What key is Sweet Home Alabama in? 

this new kind of anticlickbait is revolutionary

Me: What key is Sweet Home Alabama in? Adam: In this Quantum Superimposition of the keys D and G in the extended tonal present. Me: ...alright imma head out

I'm very sophisticated. The first chord is D, so the key is D.

TLDR: Sweet Home Alabama is the Yanny Laurel debate but for musicians

"sorry for all the theory nonsense" please, adam. theory nonsense is exactly why we're here

Adam “It’s actually a bit more complicated than that” Neely

Ed King wrote the guitar solo using the G major pentatonic and it sounds great. Ronnie sang the verses more bluesy so the producer mentioned that he thought the guitar solo should've been played in D minor. You can hear a version of it played in D minor when Steve Gaines played it on the One More From the Road live album.

Adam Neely: “It’s actually a bit more complicated than that” samuraiguitarist: "Never heard of this guy"

"Sorry for all the theory nonsense" Adam Neeley out here apologizing for every video on his channel.

"Its actually a bit more complicated than that" cut to vsauce song

everytime Adam says “It’s actually a bit more complicated than that” I get angry and excited all at once

I need this level of analysis for Megalovania.

(playing Guantanamera) "We're going to end it on the other tonic." "What the F?"

Adam Neely: belive it or not, there are more than just chords in songs Every music-related lawsuit right now: that's where you're wrong, kiddo

Adam: What is the key to “Sweet Home Alabama”? Me, a drummer who doesn’t know jack about chords: *uh*

Most of the video: It's in D End of the video: If you want to solo over it, use G Major Pentatonic and/or G Blues. That's why I've always thought of the song as a "G" song as a guitar player, lol. But yea, I can hear it in D mixo as well.

Huh, so I guess Schrodinger’s Key is a thing then...

When you're so southern even your key center is scuffed:

Thank you for your authentic, rigorous but explorative content, that is paying respect to music as an expression, a science, a part of history, or even a meme. Your concrete approach, your love and your persistence in being precise make you a valuable point of reference and studying. An encyclopedia at what you do. You are valuable to people that love music, important for a huge community that you do not even know. We are admiring and making good use of what you do. Keep going! much love from Greece

WOW!! THAT was by far the most outstanding vid I have seen of yours, I think, EVER. I never considered the idea of multiple key centres, but after watching this - I can see that it is EVERYWHERE in contemporary music. You've given me a whole new field of vision in teaching children about music construction. Well done, Adam, Well done..

"what key is sweet home Alabama in?" "idk man but it definitely has one sharp"

Adam: It's in D UMG: D stands for demonetization

I loved this video because you centered in a "simple" matter, which allowed you to go way deeper in the explanation

You saying the phrase, "It's in D Mixolydian" has explained Modes to me better than anything else in my 35 years of guitar playing, so thanks for that.

Really nice, my brain struggles to escape from 'classical' views of harmony, even though my soul is clearly desperate to :-) The thought of dual tonics is another useful tool to chisel away at that mundane wall of classical certainty, thanks!

When you hit 'em with the "it's actually a little bit more complicated than that" I was expecting Michael from V-Sauce to pop into frame. "WhAt iS mUsIc, eVeN?"

I'm so glad you did your video on Sweet Home Alabama. As a working musician from AL, I have played this song even more than other musicians around the world, and have had the conversation about the tonal center with MANY professional musicians. We all came to the same conclusion as you, finally, around the same time you dropped your video. That being said... I recently brought up a similar situation with the song "I Love It" by Iconapop. Not a single one of my colleagues was on fully board with my hot take analysis, and I feel more strongly about this than I ever did about either proposed key for S-H-A. I believe the one and only logical interpretation (upon really letting my ear take it in and feel the implied resolution of the melody etc) of the progression, is 5 to 1, while others perceive it as 1 to 4. The bridge reinforces this, but everyone around me chalks this up to key change or modal interplay. Am I taking crazy pills?? If you disagree I think it is time to admit myself to a psych ward.

