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
Without knowing the song or seeing the transcription you are referring to, it’s hard to say – it could be the melody is dictating the key. Sometimes the sheet music is wrong or over-simplified. However, with the chords that you’ve mentioned, my initial thought is the key of D major. D G and A = I-IV-V.
The I-IV-V chords can only belong to together in one key, the order they are played is irrelevant to the key signature. If the key signature is D major but the tonality is A then that would probably make it A mixolydian, which would explain the G being natural.
Hi Lee,
Thanks for the answer. I don’t have permission to upload an image of the transcription. So if I were to compose a song in A, then a I-IV-V-VII progression would be A, D, E, G#. But as you say a song composed in A mixolydian would use A, D, E, G. Is that how the modes are sometimes used – to alter the chords in a key? But we don’t construct the chords that way? As you can see I’m probably getting myself all confused!
If you wanted to stay strictly in A major then the vii chord would be G#dim.
Generally speaking, if you wanted to compose a song that used A mixolydian then you’d more likely use fewer chords and maybe use a drone note to stabilise the key. The underlying relative major key of A mixolydian is D major so you could use any of the chords from D major. Trouble is, the more of them you use, the more it will pull towards sounding like D major.
If you use A, D, E, G (all major chords) then you’d have a bit of a mix up of keys because for it to be either D major or A mixolydian, the E would need to be E minor.
If you are using 5 chords then things are a bit different because of the lack of the third. So A, D, E, G could belong to A mixolydian or D major as long as at least the E is played as an E5 power chord because it’s neutral, only containing the notes E and B which belong to the key.
Everything else that dictates the tonal centre will just be down to how the chords are played or if any other melodic content is pulling the home key towards A or D etc.
For the most part with rock songs using power chords, if you see it’s based around I-IV-V chords, then most of the time we can assume the key signature is relative to those chords. For example, D, G and A major chords are the I-IV-V of D major. If the tonal centre feels like anything other than D then it’s likely to be based on one of the modes of D major. In this case .. A. If these same chords felt like the tonal centre was E then we’d probably say it’s E dorian, and so on.
I’m not sure I’ve managed to explain that very well so let me know if it makes any sense and we’ll take it form there.
Hi Lee,
Here is an image of the transcription. I like what you have said above – I bet its actually in D, but when then software transposes that to A before publication (perhaps!). Hope the transcription is above to help in explaining why we have a G5 instead of a G#dim for a simple hair band song. Same chords as AC/DC Rock N Roll Damnation, so whatever is going on here works for many other songs that are transcribed in A, but fit better with a I-IV-V if in D.
Got a lot happening at the moment so I’ll come back and check this song out next week some time.
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.
Yeah, best not to upload copyrighted material anyway as I’d have to take it down.
My brain hasn’t activated yet so I’ll come back and answer your question later.