/cough

Drills for learning the circle of fifths

Primary LanguagePython

cough - circle of fifths memory tester

I'm currently trying to learn the circle of fifths, mainly for the purposes of harmonic mixing.

It's useful to know the relative key, as well as the key's neighbours.

The basic order of fifths is pretty simple: FCGDAEB, but I still find trying to work out all the possibilities quickly in my head tricky.

Usage

Run cough.py; it randomly picks a key.

Figure out the relative key, and the keys that are one, two and seven sharps or flats away. Press the enter key, and the script will show you what the answers are.

FAQ

Why cough?

circle of fifths > cof

Why one, two and seven keys away?

  • ±1 key is typically a good melodic match
  • +2 keys can be used for "energy boost" mixing
  • ±7 keys is equivalent to one semitone; DJ software makes it easy to transpose by semitones and a one semitone shift usually doesn't sound too bad.