If you start on a given note then go to the next note a fifth interval away, and keep repeating that you will eventually play all twelve notes and end up back at the note you started with, hence the circle of fifths. You can use fourths too seeing as they're related intervals as a kind of reciprocal—but that's a topic for another post.
So usually the circle of fifths is taught starting from C, which is important when covering key signatures, but here's a tip: it's a tiny bit easier to remember if you start a fourth away from C on F:
F C G D A E B F# C# G# D# A# FRearranging this into two rows, you will observe that once we get to B the sequence of notes repeats as sharps:
F C G D A E B
F# C# G# D# A#Starting on F gives us all the natural notes, then the first 5 repeated as sharps covering all 12 notes quite neatly and in a way that is easier to remember.
Back-cycling is the term that is often used to describe traversing the circle of fifths in the other direction, which is in fourths. For reasons that will be made clear in a future post on the circle of fifths, the accidentals are described using flats rather than sharps when back-cycling.
Again when taken from C it is used for describing a logical progression of key signatures, but it is a bit easier to remember the sequence starting two fourth intervals around on B flat:
Bb Eb Ab Db Gb B E A D G C F BbAgain the reason this is easier to remember is that once we've covered the 5 flats we get the same sequence of notes as natural notes:
Bb Eb Ab Db Gb
B E A D G C FYou will find it very valuable to be familiar with the Circle of Fifths no matter what the starting note is, proceeding in fifths or fourths, and using both sharps and flats.
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