#1338  by Scott1211
 
It appears to me that this song is in the key of C major/A minor, so my question is just how does the E dominant 7 chord fit in to this key. Everything else in the song is diatonic with the key of Cmajor/a minor, which makes for a very easy jam, but what the hell is this chord doing in here. Dont get me wrong the chord sounds very ambiguous and i think that it single handedly makes the song but im just wondering what scales jerry plays lead in. Is there a key that im missing that has Fmaj (IV), Gmaj (V), Cmaj (I), Amin (vi), and Edom7 (III7)???

thank you

 #1353  by uncleoliver
 
You got it... am has the dominant e! Try hitting the roots on each chord change to get a start.

 #12245  by HOWEYMAN
 
Is Am the key through the whole song?

 #46436  by Touchofgrayson
 
HOWEYMAN wrote:Is Am the key through the whole song?
Its in Am right up till the end. Then it goes to A maj or D maj. Also, it you want the Maj 3rd on the E7 to fit you can use an A harmonic Minor with a sharp seventh. Very spanish flamenco souding.

 #46455  by wisedyes
 
E7 is the dominant V of the A minor key. However, an alternate way to look at this is that since C Major and A minor are relative keys, the E7 is functioning as a dominant seven substitute for the iii minor chord in C Major ( which would be E minor - this is a very common substitute ), and has the added bonus of setting up the move to the relative minor key ( A minor ), since it is also the V7 of A minor.

Pretty nifty, eh? As we all know, the V7 to I chord is the single most common resolution in all of music. Since it is so common, though, most composers look for ways to "dress it up" all the time - otherwise everyone's songs are seriously going to sound the same.
So chord substitution tricks are what all the kids are doing these days, lol.