Comfortably Numb – Verse
Comfortably Numb – Pre-Chorus
Comfortably Numb – Chorus
Comfortably Numb – Solo 1
Comfortably Numb – Solo 2
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
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
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
B Minor
Tempo
127 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
F#3 – A4
Mood
Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
40
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
48
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
45
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.
Song Stats
●
Key
D Major
Tempo
128 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
B3 – E4
Mood
Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
I(add9)
Chord Complexity
64
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
89
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
30
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
98
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
D Major
Tempo
126 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
A3 – E4
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
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
13
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
13
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
63
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
D Major
Tempo
127 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
G3 – G5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
83
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
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
●
Key
B Minor
Tempo
127 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
B2 – D6
Mood
Moody
Most Used Chord
i
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
61
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
29
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
●
Tempo
127 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock
Melody Range
B2 – D6
Mood
Unexpected, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
53
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
64
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
73
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 Comfortably Numb
About the Key
B Minor
It is the 5th most popular key among Minor keys and the 13rd 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 (B minor, E minor, and F♯ minor).
B Minor Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Verse |
i
VII
VI
iv7
|
|
| Pre-Chorus |
Iadd9
Vadd4
|
|
| Chorus |
Vsus2sus4
IV6
I
|
|
| Solo 1 |
I7
Vadd9
|
|
| Solo 2 |
i
VII
VI
III6
iv7
|
|
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.
B2 – D6
Melody range across 39 semitones
0.98 beats/note
Across 444.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
69%
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
53
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 53/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
64
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 64/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
31
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 31/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
73
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 73/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
90
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 90/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Comfortably NumbAverage 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.
