Obvious – Verse and Pre-Chorus
Obvious – Chorus
Obvious – Chorus Lead-Out
Obvious – Bridge
Related Music Concepts
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Diminished Chords
A chord built from stacked minor thirds — dark and unstable
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Fully Diminished 7ths
A four-note diminished chord that strongly pulls toward resolution
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Song Stats
●
Key
C Major
Tempo
195 BPM
Meter
6/8
Melody Range
F4 – A5
Mood
Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
61
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
27
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
41
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
193 BPM
Meter
6/8
Melody Range
C4 – E5
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
V/vi
Chord Complexity
91
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
7
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
20
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
88
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
E Minor
Tempo
192 BPM
Meter
6/8
Melody Range
G4 – G5
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
VI
Chord Complexity
76
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
90
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
64
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
E Minor
Tempo
193 BPM
Meter
6/8
Melody Range
A3 – G4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
78
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
34
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
77
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
●
Tempo
195 BPM
Meter
6/8
Melody Range
A3 – A5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
80
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
37
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
78
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 Obvious
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
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.
A3 – A5
Melody range across 24 semitones
2.22 beats/note
Across 204.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
54%
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).
Steady
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
80
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 80/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
37
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 37/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
58
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 58/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
78
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 78/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
93
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 93/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
ObviousAverage 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.
