The Circle of Fifths
A clock face of the 12 keys. Read it once and you know every key signature, every relative minor, and which chords a song in any key is likely to use.
The circle of fifths is a diagram of the 12 major keys arranged so that each one is a perfect fifth above the last as you go clockwise. It shows how many sharps or flats each key has, pairs every major key with its relative minor, and groups the chords that belong together — which is why players use it to read key signatures, predict a song's chords and transpose. This guide reads it the way a player uses it.
Riffloop shows the key and chords of a song on the YouTube video itself, then moves it to any key up to twelve semitones away — free to start, on your device. Also on iPhone and Android.
Last updated · maintained by the Riffloop team
The Circle of Fifths, at a Glance
The circle of fifths puts C at the top and moves up a fifth with every step clockwise, adding one sharp each time; anticlockwise, each step adds one flat. Each key's relative minor sits on the inner ring, and any key plus its two neighbours gives you the main chords of that key.
- 🕛 C at the top: no sharps, no flats
- ↻ Clockwise = up a fifth and one more sharp
- ↺ Anticlockwise = up a fourth and one more flat
- 🌗 Inner ring = the relative minor, same notes
- 🍕 A key and its two neighbours = its I, IV and V
- 🔁 Turning every chord the same number of steps = transposing
What Is the Circle of Fifths?
The circle of fifths is the 12 keys of Western music laid out in order of a perfect fifth — seven semitones — so that the keys sharing the most notes sit next to each other. Going round once visits every key and lands back where it started.
Start on C and count up five letter names — C, D, E, F, G — and you reach G, the next key clockwise. Do it again from G and you get D, then A, then E, and so on through all twelve. Each new key keeps six of the previous key's seven notes and changes just one, which is why neighbours on the circle sound so closely related and why a song can slide from one into the next without a jolt.
That one fact — neighbours share six of seven notes — explains the rest: key signatures grow by one sharp or flat per step, a key's main chords are its neighbours, and transposing is a turn of the wheel. The idea is old: the earliest known circle diagrams date from the late 1600s, in Dyletsky's Grammatika, and Heinichen published one in 1711 (history and sources).
Key Signatures, Sharps and Flats
Each step clockwise from C adds one sharp, and each step anticlockwise adds one flat. So G major has one sharp (F♯), D major two (F♯, C♯), F major one flat (B♭) and B♭ major two (B♭, E♭).
Sharps always arrive in the same order — F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯ — and flats in the reverse order, B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭. So "three sharps" always means F♯, C♯ and G♯ (A major), never some other three. At the bottom of the circle the two sides meet: F♯ major (six sharps) and G♭ major (six flats) are the same sound spelled two ways, as are B and C♭, and D♭ and C♯.
| Major key | Signature | Sharps or flats | Relative minor |
|---|---|---|---|
| C major | 0 | none | A minor |
| G major | 1♯ | F♯ | E minor |
| D major | 2♯ | F♯ C♯ | B minor |
| A major | 3♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ | F♯ minor |
| E major | 4♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ | C♯ minor |
| B major | 5♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ | G♯ minor |
| F♯ major | 6♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ E♯ | D♯ minor |
| C♯ major | 7♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ E♯ B♯ | A♯ minor |
| F major | 1♭ | B♭ | D minor |
| B♭ major | 2♭ | B♭ E♭ | G minor |
| E♭ major | 3♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ | C minor |
| A♭ major | 4♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ | F minor |
| D♭ major | 5♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ | B♭ minor |
| G♭ major | 6♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ | E♭ minor |
| C♭ major | 7♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ C♭ F♭ | A♭ minor |
Relative Minors on the Inner Ring
Every major key has a relative minor that uses exactly the same notes and key signature; on the circle it sits on the inner ring under its major. Its home note is three semitones below the major's: A minor for C major, E minor for G, D minor for F.
The two keys share notes but not a home. C major rests on the C chord; A minor rests on Am and sounds darker. That's why a chord list alone can't always tell them apart — both use C, Dm, Em, F, G and Am — and why the circle stacks them together. To work out which one a particular song is in, listen for the chord it settles on; the guide to finding the key of a song by ear walks through that.
Use the Circle to Predict a Song's Chords
In any major key, the three major chords are the key and its two neighbours — IV on the left, V on the right — and the three minor chords are the relative minors underneath them. In C that slice is F, C, G and Dm, Am, Em: the chords most songs in C are built from.
