Counting Stars – Intro
Counting Stars – Intro
Counting Stars – Intro and Verse
Counting Stars – Verse and Pre-Chorus
Counting Stars – Chorus
Related Music Concepts
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Song Stats
●
Key
C♯ Minor
Tempo
109 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop
Melody Range
A2 – B3
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
17
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
33
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
84
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
14
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
106 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop
Melody Range
C#3 – B3
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
19
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
46
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
13
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
122 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop
Melody Range
B2 – B5
Mood
Tense, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
25
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
84
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
83
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.
Concepts
Song Stats
●
Key
C♯ Minor
Tempo
122 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop
Melody Range
C#4 – B4
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
19
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
35
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
88
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
14
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
128 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop
Melody Range
A2 – B5
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
17
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
38
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
86
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
12
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
About Counting Stars
About the Key
C♯ Minor
It is the 9th most popular key among Minor keys and the 20th 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 (C♯ minor, F♯ minor, and G♯ minor).
C♯ Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
i
III
VII
VI
|
|
| Intro |
i
III
VII
VI
|
|
| Intro and Verse |
i
III
VII
VI
|
|
| Verse and Pre-Chorus |
i
III
VII
VI
|
|
| Chorus |
i
III
VII
VI
|
|
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.
A2 – B5
Melody range across 38 semitones
0.67 beats/note
Across 187.5 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
97%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
53%
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
17
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 17/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
38
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 38/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
86
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 86/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
12
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 12/100 — below average
Chord-Bass Melody
31
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 31/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Counting StarsAverage 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.
