Trends Popular Progressions
TheoryTab / David Bowie / Starman
Starman
Song Analysis

Starman Chords and Melody

Starman
Starman – Intro
Starman – Verse
Starman – Pre-Chorus
Starman – Chorus
Starman – Solo

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
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Song Stats Intro
Key F Major
Tempo 93 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range A3 – F4
Mood Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord IV(add11)
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 74
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 95
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 Verse
Key F Major
Tempo 100 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range F3 – D4
Mood Bright
Most Used Chord V
Chord Complexity 29
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 50
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 36
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 Pre-Chorus
Tempo 103 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range A4 – A4
Mood Tense, Classic
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 25
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 5
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 83
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 4
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 Chorus
Key F Major
Tempo 99 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range F3 – A4
Mood Tense, Bright
Most Used Chord V
Chord Complexity 39
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 28
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 66
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 49
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 Solo
Key F Major
Tempo 100 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range A4 – E5
Mood Simple, Classic, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 15
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 28
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 All Sections
Tempo 93 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock
Melody Range F3 – E5
Mood Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 39
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 42
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 42
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 Starman

About the Key

About the Chord Progressions

Section Progression Songs with this progression
Intro
IV64add4 I7
She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel
Just The Way You Are by Bruno Mars
Walkaways by Counting Crows
All The Small Things by Blink 182
You Shook Me All Night Long by ACDC
Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepsen
Hook by Blues Traveler
13,806 songs →
Verse
ii I V I ♭iii IV
No other theorytabs with this progression
Pre-Chorus
I VII
Material Girl by Madonna
The Safety Dance by Men Without Hats
The Moon by Yoshihiro Sakaguchi
You Never Give Me Your Money by The Beatles
Centerfold by The J Geils Band
I Am the Walrus by The Beatles
A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles
1,505 songs →
Chorus
I vi iii V64
Passacagla In B Flat Major by Jose Oscar Marques
Original Of The Species by U2
Big Jet Plane by Angus and Julia Stone
Just Give Me A Reason by Pink
Better Be Home Soon by Crowded House
Girl On Fire by Alicia Keys
Night Changes  by One Direction
146 songs →
Solo
IV I V I ii7 I6
Motherboy by David Schwartz
Rosanna by Toto
Prelude no 24 by Josh Woodward
Smash by Starbomb
The Gods Love Nubia (from Aida) by Heather Headley
Wide Open Spaces by Dixie Chicks
A Little Night Music - 1st movement by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
18 songs →

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.

𝄞
F3 – E5
Melody range across 23 semitones
0.82 beats/note
Across 163.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100% Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
64% 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
39
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 39/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
23
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 23/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
42
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 42/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
42
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 42/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
54
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 54/100 — above average

Metrics Radar Chart

StarmanAverage 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.

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TheoryTab is the world's largest database of songs analyzed by their chord progressions and melodies. Each entry breaks a song into its harmonic and melodic components using relative notation, making it easy to see the music theory behind any song.
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Roman numerals represent chords by their position in a key rather than by letter name. For example, in the key of C major, I = C, IV = F, V = G, and vi = Am. This relative notation makes it easy to compare chord progressions across songs in different keys. Click here to learn more about relative notation.
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Relative notation describes chords and notes by their function within a key, rather than by their absolute pitch. This means a I–V–vi–IV progression is the same pattern whether the song is in C major, G major, or any other key — making it much easier to recognize common patterns across songs.