Sway [chord-related]

[VanessaPiana]

Can anyone tell me what key Sway is in? I have know there to be mistakes in key signatures when songbooks are manufactured [especially by Hal-Leonard]. Is it in Amaj, F#m, or Bm? [I think it's most likely in B Minor, but I'm not sure].

[Simply Ordinary]

I actually think that it's in B Dorian, meaning that it has the same key signature as A major but instead starts and ends on the supertonic, B.

[VanessaPiana]

I think it's in B Minor. I don't really know anything about the Dorian Mode, since I only know songs, except by whether they're in Major or Minor key. [Someone corrected me by saying that Papa is in Eb Dorian, but it's really in Ebm b/c it has 6 flats in the key signature.] But I think you have a point about the Dorian mode b/c it seems to me that it's a cross between F#m, A Major, and Bm. I just got an idea; if you can't really tell what key a song is in, then it's most likely in Dorian mode.

[Manny]

:?

[Simply Ordinary]

I think it's in B Minor. I don't really know anything about the Dorian Mode, since I only know songs, except by whether they're in Major or Minor key. [Someone corrected me by saying that Papa is in Eb Dorian, but it's really in Ebm b/c it has 6 flats in the key signature.] But I think you have a point about the Dorian mode b/c it seems to me that it's a cross between F#m, A Major, and Bm. I just got an idea; if you can't really tell what key a song is in, then it's most likely in Dorian mode.

Uh, not necessarily. Major and minor are in their own modes: Ionian and Aeonian (correct me if I'm wrong), respectively. There are seven different church modes, each of them starting on a different degree of the scale. Songs could be in any of those modes, but the ones that most composers stick with are Ionian and Aeonian. Dorian is more common in things like jazz.