What key is "Sweet Home Alabama" in?

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 7 Dec 2015 9:59 am

b0b, if you leave this up long enough, it just might surpass the "Nothing" thread...

Tony Trout · Post by **Tony Trout** » 7 Dec 2015 10:03 am

It's in the key of D. And, for what it's worth, I do not hear a B-bender anywhere in that song. Ed or Ronnie or Alan probably didn't know what a B-bender is when they wrote the song.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 11 Dec 2015 11:42 am

Case closed, no I don't think so.
I know, you thought we were through didn't you? That piece of sheet music proves nothing unless it happened to be the original transcript. Anyone can arrange a song in any key on a piece of music. Just look at some of the fake books.

Here's a link to a search for sheet music for the tune. See how many different keys you see there. Most of them are one # like Jerry H. stated. Key sig G. here

In the Wikipedia link that was posted, just above that paragraph it states that the D mixolydian mode is a 5th removed from the Key sig which would be G.
I don't think that key and mode are the same thing, are they? Isn't mode basically just where you start and end in the scale?

[clipped from the wiki article]
Modern Mixolydian scale.
This modern scale has the same series of tones and semitones as the major scale, except the seventh degree is a semitone lower.[1] The Mixolydian mode is sometimes called the dominant scale,[7] because it is the mode built on the fifth degree (the dominant) of the major scale. The flattened seventh of the scale is a tritone away from the mediant (major-third degree) of the key.

It is common in non-classical harmony, such as jazz, funk, blues and rock music.

The order of tones and semitones in a Mixolydian scale is TTSTTST (T = tone; S = semitone), while the major scale is TTSTTTS. The key signature varies accordingly (it will be the same as that of the major key a fifth below).[close clip]

So can we agree that the KEY sig is G and the song is played using the D mixolydian MODE, that being the tonal center, relative to the key of G.....or do you just not care anymore? Much ado about nothing anyway. JMO. Or we could just ask Neil Young

Don't really matter anyhow. The orchestra would be reading notes

and on stage you could tell the one remaining soul that's never heard it "D,C,G....off chord F, 'til we puke."

admin · Post by **b0b** » 11 Dec 2015 3:31 pm

The key sig doesn't tell you what key a song is in unless you're in the major (Ionian) mode. For example, the key of D minor is usually written with 1 flat. We don't say the song is in the F, played in D Aeolian mode. We just say "key of D minor".

When a song is in mixolydian mode, I say "key of D7th" and most musicians understand, even those who don't know what the fancy word "mixolydian" means. If you were springing a new song on a band, a simple song like SWA in mixolydian mode, and you told them it was in G, you'd have to explain that it starts and ends on D or you'd hear a few bad chords. Better to say it's in D.

As for what key it's really in - well, it is what it is. Keys are mental constructions. Music is sound. If it helps you play correctly by thinking "this is in G but it starts and ends on the D chord", I'm sure the audience won't care. The sound is the same.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 11 Dec 2015 4:21 pm

b0b wrote:The key sig doesn't tell you what key a song is in unless you're in the major (Ionian) mode. For example, the key of D minor is usually written with 1 flat. We don't say the song is in the F, played in D Aeolian mode. We just say "key of D minor".

A Nashville number chart for a tune in the key of D minor might very well be written in the relative major with 1b, F as the key sig and root, showing the D- as the 6m. Chas William's NNS book shows examples of that.

I guess that's why it's called music "theory".

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 12 Dec 2015 5:54 am

b0b wrote:If it helps you play correctly by thinking "this is in G but it starts and ends on the D chord", I'm sure the audience won't care.

The problem may arise because the song as recorded doesn't end. Rather like this topic.

By now, I can't remember what my original vote was. If this were Stravinsky or Charles Ives, I might.

Those bands unfortunate enough to play this, how do you end it? Let it hang on D or resolve it on the theoretical 5th?

chuck lemasters · Post by **chuck lemasters** » 12 Dec 2015 6:38 am

Charlie, a couple of times when I was playing this song with the band, I ended it on G and the other guitar player ended it on D. Who was correct was simply a matter of whose amp was cranked up higher, or if we were fairly balanced, we had a sort of Hard Day's Night kickoff ending

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Dec 2015 7:17 am

Tony Trout wrote:

Ed or Ronnie or Alan probably didn't know what a B-bender is when they wrote the song.

I've read that musicians said to Vince Gill "you sound like you have one". Seems the same happened to me in this case $:\$
I've also read when they started auditioning guitar players, they jammed on a blues scale, but it was in a flat key, to make it a bit more complicated.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 12 Dec 2015 7:54 am

I like it, Chuck, kind of gives you the V/I sound and doesn't matter which is which.
A moment of uncertainty, David Byrne called such things.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 12 Dec 2015 9:27 am

A moment of uncertainty, David Byrne called such things.

