Mysteries of The Cycle-

Circle of 4ths and 5ths

 Features
O One of the most powerful music tools you can
possess
O The “Fifth” note – Overtone - a harmonically
important note/interval in music for
understanding harmony (chords)
O Triad of 1, 3, 5
O The Fifth can be reached by counting the first
7 notes ( all semitones) in any major scale
 Features
O It will help you understand music theory,
predict chords in a chord progression,
understand relationship between major and
minor keys
O It will open your eyes to the connections
between the 12 tones of the chromatic scale –
the base of Western music
 Basic Harmony
O Two or more notes of a scale
sung or played together is
Harmony
O A harmonic interval is different
from a melodic interval
O For eg:
O The most basic harmony starts
from a Triad or three notes
O The First note – 1 - C
O The Third Note – 3 -E
O The Fifth Note – 5 - G
 The Wheel of Fortune
O Discovered by
Russian Composer
and Teacher Nikolai
Diletsky in 1670
AD in his book
Grammatika
Visual
representation of
12 Major Keys
12 Minor keys
Or 12 tones of the
chromatic scale
 What can we discover?
O Starting from a key or a tonic center, each note
clockwise is a perfect 5th from the previous
note
O Each note anti-clockwise is a perfect 4th from
the previous note
O The outer circle represents major keys
O The inner circle represents minor keys or
relative minors
 What else?
O The circles help
you visually to
understand the
accidentals in
each key as you
count clockwise
or anti clockwise
 Studying
Composition
using Cycle of
Fifths
O The Circle of 5ths
is used in music
composition
specially in Jazz.
O Musicians
O Composers
O Students
O Teachers
O Researchers
Lydian Chromatic Concept