Telephone Line – Intro
Telephone Line – Verse
Telephone Line – Pre-Chorus
Telephone Line – Chorus
Related Music Concepts
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
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
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Song Stats
●
Key
A Major
Tempo
71 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Classical/Orchestral
Melody Range
E4 – C6
Mood
Tense, Complex, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
bVII
Chord Complexity
86
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
99
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
98
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
51
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 Major
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Classical/Orchestral
Melody Range
A4 – F#5
Mood
Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
64
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
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
58
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 Major
Tempo
71 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Classical/Orchestral
Melody Range
E4 – A5
Mood
Smooth, Simple, Classic, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
9
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
49
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
18
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
A Major
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Classical/Orchestral
Melody Range
F#4 – E6
Mood
Unexpected, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
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
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
53
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.
Song Stats
●
Key
A Major
Tempo
71 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Classical/Orchestral
Melody Range
E4 – E6
Mood
Tense, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
60
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
82
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
45
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 Telephone Line
About the Key
A Major
It is the 4th most popular key among Major keys and the 4th 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 (A Major, D Major, and E Major).
A Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
I
♭vii°
♭vi
♭vii°
|
|
| Verse |
I
I7(mix)
vii°7/ii
ii
V
ii
iii
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Pre-Chorus |
I
vi
IV
V
|
|
| Chorus |
I
vi
IV
V
vii°42/I
|
|
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.
E4 – E6
Melody range across 24 semitones
0.71 beats/note
Across 120.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
98%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
72%
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
60
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 60/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
82
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 82/100 — 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
45
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 45/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
92
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 92/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Telephone LineAverage 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.
