if you haven't yet watched my videos about creating the circular fifths and how to use it to calculate the key signatures of major keys I do suggest that you watch those videos before watching this one as I'll be expanding on the concepts that I've previously discussed however if you're ready to go here's had to use the circle of fifths to calculate the key signatures for minor Keys you'll recall that for major keys we used C on our circle of fifths as the main point of reference a C major has no sharps or flats in the key signature the first thing you need to knowe for minor Keys is that we use a as the central point of reference because a minor does not have any sharps or flats in its key signature therefore all the keys this side of a will be the keys with sharps in them whereas all the keys on this side of a will be the keys with Flats in [Music] them okay there is one really really important issue I want to clarify at this point the circle of fifths can only be used to calculate the key signature of major and minor Keys you may already know that there are different types of minor Keys melodic and harmonic But whichever of these types of minor key you'll be using you need to always remember that the key signature is just part of the scale this this is where using the circle of fifths for minor Keys is just a little more complex than using it for major Keys let's look at the scale of C minor just as an example you can already see that I've put in a key signature of three Flats I'll explain in a moment how we can use the circle of fifths to calculate why this is the case but to create the scale we just follow the normal rules so we start on the tonic or first note in this case it's a c because we're using C minor and then putting a note in a space and then on a line and then in a space and so on and so on all the way up to the next C now the associated board Theory exams expect you to know about melodic and harmonic forms of the minor scale to create them we have to make some changes to what's on screen for the harmonic form of the scale we take the seventh note of the scale and raise it by a semitone this turns the B flat into a B natural by raising the seventh by semitone we've created a c harmonic minor scale the thing to note is that although we can use the circular fifths to work out the key signature of Fleet three Flats there is just a little more that needs to be done to the scale the same is true for the melodic form of the minor scale if we look at both the sixth and seventh notes of the scale and raise them both by semmit Tone the a flat from the key signature becomes an a natural and the B flat becomes a B natural now we've created an ascending C melodic minor scale the descending scale is somewhat different to the ascending form of the minor scale however this video is not about how to create the different types of scales so I apologize I've raced over the technicalities of how to create the different types of minor scales but I want you to be absolutely clear that the circle of fifths for minor Keys only helps in calculating the key signature the melodic and harmonic forms of the scales will require some further refining okay let's go back to our circle of fifths after that slight Diversion the circle of fifths Works in very much the same way as using it to calculate the key signatures for major Keys we already know that a is our main point of reference as it has no sharps or flats in its key signature so let's try a few different examples E minor first it is on the sharp side of the clock and one notch away from a so we know it has one sharp in the key signature let's look at B minor B minor is also on the sharp side of the clock and two notches away from a so we can deduce that it it has two sharps in the key signature now how about G minor we're now looking at the flat side of the clock and it is two notches away from a so we can calculate that G minor has two Flats in its key signature the higher Associated board Theory exams grade 3 4 5 six approximately will require you to know more than just a handful of simple minor key signatures we do need to make some small adjustments to our Circle however so that we can use it properly for all minor keys we're going to use n harmonic equivalents now I talked about enharmonic equivalence very briefly in my major Keys video so I'm not going to uh go into much detail here all you need to remember is that an N harmonic equivalent means the alternative spelling of a note for example B flat is the same as a sharp dsharp is the same as E flat and so on we're going to n harmonically change the notes on the sharp side of the circle we're going to start with g flat right down at the bottom we'll add in its n harmonic equivalent underneath FP and we're going to do this for all the other flattened notes on this side of the clock so underneath d flat We'll add C under a flat We'll add gsh under E flat We'll add dsharp and finally under B flat we'll add a sharp now why have we made these n harmonic equivalent editions if you watched my major Keys video you remember that if we are traveling around the circle of fifths on the sharp side you'd never get a key that has a flat in its name therefore g flat doesn't exist it's fshp it's NH harmonic equivalent similarly if we are traveling around the flat side of the circle then a sharp doesn't exist it's B flat let's just try a few examples B flat minor as there is a flat in its name we know that we have to travel around the flat side of the clock so let's count D is one notch away from a g is two notches C is three f is four B flat is five therefore we can say that B flat minor has five flats in its key signature let's try gshp minor as there is a sharp in its name we know we have to travel around the sharp side of the circle so let's count again e is one notch away from a b is two notches F Shar is three csharp is 4 gar is five therefore we can say that gsh minor has five sharps in its key signature one final example to try try a flat minor it's a flat so we count on the flat side of the circle so D is one notch G is two c is three f is four B flat is five E flat is six and a flat is seven so a flat minor has seven Flats in its key signature you've probably noticed that in the top left hand corner of the screen are the first letters of our useful phrase Father Christmas gave dad an electric blanket and beneath it the same series of letters in reverse and more about this can be found in my video beginner's guide to the circle of fifths we can use the top row to tell us the order of Sharps and the bottom row to tell us the order of the flats so for example we've already worked out that E minor has one sharp in this key signature we then look at the top row the order of the sharps and can see that f is the first letter therefore in E Minor there is one sharp in the key signature and that note is F sharp B minor has two sharps in the key signature we then take the first two notes of the order of Sharps and see that they are F and then C therefore B minor has two sharps in the key signature and they are FSH and csharp and so on all the way around to a Shar minor the same works for the order of the flats C minor has three Flats in the key signature the first three letters of our order of flats are b e and a therefore we can say in c minor that are three Flats in the key signature and they are B flat E flat and a flat you can use the order of flats to help you with all the other minor Keys as well