The circle of fifths looks confusing but it's only ever here to help. And a basic understanding of what it's trying to tell you could lead you down a whole new creative superhighway.

The circle can help with easy key changes that use the dominant 7th of the new key as a method of modulation, placing the dominant 7th before the change to the new tonic chord to prepare the listener.

Chord Progressions Most songwriters will be using chords and their progressions to write their songs, and the Circle of Fifths allows us to find what we need.

In order to assist you with this, video game composer Sebastian Karikra has created Mindful Harmony, a free web-based composing tool that’s based on that old music theory staple, the circle of fifths.

Picture: Classic FM Because of how the circle is arranged, Chord V (E) and Chord IV (D) can be found immediately to either side. So far so good. But there’s more: the other three diatonic chords in ...

The circle of fifths looks confusing but it's only ever here to help. And a basic understanding of what it's trying to tell you could lead you down a whole new creative superhighway.

So what is the circle of fifths? It's a scheme used by guitarists and keyboard players to suggest what chord might sound good next. It’s a chain of options that always works, always sounds logical and ...