en:vok:quintenzirkel

circle of fifths

LEXIS


Quintenzirkel

circle of fifths

五度圏(ごどけん)

The circle of fifths is a tool to represent the relationships between the major and minor keys. Its inversion is called circle of fourths.

quintenzirkel.jpg

How to use the circle of fifths

In the right half (clockwise, „up“) all notes are one fifth apart, in the left (counterclockwise, „down“) a fourth:

Direction Root note Steps Target note Interval
Up C DEF G fifth
Down C DE F fourth

Videos


Visualisierung des Quintenzirkels


Visualisierung des Quartenzirkels


Peter Luongo: Circle of 5ths made easy(ier) (2018)

Diatonic tones

ColourScale
steel bluepentatonic
light blueheptatonic (chromatic)

Gender of the chords

ColourMajor scaleMinor scale
greenmajorminor
orangeminormajor
yellowminordiminished
reddiminishedminor

Steps and Functions

StepFunctionInterval
I Tonic (root note) prime
ii Dominant parallel second
iii Subdominant parallel third
IV Subdominant fourth
V Dominant fifth
vi Tonic parallel sixth
vii Substitute dominant seventh