- Find the key's wedge. Find the major key on the outer ring. For a minor key, find it on the inner ring and use the major key above it.
- Take its two neighbours. The wedge to the left is the IV chord and the wedge to the right is the V chord. With the key itself, those are the three major chords.
- Read the inner ring under those three. The three minors under the same wedges are the ii, vi and iii chords of the key.
- Add the diminished chord. The seventh chord is diminished and sits a semitone below the key's home note, for example B° in C major. Songs use it far less than the other six.
| Key | IV (left) | I (home) | V (right) | ii | vi | iii | vii° |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | F | C | G | Dm | Am | Em | B° |
| G | C | G | D | Am | Em | Bm | F♯° |
| D | G | D | A | Em | Bm | F♯m | C♯° |
| A | D | A | E | Bm | F♯m | C♯m | G♯° |
| E | A | E | B | F♯m | C♯m | G♯m | D♯° |
| B | E | B | F♯ | C♯m | G♯m | D♯m | A♯° |
| F♯ | B | F♯ | C♯ | G♯m | D♯m | A♯m | E♯° |
| D♭ | G♭ | D♭ | A♭ | E♭m | B♭m | Fm | C° |
| A♭ | D♭ | A♭ | E♭ | B♭m | Fm | Cm | G° |
| E♭ | A♭ | E♭ | B♭ | Fm | Cm | Gm | D° |
| B♭ | E♭ | B♭ | F | Cm | Gm | Dm | A° |
| F | B♭ | F | C | Gm | Dm | Am | E° |
A worked example: D minor
Riffloop reads one song below as D minor at 130 BPM, playing Gm with Dm before it and C after it. D minor is on the inner ring under F, so the slice is B♭, F, C on the outside and Gm, Dm, Am on the inside. Gm, Dm and C are all in it — so before hearing another bar, the likely chords are those six, with B♭ and F the obvious ones still to come. Expect A or A7 too: minor-key songs often borrow a major V for a stronger pull home.
A real capture from the Riffloop Android app: the detected key, the tempo and the chord playing now as a guitar shape.
The guitarist's shortcut
The slice around G — C, G, D on the outside, Am, Em, Bm inside — is almost exactly the set of first chords a guitarist learns, which is why so many songs are played in G. A capo moves the whole slice at once: G shapes at fret 2 give you the slice around A. Pick the open slice you know best and let the capo do the rest; the capo calculator finds the fret.
Reading it backwards
The slice also works from chords to key. If a song uses G, D, Em and C, find the three neighbouring wedges that hold them: C, G, D. The middle one, G, is the key — or E minor, its relative, if the song settles on Em. Riffloop's key and BPM finder does that reading for you from the recording, and the AI chord finder lists the chords; the circle is how you sanity-check both. Learning which progressions those six chords usually form is the subject of common chord progressions.
The Chords Just Outside the Key
When a song uses a chord outside its six-chord slice, it is usually only a few steps away on the circle. Rock and pop borrow from the flat side — ♭VII, ♭VI, ♭III, the minor iv — and add tension from the sharp side with major II and III chords that lead to V and vi.
- ↺ ♭VII — two steps anticlockwise (B♭ in C). The classic rock move; the chant-along coda of "Hey Jude" in F leans on E♭.
- ↺ ♭III and ♭VI — three and four steps anticlockwise (E♭ and A♭ in C). Big, bright, borrowed from the minor key.
- 🌑 Minor iv — the IV chord made minor (Fm in C). The bittersweet chord at the end of Radiohead's "Creep", which runs G–B–C–Cm.
- ↻ II and III major — two and four steps clockwise (D and E in C). Each is the V of a chord in the key: D leads to G, E leads to Am. "Creep"'s B is the III of G.
| Key | ♭VII | ♭VI | ♭III | iv | II (V of V) | III (V of vi) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | B♭ | A♭ | E♭ | Fm | D | E |
| G | F | E♭ | B♭ | Cm | A | B |
| D | C | B♭ | F | Gm | E | F♯ |
| A | G | F | C | Dm | B | C♯ |
| E | D | C | G | Am | F♯ | G♯ |
| F | E♭ | D♭ | A♭ | B♭m | G | A |
How to Transpose With the Circle of Fifths
To transpose with the circle, count how many steps the old key is from the new one and move every chord the same number of steps the same way. Majors stay major and minors stay minor, so the whole progression keeps its shape.
