Rather Be – Intro
Rather Be – Verse
Rather Be – Pre-Chorus
Rather Be – Chorus
Rather Be – Chorus Lead-Out
Rather Be – Solo 1
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
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Song Stats
●
Key
G♯ Minor
Tempo
115 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
E4 – F#6
Mood
Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
49
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
72
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
29
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
59
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
121 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
B3 – F#6
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
55
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
51
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
62
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
62
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
121 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
F#3 – D#4
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Moody
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
79
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
22
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
53
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
121 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
G#3 – C#5
Mood
Tense, Moody
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
67
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
23
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
79
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
53
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
121 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
G#3 – C#5
Mood
Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
56
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
20
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
39
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
54
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
121 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
E4 – F#6
Mood
Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
36
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
76
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
26
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
19
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
G♯ Minor
Tempo
115 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, House
Melody Range
F#3 – F#6
Mood
Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
28
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
72
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
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.
About Rather Be
About the Key
G♯ Minor
It is the least popular key among Minor keys and the 24th 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 (G♯ minor, C♯ minor, and D♯ minor).
G♯ Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
i
v6
VI7
III
|
|
| Verse |
i
v6
VI7
III6
|
|
| Pre-Chorus |
VI7
v7
i7sus4
v6
VI7
v7
i7sus4
|
|
| Chorus |
i
v6
VI7
III6
v64
|
|
| Chorus Lead-Out |
i
III6
VI
V6(maj)
|
|
| Solo 1 |
i
VII
VI
III6
|
|
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.
F#3 – F#6
Melody range across 36 semitones
0.61 beats/note
Across 202.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
69%
Chord Tones
Percentage of notes that fall on a chord tone of the underlying harmony.
Edgy
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
28
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 28/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
72
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 72/100 — 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
14
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 14/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
67
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 67/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Rather BeAverage 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.
