Sweet Home Alabama...Key? (Page 1 of 3)

ken,

I was a music major but I play by ear so maybe that makes me an "expert" from both angles...either way, the song's in D.  1, flat 7, 4 is the main progression and it resolves to the D.  If you try and resolve to the G, it has that "4 chord" feel to my ears.  I guess it's that F# in the D maj. pent. scale that does it for me.  The G maj. pentatonic works too but they are definitely walking through that F# in places (which is the 3 in the key of D).  It's the natural 7 in the key of G which doesn't make near as much sense.  Anyhow, that's how I've always thought of it.  If there was more to the song, this probably wouldn't even be an issue but since some people hear 5, 4, 1...and some (like me) hear 1, b7, 4...it makes for some debate.  I'm sure others could put it more eloquently than I did!

Corby
OceanEFX

I would say D as well.  I think Ocean pretty much hit it right on the head (great way of explaining it by the way!).  I really think the thing that throws alot of people is "watching" others play the solo.  The first solo I see most people stay anchored around the twelth fret which people "see" as G major, but in a over simplified way of seeing things, that first solo is just comprised of chord tones that dances around the progression (ala Dickey Betts, Santana, Neal Schon).  Like I said over simplified but a very cool melodic solo that living in Jacksonville, FL I have heard way to many times.
Mike

I've played it in D...

withaguntomyheadeyeswideopen

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
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Well, I finally got around to playing it a little today (instead of just thinking about how it sounds), and there is no doubt to my ears that it resolves to a D. But...that Gmaj pentatonic played over it is how it sounds most like the recorded solo (last one). No doubt there's a million possibilities if you want to improvise.

I watched an old live youtube video with Skynyrd playing it (with Ronnie but without Ed), and the solo sounded like cr@p. Nothing like the original, and not near as good.
I recently saw the new Skynyrd on the HDnet channel in concert, and the new guys get the solo pretty much perfect.

Now that I figured out most of the solo, the hard part will be finding anyone who wants to play that worn out old cover song....

Yeah,yeah,yeah.......
It's in D no it's in G........

Say what you like....
But at the end of the day.....
The main riff to that song is in.......

D mixolydian.
Jack

Give the man a silver dollar

D mixolydian is a D scale that happens to share the same key sig. as G major.
D is the V of G as BJJ quite correctly points out. The reason I'm callin this tune Dmix. is because clearly these chords belong to the G major family;however,D is the home base of the song so what does it all mean? It means that its a great tune in Dmix.  Another thing I can't agree with is all this talk of resolving or resolution. In order for something to resolve you need some tension, I don't hear any tension being built up in the chords D-C-G. It feels more like a seesaw with C being the hindge between two safe harbors D+G. Also don't forget that modes have a I chord a II chord and so on that are based on thier key signatures ergo Sweet Home Alabama = I-VII-IV, in Dmix.

Amen.
Jack

PS- I supose its possible that I could also be wrong about this whole thing.:lol:

I disagree. A piece of music (that includes songs) can certainley be written either intentionally or unintentionally in any mode you like.