Forum

thinking of the song Loser by Jerry Garcia
It contains the chords of the G major scale but revolves around Am
Is this song in A dorian mode or the key of Am or both and what's the difference between mode and key.

:S

Will you post the lyrics and chord progression please so we can see the details?

Only A is outside the key
very fun solo acoustic song


Loser
Intro
E --------------------0--------------------|
B---------------------1--------------------|
g---------------------2--------------------|
D---1^2--0--1--0------2--------------------|
A------------------3--0--------------------|
E------------------------------------------|

The C/B i used in song is x22010

[ Tab from: http://www.guitaretab.com/g/grateful-dead/7276.html ]
Am G C D
If i had a gun for every ace i've drawn,
C Em Am
I could arm a town the size of abilene
Am C G Em D
Don't ya push me baby 'cause i'm moanin low
C C/B Am G Am
and you know i'm only in it for the gold
G D A
Last fair deal in the country, Sweet suzy
G D A
Last fair deal in the town
G D A
Put you gold money where your love is baby
C C/B Am G D Am
Before you let my deal go down.......go down

All that i am asking for is ten gold dollars
and i could pay you back with one good hand
you can look around about the wide world over
and you'll never find another honest man
repeat chorus

Don't you push me baby cause i'm moaning low
Well i know a little something that you may never know
Dont ya touch hard liqour, just a cup of coffe
gonna get up in the morning and go

I'm not sure how you reason out the A Major chord.
Maybe because ....It comes after D in the song and A Major is Chord V of Key of D Major.

So the song uses all the chords from the Key of Am resolving at the end to Am and borrows chord V from the Key of D Major (A Major) , possibly.

I did come across the following interesting links.

The Annotated "Loser"

Lyrics







:ohmy:

A dorian is right.

Bill

So it's in the key of Am and the A dorian mode?

jimi40 wrote:

So it's in the key of Am and the A dorian mode?

Best to just call it the key of A Dorian. Each of the modes is also a type of key like Major and Minor.

If the second part uses G, D & A, all as major chords but revolves around G, what key (mode) would we call that?

Same question if it revolves around A?

Neil

G lydian
A mixolydian

Neil Wrote:

Best to just call it the key of A Dorian. Each of the modes is also a type of key like Major and Minor.

You often explain that information on the internet isn't often accurate.
In the link I provided earlier it suggested Am.
The song starts and ends with an Am.

So when looking at the Chords what's the giveaway to reasoning out mode A Dorian compare with key of Am?



Dermot

jimi40 wrote:

G lydian
A mixolydian

That sounds right to me.
Neil?