I Can't Fly – Verse
I Can't Fly – Chorus
I Can't Fly – Bridge
I Can't Fly – Outro
Related Music Concepts
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Diminished Chords
A chord built from stacked minor thirds — dark and unstable
Fully Diminished 7ths
A four-note diminished chord that strongly pulls toward resolution
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
B♭ Major
Tempo
147 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Rock, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range
G4 – Bb5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
V
Chord Complexity
72
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
39
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
78
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
B♭ Major
Tempo
145 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Rock, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range
G4 – Bb5
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
V
Chord Complexity
70
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
65
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
74
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
B♭ Major
Tempo
147 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Rock, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range
G4 – Bb5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
V
Chord Complexity
76
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
69
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
57
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
82
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
B♭ Major
Tempo
148 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Rock, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range
G4 – Bb5
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
57
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
81
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
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.
Song Stats
●
Key
B♭ Major
Tempo
147 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Rock, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range
G4 – Bb5
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
V
Chord Complexity
70
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
71
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
71
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
78
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 I Can't Fly
About the Key
B♭ Major
It is the 8th most popular key among Major keys and the 12th most popular among all keys. Major keys, along with minor keys, are a common choice for popular songs.
I IV V
Most Important Chords
The three most important chords, built off the 1st, 4th and 5th scale degrees are all major chords (B♭ Major, E♭ Major, and F Major).
B♭ Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Verse |
I
IV7(dor)
V7/V
|
|
| Chorus |
I
IV7(dor)
V7/V
|
|
| Bridge |
iii
vii°7/vi
I7(mix)
V7/V
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Outro |
I
iii64
♭vii°
vi
I
IV
♭IV
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
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.
G4 – Bb5
Melody range across 15 semitones
1.80 beats/note
Across 336.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
97%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
58%
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
70
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 70/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
71
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 71/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
71
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 71/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
78
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 78/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
51
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 51/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
I Can't FlyAverage 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.
