What is the Circle of Fifths in Music Theory?
1 min readOct 3, 2016
A Fifth is a measurement between two tones. There are two ways to measure the distance between tones.
First, is to measure in scale tone intervals which are uneven, half steps, and whole steps. The fifth step of a major scale is a fifth interval from the first step, or root of the scale.
Second, is to measure the distance by single intervals (a half step). When there are 7 half steps between two tones they are a Fifth apart. By measuring using intervals instead of scale steps, it frees you to measure starting anywhere you want.
The circle of fifths is a succession of 12 tones all 7 half steps apart. The cycle of fifths is a continuous succession of tones until you end up where you started. Example: C G D A E B F# C#G# Eb Bb F ( C ).
