Salt Pepper Birds and the Thought Police – Verse
Salt Pepper Birds and the Thought Police – Chorus
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
Song Stats
●
Key
E♭ Major
Tempo
156 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Soundtrack/Score, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range
Bb3 – Bb5
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
ii
Chord Complexity
54
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
87
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
10
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
68
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
C Minor
Tempo
155 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Soundtrack/Score, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range
G3 – C5
Mood
Tense, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
62
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
72
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
59
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
●
Tempo
156 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Soundtrack/Score, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range
G3 – Bb5
Mood
Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
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
87
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
33
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.
About Salt Pepper Birds and the Thought Police
About the Key
E♭ Major
It is the 7th most popular key among Major keys and the 11st 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 (E♭ Major, A♭ Major, and B♭ Major).
E♭ Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
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.
G3 – Bb5
Melody range across 27 semitones
1.03 beats/note
Across 89.5 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
92%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
67%
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
59
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 59/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
87
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 87/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
33
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 33/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
65
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 65/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
15
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 15/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Salt Pepper Birds and the Thought PoliceAverage 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.