Example: a song in G (G, C, D, Em) needs to go up a whole step to A. A is two steps clockwise from G, so move every chord two steps clockwise: C becomes D, D becomes E, and Em — on the inner ring — becomes F♯m. The result is A, D, E, F♯m. The table turns steps into semitones, so you can go either way.
| Steps | Semitones up | or down | Interval | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 clockwise | +7 | −5 | a fifth up / a fourth down | C → G |
| 2 clockwise | +2 | −10 | a whole step up / a minor seventh down | C → D |
| 3 clockwise | +9 | −3 | a major sixth up / a minor third down | C → A |
| 6 (opposite side) | +6 | −6 | a tritone up / a tritone down | C → F♯ |
| 1 anticlockwise | +5 | −7 | a fourth up / a fifth down | C → F |
| 2 anticlockwise | +10 | −2 | a minor seventh up / a whole step down | C → B♭ |
| 3 anticlockwise | +3 | −9 | a minor third up / a major sixth down | C → E♭ |
Two steps clockwise is the one to remember: it's a whole step up, one of the most common last-chorus key lifts in pop. For pasting a whole chord chart and moving it in one go, use the chord transposer and capo calculator. To move the recording itself so you can play along in the new key, use Riffloop's song key changer: up to twelve semitones either way with the tempo kept, and the chord track respelled for the new key.
Why Progressions Move Anticlockwise
A chord whose root falls a fifth to the next — one step anticlockwise — is the strongest pull home in Western harmony. V to I (G to C) is that move, and chains of it, like ii–V–I or vi–ii–V–I, are what make jazz standards and old pop songs sound so resolved.
Follow Am, Dm, G, C on the circle and you're walking anticlockwise, one step at a time, all the way home. Songs from the 1930s to now use runs like that; a turnaround such as C–Am–Dm–G repeats the last three steps each time round. Clockwise motion (C to G, G to D) sounds more like opening up than resolving, which is why it's common at the start of a phrase and rare at the end.
Practical use: when a change sounds like arriving, guess that the next chord is one step anticlockwise. It's the right first guess more often than any other.
How to Memorize the Circle of Fifths
Learn the order of sharps (F C G D A E B) with a sentence, read it backwards for the flats, and use two rules: a sharp key is one semitone above its last sharp, and a flat key is named by its second-last flat.
- One sentence for the sharps. "Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle" — F C G D A E B. Backwards gives the flats: B E A D G C F.
- Sharp keys: up a semitone from the last sharp. Two sharps are F♯ and C♯; a semitone above C♯ is D, so it's D major.
- Flat keys: the second-last flat. Three flats are B♭, E♭, A♭; the second-last is E♭, so it's E♭ major. F major, with one flat, is the only one to learn by heart.
- Walk it on your instrument. Play C, then up a fifth to G, and keep going. Twelve fifths later you're home — ten minutes of this beats an hour of staring at the diagram.
Common Circle of Fifths Mistakes
Most mix-ups come from reading the circle as a list of scales instead of a map of relationships — and from forgetting that the inner ring shares its notes with the outer.
- Mixing up the directions. Clockwise adds sharps and goes up a fifth; anticlockwise adds flats and goes up a fourth.
- Calling a key from the chords alone. C major and A minor share the same six chords; the home chord decides.
- Treating every out-of-slice chord as a mistake. ♭VII, ♭VI, minor iv and the major II and III are normal in pop and rock.
- Transposing a major chord into a minor one. When you turn the wheel, outer-ring chords stay outer and inner stay inner.
- Worrying about F♯ versus G♭. They sound the same; pick the spelling with fewer accidentals or the one your band reads.
- Learning it without sound. The circle sticks when you play it; ten minutes on the instrument beats any diagram.
Circle of Fifths — FAQ
What players ask about the circle of fifths: how to read and memorize it, relative minors, which chords go together, transposing, and how it relates to the Camelot wheel.
What is the circle of fifths?
The circle of fifths is a diagram of the 12 major keys arranged like a clock, each one a perfect fifth above the one before it going clockwise: C, G, D, A, E, B, F♯, D♭, A♭, E♭, B♭, F. It shows how many sharps or flats each key has, the relative minor of every key, and which keys and chords sit closest together.
