Circle of Fifths (5ths) Minor

The Minor circle has many tricks to remember its order
but since we know the Major Circle of Fifths we can easly relate it to that considering you need to know yor relative major/minor keys anyway you can combine the two in your head to know both and their relation to each other.

to get the number of SHARPs for the minor side, just subtract 3 from the major so B major is 5 #'s and B minor would be 2 #'s.

you also might notice that C & F# in Major at at zero and 6 and in minor C falls at 9 o'clock and F# at 3 o'clock and because everything has been shifted to A from C.

for both circles I remember D, A, E at the top B,F#,C# on the right, Bb,D#,G# on the bottom and G,C,F on the left.

Remembering them in blocks like that seems to help with quick recall.

Tempo Markings

Tempo markings for standard music notation.

• Larghissimo - Extremly slow - around 40 bmp
• Adagissimo - Extremly slow - around 40 bmp
• Lentissimo - Extremly slow - around 40 bmp
• 
  
• Largo - Very slow - around 40 bmp
• Adagio - Very slow - around 40 bmp
• Lento - Very slow - around 40 bmp
• 
  
• Larghetto - Fairly slow - around 40 bpm
• Adagietto - Fairly slow - around 40 bmp
• 
  
• Andante - Moderately slow - around 60 bpm
• Andantino - Moderately slow - around 60 bpm
  
• 
  
• Moderato - Moderately slow - around 60 bpm
• 
  
• Allegretto - Fairly fast - around 60 bpm
• 
  
• Allegro - Fast - around 120 bpm
• 
  
• Vivace - Quite fast - around 120 bpm
• Vivo - Quite fast - around 120 bpm
• Presto - Quite fast - around 120 bpm
• 
  
• Allegrissimo - Very fast - around 208 bpm
• Vivacissimo - Very fast - around 208 bpm
• Prestissimo - Very fast - around 208 bpm

Circle of Fifths (5ths) Major

It's best to be able to build this in your head, there are many "tricks" to remembering the circle, eg. Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle, your on phonetic "play" or really anything that lets your remember [F], C, G, D, A, E, B, F. or as I prefer A, D, G, C, F, B, E, A as it gives more equality between major and minor (I omit the accidentals Sharps(#) or flats(b) at this stage).

There are also the Enharmonic Keys (Db/C#, F#/Eb, B/Cb) which pose another memorization problem.

First lets figure out the structure, anything to the LEFT of C has FLATs (flat symbol:b) and anything to the RIGHT of C has SHARPs (sharp symbol:#)

Its best to look at the circle as a clock C=12:00, G=1:00, A=3:00 F#=6:00 etc...
and when working on the FLATs side you should do the same, F=1:00, Bb=2:00, Eb=3:00, etc...

Now starting on the SHARP side at 1:00 is G MAJOR with 1 sharp an easy way to remember this is that you can make a G with 1 stroke of a pen or pencil, try it to see what I mean.

-Next is D at 2:00 you can make a D with 2 strokes.

-A takes 3 strokes

- E takes 4

- the number 5 super imposes into B quite simply, try it, draw a B and then draw the number 5 inside of it.

-Next is F# at 6:00 that does not fit the pattern, oh well.

I like to remember 5, 6, & 7 as B, F#, & Db and just remember the enharmonic name.

To remember the order of sharps, just go backwards from F# so F#,C#,G#,D# would be E Major adding on the next for every key.
or just remember the mnemonic device: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

To remember the order of flats, just reverse it all:Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father.

Music Theory

Here is a place that will hold my random ordered information I have collected while in college full time music studies, I'm still in my first year so the theory should be pretty basic to begin with but will get more difficult (as it will for me) so if you want a reference guide to music theory then your welcome to read over mine but I will not promise that it will be overly well organized.