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Major, minor and the circle of fifths

We have only looked at the circle of fifths (or maybe better: the cycle of fifths) for major scales.
You could make the same cycle for minor chords. That however is a lot of work.
It is better to dive deeper in the relation, or parallels between major and minor.

We already saw that C major and A minor consist of the same tones:

The sixth tone of C major is the A.

This parallel is valid for all major scales. E.g. The scale of F major is:

F - G - A - Bb - C - D -E

The sixth tone in D.

Bow we know the scale of D minor: same tones as F major, but we start on D:

D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C

Here is an overview of all major and related minor scales:

With sharps: C -> Am
G - > Em
D - > Bm
A - > F#m
E - > C#m
B - > G#m

With flats: F -> Dm
Bb -> Gm
Eb -> Cm
Ab -> Fm
Db -> Bbm
Gb -> Ebm

Note! In the above "major" is not written, while "minor" is abbreviated to a "m". This is common: if it is major, there is no indication, if it is minor, it is indicated. Sometimes a little horizontal line is written in stead of "m":
A minor = Am = A-

Let's add the minor scalse to the scheme to the cycle of fifths scheme:

I suggest we no longer call this the circle of fifths, but the "Bat of Flats and Sharps"!

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