Came up with a progression, confused about the tonic/key

[doesntmatter]

I play ukulele and have been jamming in some extended chords and substitutions... I think, by the sound of it, that this progression is in the key of A, but I'm not completely sure. Just basing this on how it feels when it returns to A

Fmin7-Ebdim7 -Cmaj7-A7 (or A sounds good as well)

Any advice on how to go about figuring out what key this is in? It definitely has a feeling of movement throughout, but has SOME resolution with A... but it also seems to be very dependent on the order I play it... I was coming up with v,iv,III,I, but I could be way off.. anyone more enlightened have any ideas? I'd like to further develop it and flesh it out with a little more design! thanks for you help

 

[InTheMood]

Hi there !

To me, you came with a pretty complex progression to key-identify !

Actually if you're right for every chord name, you seems to be in a 10-notes scale, which is pretty uncommon.

Those 10 notes are :

C C# D# E F F# G G# A B

IMO you're heading to a uncommon chord progression, so basically you just have to forget about traditional ways to build-up your progression, like roman numeral notations and tonic.
Your feeling about resolution could be relative to root movement and the way you play it on your guitar.

But let's manage your question : which key could it be ?

A way to do that is to make your 10-notes scale a 7-notes scale. We had

C C# D# E F F# G G# A B

Selecting root notes from your progression :

C C# D# E F F# G G# A B (where D# means Eb)

Keeping perfect tones only :

C C# D# E F F# G G# A B (where D# means Eb) = E neopolitan E F G A B C D# where your chord progression is F7 - F7sus2 third inversion - Cmaj7 - Am7




Chuch modes for helping you find classic chord progressions can be found by arrange your accidentals on the basis of your root notes.

Bb major : Bb C D Eb F G A
C melodic minor : C D Eb F G A B
Bb melodic minor : Bb C Db Eb F G A
Bb harmonic minor : Bb C Db Eb F Gb A
G natural minor : G A Bb C D Eb F

The only way A could be the key of your chord progression in a classic scale would be in the locrian mode.

A locrian : A Bb C D Eb F G

For you to select your basis is only by experience. But still, you do need to make some compromises in your chords, or accept that some chords are not scale-fitting.
Then, you have to understand that roman numeral number applied on chords are only basic theory and don't need to rules the way you create songs.

If you really want to understand what you're playing, try to pick a 7-notes scale and apply basic rules on it, just to find supposed working chords on it. Then, harmonise it the way you like it.
There is tons of documentation about harmonising chords and jazz exotic scale and construction.

Hope don't make any mistake here ! Good luck !