Thannnnks.
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This might be another example of someone saying they’d like a glass of water and me blasting them with a fire hose… but here’s something else that might help(?)
Something that composers did to try and break new ground in composing in new keys/scales was use specific key signatures - so if you did want to write a piece in (for example) Dorian with a flat 2… you just plug those 7 notes into the key signature.
D dorian flat 2 would be a key signature of one flat - Eb. (Differentiating it from the F major key signature.)
This happens to share a key signature (as do all 7 note scale key signatures) with C melodic minor, Eb Lydian Augmented, F Lydian Dominant, G Mixolydian b6. A aeolian b5 and B altered.
So even when you customize a key signature to create a new palette of notes for your composition, no one knows what key center / root center / modal center you’re choosing from the available options until you make the music and they can see it on the page or hear it.
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@Gio Is there a reason this information isn’t specified or is it just expected you will know the theory. Like…
“Oh, yes. It was composed in D dorian flat 2 but follow along with what happens here and here. It’s resolving as Eb Lydian Augmented! Genius, I tell you! GENIUS!”
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Actually it helped!
So… we end right where we started? 
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Question. How many keys are there? Do you practice in all of them?
Hint…Victor Wooten talks about this…
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Close! See if you can find Victor talking about it. Very informative.
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Here we go!
Eric! This snuck past me.
This information is specified in the music if you’re reading or playing it. You don’t need to know it to talk about it, enjoy it or play it. Like ingredients in a delicious meal - you can still eat it, enjoy it, talk about it, etc. You could probably even cook it if you have a real discerning palette. But if you wanted to write the recipe, you’d have to get into the details and you’d need the correct language.
Curious, @kerushlow if you see/have a practical application for this information?
Personally? No, I’m not very advanced in theory. What is the difference between A# minor and Bb minor? Same notes from what I can tell. But there are things I know OF and don’t fully understand. Does it have to do with borrowed chords? What you would select as a key change? Which chromatic notes you might select?
Or is it of no significance? That’s possible too.
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The difference in a lot of the keys is subtle grammatical/spelling differences in the theory of how the music is written, and the language you use to describe the notes and chords in the piece.
A# minor is the relative minor of C# major, and has 7 sharps in the key signature.
Everything would resolve to an A# (needing a leading tone of G double sharp… yuck) and the chords would be identified from the key signature (all sharps).
Bb minor is the relative minor of Db major and has 5 flats in the key signature.
The leading tone is an A natural (much nicer than G double sharp) and all the chords would be identified inside of the 5 flat key signature.
It would sound exactly the same.
Why one instead of the other?
Depends on the instruments you’re writing for, what the composer feels about key signatures (Beethoven believed different keys communicated some feelings better than others), stuff like that.
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Interesting video in this context (and others) is the recent analysis by Adam Neely of the Star Spangled Banner arrangement as sung by Lady Gaga - there is, among other interesting chords, a Cb minor over Ebb in there.
I wonder what Beethoven “heard” in that. Admittedly it’s the same thing to me. Same notes…I can’t wrap my mind around how it is different. But again, maybe in selecting a key change or something?