Circle Lab
The circle of fifths and the circle of fourths are the same wheel read in opposite directions. Click any key to see its signature, its relative minor, its neighbors, and its diatonic chords, then play them to hear how they connect.
Outer ring: major keys. Inner ring: their relative minors. Clockwise is up a fifth; counter-clockwise is up a fourth.
Uses your browser's Web Audio API. Nothing is recorded or uploaded. Some browsers need a click before audio can start.
Why the wheel matters
It is more than a memory trick. It is a map of how keys and chords relate to each other.
Key signatures, memorized
Every clockwise step adds one sharp; every counter-clockwise step adds one flat. Sharps are added in the order F–C–G–D–A–E–B, and flats in the exact reverse: B–E–A–D–G–C–F. Once you know a key's position on the wheel, you know its key signature without memorizing it separately.
Relative major and minor
Every major key shares a key signature with a minor key, its relative minor, shown on the inner ring. They use the exact same notes; the only difference is which note feels like home. This is why a lot of gospel and neo-soul progressions can drift between a major and minor feel without ever leaving the key.
Dominant and subdominant are your neighbors
The key one step clockwise from your tonic is your dominant (V), the chord that wants to resolve home. One step counter-clockwise is your subdominant (IV). This is the backbone of the I–IV–V progression: you and your two closest neighbors on the wheel.
ii–V–I moves around the circle
A ii–V–I, the most common jazz, gospel, and neo-soul cadence there is, is three consecutive stops on the wheel moving counter-clockwise into the tonic. Press the ii – V – I button in the panel above on any key and watch the highlighted nodes walk around the circle.
Secondary dominants
A "V of V" borrows the dominant from a neighboring key on the wheel to briefly tonicize a chord that isn't your I. It is how you get that momentary pull toward a chord before resolving back home. On the wheel, it is just temporarily treating a nearby key as the center.
Tritone substitution
The key directly across the circle from any dominant chord, six steps away and the furthest point on the wheel, shares two of the same critical notes and can substitute for it in a ii–V–I. That is the whole idea behind tritone subs: opposite sides of the same wheel, doing the same job.
More tools
- Piano Chord Reference
Every 7th and 9th chord on any root, with live keyboard highlighting and a full interval breakdown.
- Guitar Chord Reference
The same chord library mapped across the fretboard in standard tuning, so you can see where every tone lives on the neck.
- Guitar Chord Shapes
Major 7, minor 7, half-diminished, diminished, and dominant 9 as playable diagrams, with three movable forms of each.
- Oscillator Lab
Sine, triangle, saw, square, FM, and noise. Hear each one, read what it is good for, then layer them in a live mixer.
Need a mix, a beat, or broadcast-ready audio? See the production work.