Why is it called the circle of fifths?
Because each step clockwise moves up a perfect fifth — seven semitones, such as C up to G. After twelve fifths you are back on C, so the line of keys closes into a circle. Read the other way, each step anticlockwise is a perfect fourth, which is why some players call it the circle of fourths.
How do you read the circle of fifths?
Start at C at the top, which has no sharps or flats. Each step clockwise adds one sharp (G has one, D two, A three), and each step anticlockwise adds one flat (F has one, B♭ two, E♭ three). The inner ring gives each key's relative minor, and the keys either side of any key are its closest relatives.
What is the easiest way to memorize the circle of fifths?
Learn the order of sharps with a sentence — Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle (F C G D A E B) — and read it backwards for the flats (B E A D G C F). Then use two shortcuts: a sharp key is one semitone above its last sharp, and a flat key is named by its second-last flat. Only F, with one flat, has to be learned by heart.
What is the order of sharps and flats?
Sharps are always added in the order F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯, and flats in the reverse order B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭. A key with three sharps has the first three, F♯, C♯ and G♯, which is A major; a key with three flats has B♭, E♭ and A♭, which is E♭ major.
How do I find the relative minor on the circle of fifths?
Look at the inner ring directly under the major key: A minor sits under C, E minor under G, D minor under F. The relative minor uses the same notes and key signature as its major, and its home note is three semitones below the major's — the sixth note of the major scale.
How does the circle of fifths show which chords go together?
Any major key's three major chords are the key itself and its two neighbours: in C, those are F (IV), C (I) and G (V). Its three minor chords are the relative minors under those three wedges: Dm, Am and Em. That six-chord slice, plus one diminished chord, is every chord in the key.
How do I use the circle of fifths to transpose a song?
Find the song's key on the circle, find the new key, and move every chord the same number of steps in the same direction. Moving two steps clockwise, for example, raises everything a whole step: C, F and G become D, G and A. A major chord stays major and a minor chord stays minor.
What is the circle of fourths?
It's the same circle read anticlockwise. Each step that way moves up a perfect fourth — C to F to B♭ — which is the direction many chord progressions travel, such as ii–V–I. Jazz players often practise scales and changes 'in fourths' for exactly that reason.
Why do F♯ and G♭ share a spot on the circle?
Because they are the same pitch spelled two ways. F♯ major has six sharps and G♭ major has six flats, and they sound identical on a piano or a guitar. B/C♭ and D♭/C♯ are pairs too, which is how the circle closes with only 12 positions for 15 written key signatures.
Is the circle of fifths the same as the Camelot wheel?
The Camelot wheel is the circle of fifths renumbered for DJs: the 12 positions become 1 to 12, majors get the letter B and minors the letter A, so C major is 8B and A minor is 8A. Neighbouring numbers are a fifth apart, which is what makes them mix smoothly.
Do guitarists need the circle of fifths?
Not to play, but it saves a lot of guessing. The five easy open-chord keys on guitar — C, G, D, A and E — are five neighbours on the circle, and knowing a key's six-chord slice tells you which chord is likely next when you are learning a song or jamming.
Can the circle of fifths tell me what key a song is in?
It can narrow it down once you know some of the chords: look for the slice of the circle that contains them. G, D, Em and C all sit in the slice around G, so the song is in G major or E minor. Telling which of those two is home is a listening question — the chord the song rests on.
Why do so many chord progressions move anticlockwise around the circle?
Because a root falling by a fifth — the anticlockwise direction — is the strongest pull back toward home in Western harmony. G to C, D to G and the ii–V–I in jazz all travel that way, which is why progressions built from that motion sound so settled when they land.
If You Remember Four Things
- 1 Clockwise adds a sharp and goes up a fifth; anticlockwise adds a flat.
- 2 The inner ring is the relative minor: same notes, different home.
- 3 A key and its two neighbours, plus their minors, are its six main chords.
- 4 Turn every chord the same number of steps to transpose a song.
Keep Going With Riffloop
Find the Slice. Then Play Along.
Open a song on YouTube, let Riffloop show its key and chords, and check them against the circle — then loop the chorus, slow it down, or move it to a key you can sing. Three songs as a guest, no account.
