Circle of Fifths

Learn the circle of fifths by playing it

The circle of fifths is the map every musician eventually needs: twelve keys arranged so that each step clockwise adds a sharp and each step anticlockwise adds a flat. Reading about it is easy. Recalling that E♭ major has three flats, or that the relative minor of A is F♯m, while you are actually writing, is the part that takes practice.

This is a route puzzle laid over that map. You hold three movement cards, each one a distance around the wheel — a 1 is the adjacent fifth, a 6 is the tritone directly opposite — and you must land on all twelve keys without visiting the same wedge twice. Play a card badly and you strand yourself, so you end up thinking in intervals rather than memorising a picture.

Earn each landing

In Full Theory every viable landing opens a short lock before the move commits. You might build the triad on a piano, pick the right key signature from a set of cards, or read the stave. Get it right and the wedge is yours. The questions are drawn from the key you are landing on, so the theory you practise is always the theory you just used.

Difficulty, and a friend who is no help at all

Four difficulties set the stakes, from Baby — which explains the working and cannot be failed — to Hard, with two lives and a nine-second clock. Three optional mechanics change how a run plays: a timing spinner that makes you stop a travelling note on your destination, identity scramble that stops the wedges showing their own names, and Phone a Friend, which calls a questionable expert mid-question. He may fill in the answer. He may shuffle every card on the table, file the correct answer in triplicate, or set the timer on fire.

Free, private, and in your browser

There is no signup and nothing is uploaded. Your best score is kept in your browser only. Part of the Enodo songwriting tools — if you are learning to read notation as well, the Note Trainer drills sight-reading the same way.