Ive literally spent years looking for a term to describe this. Thank you!

Best moment for me in a band ever: my brother plays the opening lick to Sweet Home Alabama, and right on cue and with perfect pitch, rhythm, and inflection of tone, our drummer says, "Turn it off."

The video “doesn’t have a satisfying conclusion”... kinda like not knowing which chord to end a progression with... I see what you did there

Great stuff! I loved this and I love your perspective and insight. Thank you for this channel.

What happens in this song is the following; all 1-4-5 progressions (no matter how it's arranged, e.g. V-IV-I) are also the inversion of a 1-b7-4 „Mixolydian Mode“ or „Modal Chord Sequence“. Half of the song is in D Mixolydian (as all the vocal melody does center around the D chord) BUT it also goes in and out of the GMaj. key, e.g. all the guitar solos including the piano solo at the end are in G major and the way LS ends the song live in G is also a possibility to leave the Mixolydian mode and/or stay in GMaj., and imply that the song may (also) be in the key of GMaj. Since all of the solos (in GMaj.) play a significant role in the song (about 1/2 the song) will determining if it’s in a key or a mode (or both). Half of the song is in D mixolydian- which is NOT a key but a mode (built from the parent D Maj. key) and the other half in GMaj. This is a prime example of the difference between KEY based music vs. MODAL music, the G major scale (from 1-7 / not incl. the extensions 9-13) are exactly the same notes as D Mixolydian Tonal Sequence (1-7 / does NOT contain any extended intervals- can be played in any octave BUT is still limited to that 1 octave range) BUT produces a completely different sound (texture / atmosphere-etc.) still using the exact same notes of the major subdominant KEY (G)- Mr. Paul Davids even did a video on exactly this song, playing the solos in both Dmixo vs. G Maj., where there is a very distinct audible difference in sound/feel-etc. Also keep in mind (1) that there is no separate or special musical notation that shows a piece is modal or a combination of Modal (NO key) and Tonal (Key based), same goes for the other 2 types of minor keys: Melodic / Harmonic, it will simply be notated in reference to it’s actual or (Modal)parent / perceived key- in this case the GMaj. since the song switches at the end to GMaj. (regardless of fade out). A more exact notation would be e.g. D/GMaj. or Dmix./GMaj.-etc. (2) That the modal I-chord (in this case=D) is NOT a tonic chord but is called a „Finalis“ because the mode has no resolution as it simply returns to the Modal I chord (whichever note that the mode centers around). This also means that there is no „Chord Progression“ in this case, it’s a (Modal) „Chord Sequence“ because it’s static and doesn’t progress towards any resolution. Conclusion: „Dual Tonality“ (a harmonic function theory concept that applies only to "Tonal" music) implies 2 definite tonal centers or Major keys, which is not the case here, it’s a combination of a Mode (NO tonal center) and a Key (WITH a tonal center) as both play a substantial role in this piece (each ca. 50%), IF the (switch to G Maj.) had only occurred for a bar or 2 it would be negligible and this would simply be a piece in D Mixolydian. The real „problem“ or dilemma here (or in such cases) is that there is no standard way of notating this type of music in the present notation system, If you say just GMaj. or DMixolydian- in either case your only half right.

“Dual Tonicity of our city, of our ciiittttyyyyy...”

"Google is wrong, I win. Case closed." Life summed up in 7 words.

Great video Adam! you sold me on D by looking at the melody....I bought the sheet music back in 1974 and it is written in G. Two keys at the same time is a brilliant explanation....it is hard to solo with just one scale as you probably already know. I never thought of using G blues but I can see how it works very well for the C and G of the chord progression. I used to try to use D Blues which worked for D and C but not G. Then a fellow guitarist showed me that he used G major pentatonic and then I started thinking in G. Al Kooper the producer of the song explained in his book that he argued with Ed King the guitarist who wrote it that he (Al Kooper) thought it was in D. The guitarist mainly soloed in G major pentatonic and argued he wrote it in G. Again, well done!!!

