Using the Circle of Fifths chord wheel
The Circle of Fifths chord wheel is a visual tool used by musicians as a cheat sheet for music theory. It's a diagram containing a list of key signatures and it conveys a large amount of information very quickly to the reader.
The Circle of Fifths diagram can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be used as a reference for transposing music from one key to another. Live musicians may use it to assist with improvising when trying to figure out what key to use. As a composer, you'll likely want to use this tool whenever you want to change keys, such as changing back and forth from major to minor. The following diagram shows a simple version of the Circle of Fifths.
Figure 3.21 – Circle of Fifths
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Music_Scale_Theory_-_Circle_of_Fifths.png
Starting at the top center, the inner circle lists the name of the major key (Ionian mode), in this case, C. The outside...
