Circle of Fifths
The circle of fifths arranges all twelve keys so that each step clockwise moves up a perfect fifth and adds one sharp, while each step counter-clockwise adds one flat. That single rule tells you the key signature of any key, which keys are closely related, and which chords naturally belong together.
This one is interactive rather than a picture: click a key to see its signature written on the staff, hear the chords that belong to it, and print the whole thing when you are done.
How the circle works
Start at C major, which has no accidentals. One step clockwise gives G major with one sharp, the next D major with two, and so on to F♯ major with six. Counter-clockwise the flats appear instead: F major with one, B♭ major with two, then E♭, A♭, D♭ and G♭.
After twelve steps you arrive back where you started, which is why it closes into a circle. Keys next to each other differ by a single accidental, so they share almost all of their notes.
Read counter-clockwise, the same diagram becomes the circle of fourths — the direction most progressions actually move in, from ii–V–I to the turnarounds that end countless standards.
Key signature chart: how many sharps or flats
Sharps always appear in the same order — F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, A♯, E♯, B♯ — and flats in exactly the reverse: B♭, E♭, A♭, D♭, G♭, C♭, F♭. Position on the circle is the count: one step from C is G with one sharp, two steps is D with two.
Every major key shares its signature with the relative minor a minor third below: C major and A minor use the empty staff, G major and E minor share the single sharp.
Select any key and the staff beside the circle shows its signature exactly as it is engraved, in treble or bass clef, together with the scale itself in notes. That is the part a static chart cannot do — seeing the accidentals where they actually sit on the lines.
Chords and progressions in any key
The three major chords of a key sit side by side on the circle, and their three relative minors sit directly inside them. That is why I–V–vi–IV works in every key and why it is everywhere in popular music: those four chords are neighbours.
Pick a key and the panel lists its chords by degree, plays the standard progressions, and shows which chord is shared with the neighbouring key — the pivot you would use to modulate there.
The circle describes keys, not fingerings, so it is the same for every instrument. On guitar it answers which keys are comfortable open and where a capo takes you; on piano it maps straight onto the black keys under your hands.
The easiest way to learn it
Learn the rule rather than the picture: up a fifth, add a sharp. Then rebuild the circle from memory on a blank chart, starting from C and moving clockwise — G, D, A, E, B, F♯.
Most people have it within a week of doing this once a day, and it survives far longer than a memorised diagram. What is worth internalising is the relationship it encodes — neighbouring keys differ by one accidental — because that is what makes transposing and reading unfamiliar signatures fast.
Printable circle of fifths chart
Export the current view as PNG or SVG, with or without labels. Two versions are worth having: a complete one for reference, and a blank one to fill in from memory — the second teaches the circle far faster than the first.
Questions people ask