Hi Lee,
I’ve now worked through the entire Guitar Theory book and feel I’ve got to a better place to understand and break down many parts of songs. I have a question that is quite general regarding many of the 80’s rock and hair bands type of music.
The song I am working on in transcribed with a key signature of A (3 sharps). The intro begins with a riff using D5, A5, G5, D5 repeat and then the verse goes into A5, D/A, G/A, D/A, A5
Overall the tonality is definately A, and thats where the opening riff seems at rest. If its transcribed in the key signature of A, and the tonality is A, the opening riff is IV, I, bVII, I. I don’t understand why the G is not a G#. It sounds better as as a G, and many early AC/DC songs are use these three chords (A, D & G) and are in the key of A, but if the key signature is A, why is the seventh chord flattened. As you mention in the text, many people say its Mixolydian – but that does not seem correct! I thought perhaps the song would have better been transcribed in C with an A tonality (relative minor) and that fits because all the chords are essentially V chords.
Cheers
I’ve had a bit of a listen to this and I’d say the key of A major is correct. This is very much a riff based around A rather than a chord progression as described in the tabs. The intro and chorus you could probably argue is A mixolydian. Personally I’d just think of it as A / A minor pentatonic. The verse is really just A spiced up with a melodic phrase, you could just stay on the A throughout the verse and it wouldn’t impact the tonal quality.
A lot of the time with these kind of rock songs there’s often a bit of ambiguity with the minor / major third because they are pretty much neutral when using fifth chords.
The clue for me is playing the A chord over the verse. It sounds right with A5, kind of OK but not quite right with A major – but A minor just sounds wrong so I’d go with the key being A major being the closest diatonic key.
