Before – Intro
Before – Verse
Before – Chorus
Before – Chorus Lead-Out
Before – Bridge
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
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
Song Stats
●
Key
C Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
B3 – C5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
89
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
35
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
90
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
C Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
C4 – A4
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
89
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
22
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
90
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
C Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
G3 – E4
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
92
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
26
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
34
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
95
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
C Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
A2 – D5
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
92
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
15
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
95
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
C Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
C3 – B3
Mood
Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
ii
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
39
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
53
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
71
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 Major
Tempo
124 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Electronic, Pop, Dance
Melody Range
A2 – D5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
88
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
55
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
91
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 Before
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 |
IV65
iii7
vi65
|
|
| Verse |
IV65
iii7
vi65
|
|
| Chorus |
IV43
iii65
I9
vi43
|
|
| Chorus Lead-Out |
IV43
iii65
I9
vi43
|
|
| Bridge |
ii7
V
vi43
iii
|
|
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 – D5
Melody range across 29 semitones
0.98 beats/note
Across 160.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
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.
Edgy
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
88
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 88/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
55
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 55/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
28
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 28/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
91
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 91/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
12
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 12/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
BeforeAverage 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.
