Interactive Circle of Fifths & Chord Wheel

How to use the GoRhyme chord wheel

Our tool helps you visualize harmony instantly and then write better chord progressions. It is a digital Interactive Circle of Fifths. It is useful for finding what chords fit in the key, exploring key signatures, or mapping out music theory concepts. For testing it includes audio playback and staff notation. If you’d like to hear and compare the scales you’re exploring, our Scale Explorer lets you play any scale up, down, or on loop across multiple instrument sounds.

Select your key

Begin by clicking any slice to pick your key. That will be your home key, and all the rings and slices will now sync with your choice. The largest outside ring shows either the 12 major keys or the 12 minor keys. The middle ring shows the relative key. A relative key uses the same notes, with a different root. In major mode, you see relative minors, and in minor mode, you see relative majors. The innermost ring shows the second degree of each key, the ii. In a major key, the ii is a minor chord. In a minor key, it is diminished, which is why the degree sign for it appears when you toggle. The words around the outermost ring explain the adjacent slices compared to your slice selection: tonic is what you picked, dominant to the right, and subdominant to the left. where should this paragraph go

Choose your mode; major vs. minor and related chords

At the top left, use the toggle switch to change the mood of the wheel:

• Major Mode: Use this for bright, happy, or standard pop/rock sounds.
• Minor Mode: Use this for darker, sadder, or more emotional sounds.
• Note: Switching modes will automatically update the chord options and the wheel’s orientation.

Once you select your mode, the panel on the right updates immediately with critical songwriting data:

• Relative Key: The key that shares the exact same notes but has a different root (e.g., C major and A minor).
• Dominant (V): The chord that creates tension and leads back home.
• Subdominant (IV): The chord often used for pre-choruses or bridges.

Auditioning chords

Below the key info is a grid of buttons representing the diatonic chords (chords that fit naturally in this key).

• Click to Listen: Click any button to hear a lush synth-pad version of that chord.
• Roman Numerals: Each button shows a number (like I, IV, V). These represent the chord’s position in the scale. A common chord progression to try is I – IV – V – I.

Scale & notation

At the bottom of the dashboard is the “Composer’s View.”

• Play Scale: Click the play button (▶) to hear the notes of the scale played on a piano.
• Sheet Music: The tool automatically generates the standard musical notation for the selected scale, including the correct key signature.

To smoothly change keys in a song (modulate), try moving to a slice that is directly left or right of your current selection on the wheel. These keys share most of the same notes and will sound natural when connected.