[mikenohio]

This post is more of a theory question than a question about this specific song.

I was looking up the chords to Santana's Black Magic Woman today. The chord listing is essentially

Dm7 Am7
Dm7 Gm7
Dm7 A7 Dm7

I don't know if this is correct, since i'm at work and don't have access to the song or a guitar. But going on the assumption that this is basically correct, I was trying to figure out what key this song is in.

The scale I see that contains all 3 minor chords is "F". I know Santana is famous for playing in the Dorian Mode, so after I give the F scale a flat 3 and flat 7, I am looking at Eb as the scale to jam in.

Am i on the right track here or am i overthinking this?

Here is the link i got the chords from:

http://getsome.org/guitar/olga/main/s/s ... _woman.crd

[mikenohio]

Ok, i'm an idiot. A couple of cups of coffee and a couple of 'hard' sudoku puzzles put the brain in overdrive.

Once i picked up the guitar at home, it was obvious that the song is in "D" and he is jamming in D Dorian/Cmajor.

From a theory perspective, I still don't quite understand how a song composed of Minor chords would be considered in "D Major".

I can understand why the D dorian mode (with the flat 3) works for this chord progression. But it would seem like the appropriate key would be "D Minor"

[shakedown_04092]

I'm a little confused, but I'll take a stab at it:

If the scale you are following is D Dorian (a minor mode of the major scale....aka the 2nd mode), then the song is in the Key of C, with the root being Dm, or a D Dorian scale.....I think I'm explaining that right. The chords found in the key of C are: C, Dm, Em, G, F, Am, Bdim, and C again.

Though neither Gm7 nor A7 are chords found in the key of C (a Gmaj or G7 would work, as would an Am or Am7, as found in the song already)...but I think that can be explained in some way. Just not by me

[mikenohio]

I was coming at it from the other direction.

Starting with the chords, Dm, Am and Gm are all in the F scale.

D is the relative minor of the F scale so that seemed to make some sense.

The Eb scale matches up as F Dorian. So i was thinking that should be the Scale to play. However, once i actually picked up the guitar, the C Major scale is what worked.

[CaptainTrips]

key of D = main chords of D, G and A
key of Dm = main chords of Dm, Gm, and Am.

so I would say that the key is going to be Dm, with the relative major key being F, as it has D as its 6th degree. As it is in a minor key I would want to accentuate that with my lead and use a minor mode, such as dorian or maybe aeolian, which would be either E dorian or B aeolian.

[shakedown_04092]

key of D = main chords of D, G and A
key of Dm = main chords of Dm, Gm, and Am.

so I would say that the key is going to be Dm, with the relative major key being F, as it has D as its 6th degree. As it is in a minor key I would want to accentuate that with my lead and use a minor mode, such as dorian or maybe aeolian, which would be either E dorian or B aeolian.

Well that clears some stuff up in my head. Thanks!

[mrMix]

Am Pentatonic would fit the bill too.