Trends Popular Progressions
TheoryTab / Koji Kondo / Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme
Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme
Song Analysis

Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme Chords and Melody

Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme
Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme – Intro and Verse
Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme – Verse
Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme – Bridge
Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme – Outro

Related Music Concepts

Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
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
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats Intro and Verse
Key C Major
Tempo 200 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Video Game
Melody Range G3 – A5
Mood Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 66
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 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 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 Verse
Key C Major
Tempo 200 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Video Game
Melody Range C2 – C6
Mood Tense, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 45
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 97
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 96
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.
Song Stats Bridge
Key C Major
Tempo 200 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Video Game
Melody Range G4 – G5
Mood Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord bVI
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 19
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 24
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 66
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 Outro
Key C Major
Tempo 200 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Video Game
Melody Range C4 – A5
Mood Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord vi
Chord Complexity 69
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 68
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 20
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 All Sections
Key C Major
Tempo 200 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Video Game
Melody Range C2 – C6
Mood Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 63
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 80
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 49
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 70
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 Super Mario Bros Overworld Theme

About the Key

𝄞
C Major
It is the most common key in all of popular music. 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 (C Major, F Major, and G Major).
C Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more

About the Chord Progressions

Section Progression Songs with this progression
Intro and Verse
V9/V I IV I7 ii65 vi9
Cue by Silent Partner
I'm Looking Through You by The Beatles
First of May by Jonathan Coulton
All Your Yeahs by Beach House
4 songs →
Verse
I IV
Downstream by Braid Soundtrack
Boston by Augustana
Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Disney
She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel
A Long December by Counting Crows
American Pie by Don McLean
Tiny Dancer by Elton John
11,663 songs →
Bridge
♭vi I
Oh Darling by The Beatles
Reflektor by Arcade Fire
World 2 - Super Mario 3D World by Nintendo
Card Battle by Douglas ''Modus Ponens'' Zwick
Littleroot Town - Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire by Nintendo
Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly
Mitch Benn's Imagine by Mitch Benn
554 songs →
Outro
vi65 IV V9
Troian Beauty - FFIV by Nobuo Uematsu
You're Beautiful by James Blunt
You Gotta Be by Des'ree
Give Your Heart A Break by Demi Lovato
I'm Not a Girl Not Yet a Woman by Britney Spears
She's Always a Woman by Billy Joel
Rimushotto Bungie Jump by Frog Fractions Soundtrack
2,653 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.

𝄞 𝄢
C2 – C6
Melody range across 48 semitones
0.92 beats/note
Across 132.5 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
91% Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
74% 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
63
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 63/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
80
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 80/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
49
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 49/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
70
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 70/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
41
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 41/100 — below average

Metrics Radar Chart

Super Mario Bros Overworld ThemeAverage 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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Everything you need to know about TheoryTab.

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.