I love the not clickbait. It’s in most of your videos, and it’s great.

Been listening to this guy for years. Still no idea what he’s talking about lmao

Adam Neely (a.k.a Everything Music Theory Guy): Sweet Home Alabama is in the key of D Google: Sweet Home Alabama is in the key of G Major Me: Let me go with that "Play Sober/7/11/4/20/The Lick/Chill Vibes" guy!

Aaahhh. The question answered at the end. What key to solo in- ""(just making sure I haven't been doing it "wrong" for 20 years!) Thanks. This was a super necessary and much needed video posing the question as old as time- what key is sweet home al actually in. It's been debated forever... and the answer- both...... I guess. Dual tonicity. Pretty cool concept.

This was my first video of yours I’ve watched. So good! You have a new subscriber!

Still loving your anti-clickbait thumbnails!

Google: the song is in G major Adam Neely: welll yes but actually no.

Thank you. I have been scratching my brain on this one.

I love how clear it is which parts you recorded before the twitter debate and after the twitter debate

In which key is this song? Adam Neely: *YESN'T*

OR OR OR, sometimes ending a song on a IV chord just makes the ending more bluesy, and the song is still in D.

I just made my first song the other day with a key change. Starts in G and goes to Bm, I had a vocal sample in Bm I used in both sections. I'm no theory expert but it sounded good and made the key change feel really natural.

Wow! This is so great! Really enlightening. Thanks!!

Watch RU-vid demonitise this cause he’s spitting facts against google lmao

This has the energy of a jazz meme. I can feel it.

Adam I've actually thought of this before! I play this song live on piano at gigs, and during the guitar solo section, I do an improv solo, and sometimes I catch myself soloing in the key of G while other times I catch myself soloing in the key of D! And it sounds good in both!

This actually answers something I've occasionally wondered about over the years, what key am I really in here? So it can be two different keys, sort of. Glad to see it's not just me. Had to learn this song with a lot of others for a cover band and think my first impression of it was, okay it starts on the V chord. It was helpful to think of it that way at the time, just to start memorizing and working out a keyboard part for yet another song. Might have changed my mind after playing it so many times. But thinking about it now, if Alabama is in G, then that first note of both the verses and choruses, F sharp, would be the major 7th to the tonic. And somehow that seems odd to have a major 7th as such a key (no pun) part of a simple melody in a blues rock song like this. I say simple because if your verse melody is only 4 notes and the chorus is basically the same melody with different words, as it is in Sweet Home Alabama, then each of those only 4 notes is crucial in determining the feel of the overall song. It seems like a dominant 7th feel is much more common for a blues rock song like this one. That major 7th is too lush jazzy, to be dwelled on as only one of four notes in both verse and chorus. So D major does seem to be a more likely key for the melody in this song. That way the F sharp is just a major 3rd. And the melody in verse and chorus can keep going from the maj 3rd to the root D or the 6th B (which is the relative minor of D and implies it is the same or easily resolves to it) and everything stays bouncy and major bluesy. Major 3rd bluesy that is. Even though that occasional piano boogie woogie riff on the G chord makes it feel like you have arrived home. That might be why they end it on G for live shows.

I always assumed "D" because a lot of songs in the 70s utilize the flat 7.

Me: Sweet Home Alabama is in the key of G or key of D? Adam Neely: Yes

I played servitude by Kendall jones for my senior percussion ensemble (video on my channel) and I didn’t know if I was supposed to solo in db harmonic minor or ab Phrygian dominant because we used the notes for both. The Melodies and ostinatos pointed towards ab, but during the solo section, the ensemble was giving me a db pedal tone. I just went with db because the pedal tones made it sound better, but at the end we didn’t know whether to finish on a db or ab, and we went with ab for that. Fun piece, I was the only one who knew the theory because I’m the only nerd in my section

I clicked thinking “it’s D mixolydian, duh,” but that bit about Tagg’s analysis and dual tonality was really cool and eye-opening. Thanks!