Indeed. 83 replies now and countingâ€¦.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 12 Dec 2015 11:20 am

If you search some of the guitar forums you'll find lots of threads asking what key this (boring) song is in. Some of the threads have dozens of pages of replies and still no definitive answer. I vote for D Mixolydian.

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 12 Dec 2015 1:16 pm

Charlie McDonald wrote:
b0b wrote:If it helps you play correctly by thinking "this is in G but it starts and ends on the D chord", I'm sure the audience won't care.
The problem may arise because the song as recorded doesn't end. Rather like this topic.
By now, I can't remember what my original vote was. If this were Stravinsky or Charles Ives, I might.

Those bands unfortunate enough to play this, how do you end it? Let it hang on D or resolve it on the theoretical 5th?

I play it with a bunch of guys who haven't played out all their lives. So I don't consider it misfortune. I'd rather play some Earnest Tubb, but you know how it goes. Compared to what comes out of the jukebox. SHA sounds like Mozart.

There is a canonical ending cadence from the live album(s). It goes D-C-Amin-G en rubato with a hold on G, them resolves to strangling a D major to death.

Les Cargill · Post by **Les Cargill** » 12 Dec 2015 1:18 pm

Doug Beaumier wrote:If you search some of the guitar forums you'll find lots of threads asking what key this (boring) song is in. Some of the threads have dozens of pages of replies and still no definitive answer. I vote for D Mixolydian.

It is one wore out old song, but if it's boring, you're doing it wrong. As they say in acting, there are no bad parts...

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 12 Dec 2015 4:26 pm

It is one wore out old song, but if it's boring, you're doing it wrong.

Really? Let's take a poll..

Graham · Post by **Graham** » 13 Dec 2015 5:54 am

What an abysmal waste of bandwidth!!

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 13 Dec 2015 6:06 am

Les Cargill wrote:It goes D-C-Amin-G en rubato with a hold on G, them resolves to strangling a D major to death.

I guess that settles it. At least it dies. Just waiting for the funeral and the guy in the black hat:

Of course, he wouldn't do that.

Post by **b0b** » 13 Dec 2015 9:31 am

The C chord is actually Cadd9.

Steve Green · Post by **Steve Green** » 13 Dec 2015 2:50 pm

b0b wrote:The C chord is actually Cadd9.

So would it be:

1 b7add9 5

or

5 4add9 1

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 13 Dec 2015 4:55 pm

Good question, Steve!

admin · Post by **b0b** » 13 Dec 2015 5:05 pm

Steve Green wrote:
b0b wrote:The C chord is actually Cadd9.
So would it be:

1 b7add9 5

or

5 4add9 1

Neither. It's 1 b7add9 4.

Clyde Mattocks · Post by **Clyde Mattocks** » 13 Dec 2015 6:25 pm

Y'all play it in G if you like. I'm gonna keep playing it in D, thank you.

robert kramer · Post by **robert kramer** » 16 Dec 2015 7:56 pm

Merry Clayton and Clydie King are the backup vocalists on "Sweet Home Alabama." I encourage everyone to watch the documentary: "Twenty Feet from Stardom." It's about the lives of background singers and features an interview with Merry Clayton talking about the vocal session for "Sweet Home Alabama."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20_Feet_from_Stardom

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 17 Dec 2015 1:33 am

"Twenty Feet from Stardom" is the best musical documentary I've ever seen--very engaging and personal, about what all of us, I think, would like to do. Going from there to reach personal stardom proved to be a difficult task for Clayton, lacking the rewards she envisioned, having secured her place in musical history as a back-up singer, which almost seems to be a higher calling.

I wonder if Merry and Clydie were aware that they were singing in disputed territory, or if they cared. Great singers, regardless of key.

Geoff Noble · Post by **Geoff Noble** » 17 Dec 2015 2:57 am

So, is Freebird still in G then

admin · Post by **b0b** » 25 Dec 2015 7:12 pm

On Reddit, someone asked "Why is it that keys are only major or minor? Why aren't other modes (often) used as keys?". I replied with

b0b wrote:If mixolydian was acknowledged as a key, we couldn't have endless arguments about Sweet Home Alabama.

... which spawned yet another argument about Sweet Home Alabama. It was not my intent. I was only joking. I should have known better. Now I feel like the world's biggest troll.

The Steel Guitar Forum

What key is "Sweet Home Alabama" in?

I feel like such a troll.