - C, C major. Let’s add this information to our circle of fifths! (See right).
We can see from this picture that F# minor has 3 sharps (F#, C#, and G#). And that G minor has 2 flats (Bb and Eb).
This is all we need to form the natural minor! So G minor, which has 2 flats would be:
G A Bb C D Eb F G
Despite this scale having the exact same notes as Bb major, it sounds entirely different, because of where the scale begins. The G in Bb major is the 6th scale degree (submediant), while in G minor, it is the 1st scale degree (the tonic). So in Bb major, the G wants to head down to the F, but in G minor it is completely happy where it is! This is why it’s so important to understand the role each note has in the scale!
Both the Harmonic and Melodic take the already formed Natural Minor scale, and modify it. But why do we have these two extra scales? It all comes down to the leading tone. Remember what the leading tone’s function is? It is to pull back to the tonic. Now in the Major scale that works really well, because the leading tone is a semitone away from the tonic. But in the Natural Minor the leading tone is 2 semitones away, so doesn’t carry the same instinct to pull back to the tonic. Take G minor natural (see above), the leading tone is F. F is 2 semitones away from the G. While in G major, the leading tone is F#, so it is closer and thus pulls back harder to the G. This was the problem that the Harmonic Minor was created to solve.
The Harmonic Minor
To form a Harmonic Minor scale, we take the Natural Minor and apply the Harmonic rule: raise the 7th (move it up one semitone). For example, going back to our G minor scale, the Natural Minor was this:
G A Bb C D Eb F G
The F is the 7th note of the scale, so we take that note and raise it to an F# creating:
G A Bb C D Eb F# G
Note that if the 7th note is a flat, raising it will make it a natural. For example in F minor, the Eb becomes an E (F G Ab Bb C Db E F).
As you can see the leading tone is now back to only being one semitone away from the tonic! But a new problem arises - this scale doesn’t create very good melodies! Well at least that’s what they thought back in the day. The interval from the submediant to the leading tone (in G Harmonic Minor: Eb to F#), was seen as too far apart. So this is the problem the Melodic Minor was created to solve!
The Melodic Minor
The Melodic Minor scale is the most complicated of the 3 Minors, this is because it sounds different depending what direction you go in! It’s worth noting that in Jazz, you tend to only use the ascending version of this scale.
To form the scale, we again take the Natural Minor scale and apply the Melodic rule: Ascending - raise the 6th and 7th. Descending - just play the Natural Minor scale!
Let’s go back to the G minor scale, the Natural Minor is:
G A Bb C D Eb F G (both ways)
For the ascending Melodic Minor scale, we raise the 6th and 7th note, which in this case is the Eb and F. The Eb becomes E, and the F becomes F# creating;
Ascending: G A Bb C D E F# G
As mentioned the way back is just the Natural Minor Scale, so it looks like this:
G F Eb D C Bb A G
You may have noticed that the ascending Melodic Minor scale looks very similar to its Major scale:
G Major: G A B C D E F# G
G Melodic Minor: G A Bb C D E F# G
This is why the Melodic Minor sounds pretty bright on the way up! But it still possesses a Minor character due to the flat 3 (G Melodic Minor - Bb).
Understanding how to put keys together, and what sharps and flats belong to which scale is vital in beginning to understand harmony. It is also important to learn how each note functions in each scale, this will help you to create natural sounding melodies. I would recommend if you are not yet able to, to learn how to draw the circle of fifths. It’s a hugely helpful tool that will help you greatly in future musical endeavours.
That’s it for today!
Dan