I praise you for your superior anti-click bait thumbnails

"Teutonics" got me choking on my lunch.

Excellent explanation. I love the reference to Guantanamera too

Hey Adam, awesome research! Indeed often while playing rock/pop songs I'd get confused as to what to refer as the key center. I felt already like there's some sort of double-tonic or some sort of extended tonality there. I know you're having billions of requests, I would still add mine - if you could cover in a similar fashion a topic of harmolodics?

"Sweet Home Alabama" is the "Hey Jude" of Southern Rock.

So what you’re saying is, basically Sweet Home Alabama is the musical equivalent of the blue and black dress vs gold and white dress debate

I never thought I'd see such a relevant use of quantum mechanics in a music theory video you're something else Adam.. love it

Hey Adam, always enjoy your videos. I've often thought the Blues itself has a kind of dual tonicity. An "F Blues" kinda has an "F mixolydian" feel but not exactly. But it also has this really strong drive to the "IV chord" of Bb... almost to where I feel like the whole thing might actually be in the key of Bb, and what makes it so irresistible is the delayed (and fleeting) resolution for bars 5-6. "Sex Machine" or any one-chord funk tune (or church shout, for that matter) has the same feeling. When James Brown takes it to the IV chord on the bridge, maybe that's actually the tonic and the whole time when he was on the I he was actually on the V and that's why it's so damn good. Klezmer music has the same kind of addictive repetitiveness and a lot is also built around a scale that's kind of "5th mode harmonic minor" and also resolves to the "iv" on the bridge... I think it may have the same dual tonicity thing going on. Thoughts?

I’m starting a southern rock disco band...yup, the dee gees.

It's in D. But play G Major over it. While avoiding playing the root G.

Great analysis. As a working musician who has played this song dozens.....or maybe hundreds of times (albeit as a drummer) I found this really fascinating :)

I had the opportunity to attend Jeff Carlisi's "Camp Jam" in Atlanta, GA several years ago. Jeff was the lead guitarist for .38 Special, and Camp Jam has grown since then to be a big operation. But when I attended, it was just getting started. Jeff always had a "featured artist", and the year I went, the artist was Ed King, the Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist that wrote the music to "Sweet Home Alabama". Ed was a really nice guy, and a heck of a guitarist. The camp was for wanna be rock stars and ran from Friday evening to late Sunday afternoon. On Saturday morning around 10am, Ed sat down and played "Sweet Home". I was sitting in a folding chair about 10 feet away, and I confess, the hair stood up on the back of my neck-it sounded that good. When he finished, someone asked him what key the song was in. It was obvious from the scowl that developed on Ed's face that he had been asked this question many times in the past. His reply was, "i wrote the music to "Sweet Home" in "G" and that's the key it's in." If you look at the sheet music for "Sweet Home", it shows only one sharp in the time signature-which is for the key of "G".

"so is it in G?" "Well yes, but actually no"

"Case closed." [checks tracking bar and sees that there's still 2/3 of the video left] _ooooooo dis gon be gooooood_

Reminds me of what my college music theory course referred to as "the reciprocal process": when you oscillate between a major triad and the minor triad whose root is a fourth higher, whether the progression is I-iv or V-i can be ambiguous.

I definitely hear it in D mixolydian. When Adam played that sample of Skynyrd finishing it on a G, I felt like I was left hanging, waiting for the IV to resolve back to I.

Argument: It's in D, and ending it on a G chord is deliberately ending on the subdominant, rather than G major (or involving quantum physics lol). Fading out a song doesn't allow for a sense of definite resolution, and when you're performing live, leaving the song unresolved is probably the closest you can get to fading out!

8:12 "I've played it many hundreds of time on bar gigs & wedding gigs" who the hell plays Sweet Home Alabama on their wedding considering the memes surrounding it

I studied music and popular music at Liverpool University and Phil Tagg was one of my lecturers. Cool guy and insightful.

I think the way you're looking at it is completely correct much in the way a musician might tonicize the relative minor chord in a major key hence all modes of major are all relative to each other.

