Imagine the cycle of keys - the cycle of fifths as a clock face. Scales (keys) with
sharps in their key signatures run clockwise from 1 o’clock to 6 o’clock. Keys
with flats in their key signatures run anticlockwise from 11 o’clock to 6 o’clock.
The major keys are on the outer circle and the minor keys are on the inner circle,
Minor and major keys that share the same key signature are called the “relative
major and relative minor and are always a minor 3rd interval apart (major key note
on top, minor key note on bottom).
A minor scale is created from its major scale by turning the cycle three turns anticlockwise
- “flattening 3 times” - e.g. if I “flatten” D major with a key signature of 2
sharps 3 times I get D minor’s key signature of 1 flat.
Remember the letter sequence F-C-G-D-A-E-B of white key fifths, backwards and forwards,
which (forwards) starts with one flat (major), 4 flats (minor) and progressively
“sharpens” at each step (adding a sharp or cancelling a flat. Once the white keys
run out, the black keys run in the same sequence F#-C#-G#.... or backwards Bb -
Eb-Ab - etc
