You know, in preparing for this blog I realized we really have not talked at all about the single most powerful diagram that explains music which is called the Circle of Fifths!

From a circle of fifths diagram you can see all the notes and chords to any major or natural minor key or any of the seven musical modes for that matter. Learning how to use this one diagram will greatly expand your options in songwriting. Here we go!

One Diagram to Rule Them All!

The circle of fifths is a diagram typically shown with two rings but I have included the inner most ring of the diminished chords. The outside ring is the major chords arranged in fifth intervals moving clockwise. The middle ring shows the relative minor chords, and a inner ring shows the diminished chords, all arranged by fifth intervals moving clockwise.

(Note: sometimes the diagram is shown with the major chords on the inner ring, minor chords on the middle ring, and diminished chords on the outer ring.)

The Circle of Fifths is such a useful and informative tool and there are so many places one could start, but let’s just start with the major scale. In the center of the diagram we see the roman number pattern for the chords of the harmonized major scale as they relate in the diagram.

We will start with our old friend the C major scale and the key of C major. This scale and the seven harmonized chords are specifically arranged on the Circle of Fifths in chord groups. Look at the diagram above at the C at the top. As you move clockwise you move in perfect fifth intervals. To the right of C is G which is the fifth scale degree and the major V chord in the key of C major. We can find the V chord in the key of G major by moving one step to the right you see D. This pattern continues all the way around, hence it is called the Circle of Fifths.

Let’s go back to key of C major for a moment. If you go to C at the top and move one step to the left (counterclockwise) you will see F, F is the fourth degree of the C scale and F major is the IV chord in the key of C major. Moving in a counterclockwise motion around the diagram is the Circle of Fourths.

I added a simple diagram in the center that shows the relationship of the major key chords in any given chord group. The I chord is at the top center, the V chord to the right and the IV chord to the left. The relative minor chord or the vi chord is below the I chord (Am in the key of C major). The ii chord (Dm) is to the left (a fourth) of the vi chord and the iii chord (Em) is to the right (a fifth) of the vi chord. So here we also see that the ii chord is the relative minor of the IV chord and the iii chord is the relative minor of the V chord. The inter ring below the I and vi chords is the vii diminished chord (Bdim in the key of C major).

The videos below from Ry Naylor Guitar and Samjamguitar do a better job of explaining the Circle of Fifths and both demonstrate the relationships on the guitar. Watching both of these videos will give you a big head start on using the circle of fifths in songwriting.

In the diagram below, I have added some more examples of reading the chords from the Circle of Fifths. At the top is a table showing the chords of the C major scale and the roman numbers for the chords. Next we see the general layout of the major key chords on the Circle of Fifths, showing the relationships between each chord in a given major key chord group. Then you will see three examples in the keys of C major, G major, and D major.

Relative Minor Keys

We mentioned that the relative minor is just below the major I chord. Looking at C we see just below is Am which is the relative minor of C major. We also know that the natural minor scale is the Aeolian mode. The Circle of Fifths also shows us the chords in minor keys which are in the same chord group as the relative major key.

Remember in the fifth blog in this series "It's All Relative" we discussed the relative minor and relative major keys share the same notes, just with a different starting point. They also share the same chords and looking at the Circle of Fifths we see Am as the i chord. One step to the right we have the v chord Em and one step to the left of Am we see the iv chord Dm. Look above Am and you see the relative major C chord which is the bIII chord (see the blog "It's All Relative"). To the right of the bIII chord is the bVII chord and to the left is the bVI chord. The diminished chord is the ii dim chord or Bdim in the key of Am minor. Here is another hint, in Am as you ascend the alphabet you have

Am (I), Bdim (iidim), C (bIII), Dm (iv), Em (v), F (bVI), and G (bVII).

The videos below from Active Melody does a better job of showing this relationship.

Modes and the Circle of Fifths

In the discussion above we see how the relative minor Aeolian mode is shown on the Circle of Fifths as the relative minor to the major chord. We discussed relative major and minor scales as well as the relative modes in the previous blog "Substitute!". So, we say all the relative modes of C major, for instance, are based on the same notes as the C major scale. Therefore, all modes use the same chords as the relative major key and are shown in the same chord group on the diagram. Thus, the seven modes relative to C major use the same seven chords, but the tonic chord of each mode is based on the position “Relative” to the primary major key.

The table below shows the relative modes to the key of C major. The dorian mode begins on the second degree of the major scale. Starting with C major, the relative dorian mode is D Dorian. On the table below we see the dorian mode starts on the minor ring diagonally down to the left from the relative major key. From there you just go alphabetically through the chords to find the chords of the D Dorian mode. For more clarity, see the table on the bottom that show the chords for each mode to C relative major.

Parallel Modes

The parallel modes of C would have C as the tonic chord of each mode. To review, the outer ring is major chords, the middle ring is minor chords, and the inner ring is diminished chords. There are three major modes (Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian), three minor modes (Dorian, Phrygian, and Aeolian), and one diminished mode (Locrian).

In the diagram below we see the layout of the seven modes at the top, the table below shows the chords for the seven parallel modes of C, and the Circle of Fifths diagram at the bottom shows the C major, C minor, and C diminished positions on the Circle of Fifths.

For example, to find the chords of C Dorian, we look for Cm on the Circle of Fifths where it is at the Dorian position as shown in the example below. In other words, C Dorian is the relative Dorian mode to Bb major. And the chords in C Dorian are Cm, Dm, Eb, F, G, Adim, and Bb. C Mixolydian is the relative Mixolydian mode to F major with the chords of C, Dm, Edim, F, Gm, Am, and Bb.

The videos below from Ry Naylor Guitar and Mike George (next section) do a nice job of demonstrating how to find the relative and parallel modes using the Circle of Fifths.

Common Chord Substitutions

In the previous two blogs, “Substitue!” and “Common Chord Substitutions” we discussed using parallel minor or major keys and parallel modes. All of the relative modes of C are in the C chord group as shown in the diagram above. Rather than me typing out a description that may not stick in your head, I’ll let the video below from Mike George give you a better description with graphics. Please see the video below.

So the video above discussed how to find the relative modes and the parallel modes to help with chord substitutions. But, let’s look again at the parallel modes of C major (Ionian) and C minor (Aeolian). In the table above you will see the chords of the parallel modes for C. The video below will support the discussions of using the Circle of Fifths to identify the chords for relative and parallel modes to use for chord substitutions.

Closing

So, this article presented a ton of material on the most powerful diagram that explains music. The blog text only scrapes the surface, so if you have not viewed the supporting videos, please do so to get the most out of this very powerful diagram. You will need to look this blog over and probably review some of the previous blogs to get the most out of what has been presented.

In the next blog we will look deeper into cadences and begin to discuss turnarounds.

10. I Plead the Fifth!