A Thing About Chords – Solo 1
A Thing About Chords – Solo 2
A Thing About Chords – Solo 3
A Thing About Chords – Pre-Outro
A Thing About Chords – Outro
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
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
Half-Diminished Chords
A diminished triad with a minor seventh on top — softer than fully diminished
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Altered Chords
Altered (raised or lowered) notes create tension and complexity in chords
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Augmented Chords
A chord with a raised fifth that creates a bright, unresolved tension
Song Stats
●
Key
F Major
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
D5 – C6
Mood
Tense, Mellow, 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
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
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
43
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
F Major
Tempo
69 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
D5 – C6
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
V(b13)/vi
Chord Complexity
97
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
68
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
96
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
F Mixolydian
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
D5 – C6
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Mellow
Most Used Chord
bVI
Chord Complexity
95
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
89
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
88
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
F Mixolydian
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
C5 – C6
Mood
Unexpected, Mellow
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
44
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
51
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
64
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
F Major
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
D5 – C6
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
91
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
73
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
55
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
94
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
F Major, F Mixolydian
Tempo
70 BPM
Meter
4/4
Melody Range
C5 – C6
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
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
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
76
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
83
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 A Thing About Chords
About the Key
F Major
It is the 6th most popular key among Major keys and the 7th 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 (F Major, B♭ Major, and C Major).
F Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
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.
C5 – C6
Melody range across 12 semitones
0.51 beats/note
Across 94.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
61%
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
86
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 86/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
74
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 74/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
76
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 76/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
83
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 83/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
67
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 67/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
A Thing About ChordsAverage 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.
