The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #137393   Message #3142317
Posted By: josepp
25-Apr-11 - 08:20 PM
Thread Name: Easy way to draw a circle of 5ths
Subject: Easy way to draw a circle of 5ths
Real simple. You don't have to memorize nuttin'. Even if you've never drawn one in you're life, you can do it right the first time. Just follow these ridiculously easy steps:

1. Draw a circle--and it doesn't have to be perfect so don't take all day, huh?

2. Then bisect the circle from the 12 o'clock position to the 6 o'clock position.

3. Then quadrate the circle with another line going from 9 o'clock to 3 o'clock. Then draw more lines from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock, 10 o'clock to 5 o'clock and so on. When you're done, the circle should be divided into 12 equal slices.

4. It's customary to put C at the 12 o'clock position (although you don't have to). So put a C there.

5. Follow the C line to the 6 o'olock position. What goes there? We don't know yet. We're more concerned with what goes at the 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions. And that's easy--it's the notes that flank C which are B and Db. It's customary to keep the flats on the left side of the circle so put the Db at 7 o'clock and the B at 5 o'clock.

6. Now you have two more notes to work with. Pick the B (although you don't have to) and follow its line to the 10 o'clock position. What notes flank that position? The two notes that flank B which are C (already filled in) and Bb. So put Bb at the 10 o'clock position.

7. What about the Db? Follow its line to the 1 o'clock position. What notes flank Db? D and C. C is already filled in so put D at the 2 o'clock position.

8. Just keep doing this until all 12 keys are filled in. It will look something like this:

Circle of 5ths

Done.