The Only Exception – Verse
The Only Exception – Chorus
The Only Exception – Bridge
The Only Exception – Solo
The Only Exception – Outro
Related Music Concepts
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Half-Diminished Chords
A diminished triad with a minor seventh on top — softer than fully diminished
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
B Mixolydian
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
E3 – B4
Mood
Unexpected
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
51
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
21
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
31
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
B Mixolydian
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
F#3 – D#4
Mood
Unexpected
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
51
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
29
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
42
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
B Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
3/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
F#4 – D#5
Mood
Bright
Most Used Chord
ii
Chord Complexity
27
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
52
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
58
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
32
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 Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
F#4 – G#5
Mood
Tense, Simple, Classic, Bright
Most Used Chord
ii
Chord Complexity
7
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
91
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
98
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
B Mixolydian
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
B4 – D#5
Mood
Tense
Most Used Chord
VII
Chord Complexity
27
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
5
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
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
●
Keys
B Mixolydian, B Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
12/4
Genre
Pop
Melody Range
E3 – G#5
Mood
Tense, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
33
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
42
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
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 The Only Exception
About the Key
B Mixolydian
It is the 6th most popular key among Mixolydian keys and the 35th most popular among all keys. The B Mixolydian scale is similar to the B Major scale except that its 7th note (A) is a half step lower.
I IV VII
Most Important Chords
Mixolydian chord progressions are heavily featured in many genres of music like classic rock, which relies on the major chord built on the 7th scale degree.
B Mixolydian Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Verse |
I
iii°65
IV7
|
|
| Chorus |
I
iii°65
IV7
|
|
| Bridge |
ii
I
V
|
|
| Solo |
ii
I
V
|
|
| Outro |
VII
IV7
I
|
|
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.
E3 – G#5
Melody range across 28 semitones
1.42 beats/note
Across 294.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
62%
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
33
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 33/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
42
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 42/100 — below 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
65
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 65/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
35
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 35/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
The Only ExceptionAverage 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.
