circle of fifths

it's the F#, the number of sharps/flats follow a particular order on the circle of fifths, if you look at the order in which the notes are listed as sharp on the right side, from left to right, it goes

F, C, G, D, A, E, B

my mnemonic device for this is, Frank Can Go Down And Eat Bananas(yup)

there isn't a Gb all by itslef on the left side of the circle, so you write one flat, on F. Which is the Gmaj

This is one of the first theory questions i've been able to answer, so I hope I explained that well!

if a key has 1 sharp.. its deffinatly G major or E minor..

if a key has 2 sharps, its either D major / B minor

the order of sharps is..

when you go through it, certain sharps are added in a certain order

F, C, G, D, A, E, B

like that..

when you see music notated.. you might notice the sharps are in a funny order.. its this order..

if a key is in B major (B C# D# E F# G# A# B)

the sharps will be listen in the key signature, in this way..
F C G D A.

These guys got some good info. After awhile, you should basically know which keys have which sharps/flats. At least how many depending on the keys that you would use more frequently in your playing.

For me playing rock, I originally knew which notes were in the keys, E/A/D/G pretty quickly and had them down pat. This included their relative minors. From there, depending on what you play more often, you'd probably get a feeling for the other keys that are not as popular for your style.

I don't know, that's just how it happened for me. And I actually never really looked into the circle of fifths or fourths or whatever it is! :lol:

circle of fifth's is sharps

circle of fourths is flats..

C -> G -> D -> A

C = none
G = F#
D = F# + C#
A = F# + C# + G#

the sharps that are added are also going up in fifth's.. (F->C->G)

***

however..

circle of fourths..

C -> F -> Bb -> Eb

C = none
F = Bb
Bb = Bb + Eb
Eb = Bb + Eb + Ab

the flats are going up in a sequence of fourths too (B E A) etc.

I found this site helpful regarding the circle of 5ths

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/circle.html

it shows, as Alex said, about the sharps increasing CWise as you go around the circle of 5ths by 1 each time, and flats the other way ACW

gaz.

Try this, it may be a little simpler

http://people.freenet.de/greybeard/CycleOfFifths.htm

One of you guys needs to send over a cleaning crew to clean up all this brain matter that just blew outta my head. :lol:

I've understood the cirlce of fifths, the key sigs and the number of flats/sharps...

But you guys just blew my head wide open like a canoe! :lol:

Still, good stuff. Thanks.

Whew, can we get back to something simple like the meaning of life. 8)

Whew, can we get back to something simple like the meaning of life.

42

What is six times seven?

42?

One of the articles that have been writen seem to confuse wheather the fiths go clockwise or counterclockwise.

Which one is it?

in the standard circle fifths are read clockwise, fourths counter-clockwise

42 is an old joke. let's talk about 1:1.618 for a while and how to apply it to your music! ;)

Viator, the circle runs both ways. If you move clockwise, each key is a fifth above the one that preceeds it... if you move counterclockwise, each key is a fourth above the one that preceeds it. The two intervals (fifth/fourth) are what's called inversions of each other - moving a fifth up is the same as moving a fourth down, moving a fourth up is the same as moving a fifth down - in terms of the note name or key name.

That makes the circle especially useful - you know how common that I-IV-V progression is? Well... take any old odd key, like Db. If Db is the I chord, the next step counter-clockwise shows you Gb will be the IV, and the step clockwise from Db shows you Ab will be the V.

let's talk about 1:1.618 for a while and how to apply it to your music!

I'd rather discuss 1,05946309436 and how to apply it to music.