Paul de Roos

Movement Disorders, Neurology, Medical Education, Training and coaching, Value Based Health Care, Quality improvement and innovation

You are here: Home / Topics / Constructing the circle of 5ths

Constructing the circle of 5ths

The circle of 5ths is constructed of intervals that are called 5ths. To read more about them check this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_fifth#:~:text=In%20classical%20music%20from%20Western,augmented%20fifth%20spans%20eight%20semitones.
The numbers 1-7 indicate how you can find the perfect fifth of C, by counting keys. This allows you to find the perfect fifth of any note. To find a major scale for any note, being familiar with the anatomy of the scale helps: W = whole note distance, H = half. Those whole and half distances are always on the same spot, when you play a major scale. We will get back to this later. For now we will use the numbers to construct our circle of fifths.