Bad Decisions – Intro
Bad Decisions – Verse and Pre-Chorus
Bad Decisions – Chorus
Bad Decisions – Chorus Lead-Out
Bad Decisions – Bridge
Related Music Concepts
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D5 – A#5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
41
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
92
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
99
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
8
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D4 – D5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
34
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
25
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
81
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
13
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
E4 – E5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
33
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
24
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
91
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
14
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D4 – E5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
34
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
37
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
82
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
12
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D4 – E5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
iv(no3no5)
Chord Complexity
31
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
36
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
96
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
11
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Song Stats
●
Key
E Minor
Tempo
132 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
R & B, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D4 – A#5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
33
Chord Complexity: Tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
53
Melodic Complexity: Reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
96
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
9
Chord Prog. Novelty: Measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
About Bad Decisions
About the Key
E Minor
It is the 2nd most popular key among Minor keys and the 8th most popular among all keys. Minor keys, along with major keys, are a common choice for popular music.
i iv VI
Most Important Chords
The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all minor chords (E minor, A minor, and B minor).
E Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
iv
v
VI
VII
i
VII
i
|
|
| Verse and Pre-Chorus |
iv
v
VI
VII
i
VII
i
|
|
| Chorus |
iv
v
VI
VII
i
VII
i
|
|
| Chorus Lead-Out |
iv
v
VI
VII
i
VII
i
|
|
| Bridge |
iv
VI
VII
i
VII
iv
VI
|
|
About the Melody
Melody data is compiled from all analyzed melody sections, so depending on how a user analyzed a song, "melody" might include instrumental notes.
D4 – A#5
Melody range across 20 semitones
0.59 beats/note
Across 203.3 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
99%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
50%
Chord Tones
Percentage of notes that fall on a chord tone of the underlying harmony.
Mixed
Consonance
How smoothly the melody blends with the harmony (0 = dissonant, 1 = consonant).
Loose
Syncopation
How often the melody emphasizes off-beats. Higher = more syncopated.
About the Metrics
Chord Complexity
Chord Complexity tracks when a song goes beyond simple three-note chords—either by adding extra tones (like 7ths or add9s) or by borrowing notes from outside the key—creating richer, more sophisticated harmonies.
Melodic Complexity
Melodic Complexity reflects two factors: the use of notes outside the key and rhythmic syncopation, together capturing how intricate or surprising a melody feels.
Chord-Melody Tension
Chord-Melody Tension quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Progression Novelty
Chord Progression Novelty measures how uncommon a song's chord changes are compared to others in the Hooktheory database, highlighting progressions that deviate from typical patterns.
Chord-Bass Melody
Chord–Bass Melody evaluates how smoothly the bass moves between chords, scoring higher when it travels step-wise, ascending or descending, instead of jumping directly between root position chords.
Hooktheory's metrics are calculated against the entire database of analyzed songs, where 50 is the "average song." Learn more about each of these metrics here.
Chord Complexity
33
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 33/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
53
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 53/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
96
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 96/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
9
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 9/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
97
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 97/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Bad DecisionsAverage Song
BPM Comparison
Melody Distribution
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Melodic Intervals
Distribution of note-to-note jumps in semitones (negative = downward, positive = upward)
Note Durations
How long each note is held (in beats)
Syncopation
How many notes fall on each level of metric strength (0 = on-beat, higher = increasingly off-beat)
Level 0
Notes that fall on the downbeat — the strongest metric position in the measure.
Level 1
Notes on a secondary strong beat (e.g. beat 3 in 4/4) — still firmly on the grid.
Level 2
Notes on the remaining primary beats (2 and 4 in 4/4) — moderate metric weight.
Level 3
Notes on eighth-note offbeats — between the primary beats. Audibly syncopated.
