California High – Verse
California High – Chorus
California High – Bridge
Related Music Concepts
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
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
B Minor
Tempo
67 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Folk/Americana
Melody Range
B3 – D5
Mood
Tense, Mellow, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
59
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
55
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
87
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
48
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
B Minor
Tempo
67 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Folk/Americana
Melody Range
F#4 – E5
Mood
Mellow, 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
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
44
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
44
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
D Mixolydian
Tempo
67 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Folk/Americana
Melody Range
A3 – D5
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Mellow
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
8
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
92
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
18
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
●
Keys
B Minor, D Mixolydian
Tempo
67 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Pop, Rock, Folk/Americana
Melody Range
A3 – E5
Mood
Tense, Mellow, Moody
Most Used Chord
IV
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
75
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
82
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.
About California High
About the Key
B Minor
It is the 5th most popular key among Minor keys and the 13rd 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 (B minor, E minor, and F♯ minor).
B Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Verse |
i
VII
IV(maj)
|
|
| Chorus |
i
VII
IV(maj)
VI
V(maj)
|
|
| Bridge |
I
v
IV
|
|
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.
A3 – E5
Melody range across 19 semitones
0.71 beats/note
Across 98.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
97%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
52%
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
49
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 49/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
75
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 75/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
82
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 82/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
36
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 36/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
42
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 42/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
California HighAverage 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.