I've always thought of the song in D with a flat 7. I've seen it a lot of older rock and southern rock especially. Midnight Rider does it too, for example.

"We're kind of in this quantum superimposition of the keys of D and G..." I can't believe Adam Neely is Ant Man

Also, unlike other youtubers, he doesn't deliberately stretch out the video to make it longer than 10 minutes to get more ad revenue, even though he only would have had to add 10 more seconds of banter. Class.

I've always heard it in D mixolydian. Imagining G as the root is weird to me

"So, what do we DO with this information?" Ahh, yes! the age old question of the internet!

I have always thought of it in D mixo. Seems obvious but I had never thought of it deeply the way you have here.

Excellent as usual I laughed so hard when I heard that live end I can’t wait for my son to wake so I can play it to him

that "age of empire" reference made my day !!!

Todd in the Shadows is so good. Love that dude's channel.

Fun fact: many old trad Irish and Scottish fiddle tunes are also classified as "double-tonic" (the more usual name in these circles for "dual-tonic"), for example going between G and D mix, as here, or E dorian and D major, C and D dorian, etc., etc., etc. While many tunes do unambiguously resolve to a tonic, some don't, and the result is wonderful. I'm not sure why I never thought to extend that concept to songs like these, but it makes total sense.

Adam, I have a question for you for the next Q&A: What is the difference between polytonality and dual tonicity?

Thank you, Adam Neely, for giving the answer for the title's question in the video's thumbnail. You're the real MVP!

For your next Q&A: What is your opinion on self-taught musicians/instrumentalists, both in and outside of the music industry. Love your vids BTW, keep on going.

Very fascinating video. Sometimes on my tunes I've had some feedback from some people that the last chord is unsatisfying, and they suggest resolving it to the tonic. I didn't feel that need while writing. I'll have to go back and check if this dual tonicity stuff could explain this ...

Cool studio bro, looks fresh

no one: Adam Neely: Sweet Home Alabama is in a state of Harmonic Quantum Superposition.

It's in D mixolydian. They end on a G live which is perfectly valid as ending on the IV is always a sweet sound, but it would sound even better if they resolved to D (the real tonic)

It's a tad bit obscure, but check out Happy End track 'Jyuni Gatsu Ame no Hi'. There's a similar vibe: Intro is a solid D mixolydian, verse is a vi - III - II progression (in the key of G), bridge is a I - V - vi (G) and modulates to a chorus in D after C - F - A progression. Chorus is a I - V - vi - IV - V - I progression (in D).

Talking about melody,which i agree is crucial to take into consideration here,the first solo also rests in G,so that backs up the theory that it might be in both keys,that would be my view on the point as well.The thing is that when we only have 3 chords,we have less data than if we had more so the result can't always be subjective ,you can also consider it the key you feel that it is ,feeling and different opinions is also what makes music great and some people might feel it different than other

But even that ending resolution feels ambiguous to me! I hear it as a “Cajun IV ending...” in that light we’re squarely back in D (mixolydian)...

"What key is the song in?" - Is the color purple closer to the color blue or the color red? :)

The composer of the song Ed King said on his forum it's in the key of G. meaning what scale using for soloing (he gaves example of piano solo at the end). But as said in the video we can also say it's in D mixoyldian, as it's basically the same notes

another very good and interesting video. thx

Ooooh. First time I’ve ever disagreed with you Adam (and I’ve binged watched your elegant theory and amazing music). I don’t think G pentatonic or,G blues is a helpful answer here. It’s more in keeping with the main point here to see this using the D pentatonic/blues and the G pentatonic/G blues. It’s a bit of a bugger to make solo’s really work here, and in keeping with the 2 tonics idea, using your ears to make the 2 “centres”work is a fun challenge. I think making sense of this is probably beyond the aim of this video, but I guess I’m so rarely in disagreement that I was excited to,comment. Finally... brilliant stuff. Absolute admirer of your content and your teaching and approach.