Don't Fear The Reaper – Intro
Don't Fear The Reaper – Verse
Don't Fear The Reaper – Pre-Chorus and Chorus
Don't Fear The Reaper – Chorus Lead-Out
Don't Fear The Reaper – Bridge
Related Music Concepts
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Altered Chords
Altered (raised or lowered) notes create tension and complexity in chords
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Song Stats
●
Key
A Minor
Tempo
146 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
F2 – A3
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
84
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
67
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
0
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
72
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
A Minor
Tempo
144 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
G3 – C4
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
68
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
65
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
14
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
68
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
A Minor
Tempo
141 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
C3 – C4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
78
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
19
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
84
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
57
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
A Minor
Tempo
142 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
G3 – E5
Mood
Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
66
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
59
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
56
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
65
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
F Dorian
Tempo
144 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
F4 – C6
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
90
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
89
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
30
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
97
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
●
Tempo
146 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
F2 – C6
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
80
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
67
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
30
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
77
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 Don't Fear The Reaper
About the Key
A Minor
It is the most popular key among Minor keys and the 6th 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 (A minor, D minor, and E minor).
A Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
i7
VII
|
|
| Verse |
i7
VII
VIadd6add9
v7
|
|
| Pre-Chorus and Chorus |
VI
VII
i
VI
v
i
VII
|
|
| Chorus Lead-Out |
i7
VII
VIadd6add9
v7
i7
VII
VIadd6add9
|
|
| Bridge |
i
II42(lyd)
|
|
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.
F2 – C6
Melody range across 43 semitones
0.83 beats/note
Across 252.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
93%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
70%
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
80
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 80/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
67
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 67/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
30
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 30/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
77
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 77/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
91
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 91/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Don't Fear The ReaperAverage 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.
