Notes Played In All Major Keys

Chord Forming Table

Important Chords In Major Keys

Chord Progressions

More Chord Progressions 		The circle of fifths is a way of remembering which keys have which flats and sharps in them. One way to do it is to go through the notes in the key of C, counting five at a time. Remember that the key of C has no flats and no sharps. Its notes are C - D - E - F - G - A - B. C is the root, D the second, E the third, F the fourth, and so on, up to B the seventh.

First, go forward from C to its fifth. This is the key of G (C - D - E - F -G, five notes, ending in G). If you flat G, this is F#. So the key of G has one sharp, F#. (Count five notes forward that tells you the key; flat the last note -- that tells you the sharp.)

Next, go forward, in the key of C, five more notes starting at G -- that gives D (G - A - B - C - D, five notes, ending in D). Flat D, and get C#. (Again, count five notes to find the key; flat the last note to find the sharp.) So the key of D has an additional C#. The previous key had an F#, so D has F# and C#.

Using D as the first note (again, stay in the key of C), the fifth note is A. Flat A, get G#, so that the key of A has an additional G# -- a total of F#, C#, and G#. Use A as the first note; the fifth is E; flat E and get D#; add it to the other sharps -- the key of E has F#, C#, G#, D#.

Using E as the first note, the fifth is B. Flat B, get A# -- the key of B has all five sharps (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#). So this gives all the keys with sharps in them. You just have to remember that once you get a sharped key with five sharps, you're done with all the sharped keys.

To summarize: Use only notes in the key of C. Count five at a time. The last note is the key. Flat the last note, and that tells you the (additional) sharp that key has (in addition to the previous sharps:

C-D-E-F-G: key of G, flat G = F# -- key of G has F#

G-A-B-C-D: key of D, flat D = C# -- key of D has C# (in addition to F#)

D-E-F-G-A: key of A, flat A = G# -- key of A has G# (in addition to F# and C#)

A-B-C-D-E: key of E, flat E = D# -- key of E has D# (in addition to F#, C#, G#)

E-F-G-A-B; key of B, flat B = A# -- key of B has A# (in addition to F#, C#, G#, A#)

Table 11 summarizes these results, on the left-hand side.


Sharp Keys (Count Forward 5)

  

Flat Keys (Count Backward 5)

Key

Sharps

Key

Flats
C None C None
(C-D-E-F-G) G F# (flat G) (C-B-A-G-F) F Bb
(G-A-B-C-D) D F#, C# (flat D) (F-E-D-C-B) Bb Bb, Eb
(D-E-F-G-A) A F#, C#, G# (flat A) (B-A-G-F-E) Eb Bb, Eb, Ab
(A-B-C-D-E) E F#, C#, G#, D# (flat E) (E-D-C-B-A) Ab Bb, Eb, Ab, Db
(E-F-G-A-B) B F#, C#, G#, D#, A# (flat B) (A-G-F-E-D) Db Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb
  (D-C-B-A-G) Gb Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb
Table 11. Calculating Flats and Sharps in Each Key.


To get keys with flats, go backward. Start with C, the next note back is B (2), then A (3), then G (4); the fifth note back is F. So F the first flatted key. Using F as the first note, go back five -- that is B (F - E - D - C - B_. Since we’re now in flatted keys, convert it to a flat to get B flat (don't flat the B to get A#, just make B a flat). The Bb goes with the previous key of F, not the current one of B. So the key of F has one flat, Bb. That's also the name of the next key (not B, but Bb); go back five notes (with B as the first); that gives E (B - A - G - F - E). Make that a flat, get Eb. So the key of Bb has the Eb, along with the previous Eb.

Let's summarize first. Count back five notes. That gives the key name. Then repeat for the next key name. Repeat for the next. Just make sure that the first time (when you get F), you have F as the key name. The other times, you make the key name a flat. The flat you get the second time goes with the first key name, the flat you get the third time goes with the second key name, etc.

C-B-A-G-F; key name is F

F-E-D-C-B; key name is Bb; note Bb goes with previous key

B-A-G-F-E; key name is Eb; note Eb goes with previous key

E-D-C-B-A; key name is Ab; note Ab goes with previous key

A-G-F-E-D; key name is Db; note Db goes with previous key

D-C-B-A-G; key name is Gb; note Gb goes with previous key

G-F-E-D-C; you're back to C and you're done

See Table 11. The note Bb goes with the key of F; the note Eb goes with the key of Bb (so Bb has both a Bb and an Eb).

The note Ab goes with the key Eb (so Eb has the Bb and Eb, plus an Ab).

The note Db goes with the key of Ab (which has the Bb, Eb, Ab and Db).

The note Gb goes with the key of Db (which has Bb, Eb, Ab, Db and Gb).

The key of Gb cannot have any more than five flats, so it also has Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, and Gb. You can't go further, or you'll be back to C.

Also note that, as stated before, the key of G is, in a sense, "adjacent" to the key of C (it has one more sharp than C), and the key of D is "adjacent" to G (it has one more sharp than G). They key of A is "adjacent" to D (it has yet one more sharp), and so on. You can see similar things for the flat keys. As a result, one can rearrange the information in Table 8 (important chords in each key) so that adjacent keys are in adjacent rows. The result is Table 8A. The chord progressions Tables can also be modified, so that adjacent keys are in adjacent rows. The result is Table 9A and Table 10A.