Black Hole Sun – Intro
Black Hole Sun – Verse
Black Hole Sun – Chorus
Black Hole Sun – Chorus Lead-Out
Black Hole Sun – Instrumental
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
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Diminished Chords
A chord built from stacked minor thirds — dark and unstable
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
G Mixolydian
Tempo
106 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
D2 – C4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
vi
Chord Complexity
85
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
97
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
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
G Mixolydian
Tempo
105 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
C3 – G4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
I(add6)
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
65
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
95
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.
Song Stats
●
Key
G Major
Tempo
106 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
D3 – D4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
bVIsus4
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
92
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
96
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
92
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
G Dorian
Tempo
107 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
D3 – A4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
IV(add11)
Chord Complexity
93
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
23
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
75
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
A Minor
Tempo
110 BPM
Meter
9/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
F2 – C3
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
86
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
83
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
25
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.
Song Stats
●
Keys
G Mixolydian, G Major, G Dorian, A Minor
Tempo
106 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Alternative
Melody Range
D2 – A4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
IV(add11)
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
87
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
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.
About Black Hole Sun
About the Key
G Mixolydian
It is the 2nd most popular key among Mixolydian keys and the 26th most popular among all keys. The G Mixolydian scale is similar to the G Major scale except that its 7th note (F) 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.
G Mixolydian Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
Isus4
i6add4(dor)
VII
v7
vi
VIsus4
v7
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Verse |
Iadd6
♭I6
VII
vi
♭vi
vsus4
Iadd6
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Chorus |
VIsus4
V7
I
I42sus2(mix)
♭iii
VIsus4
V7sus2
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Chorus Lead-Out |
IVadd4
♭IIIadd4
Vadd4(hmin)
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Instrumental |
i
vi°(dor)
VII42
|
|
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.
D2 – A4
Melody range across 31 semitones
0.98 beats/note
Across 162.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
92%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
50%
Chord Tones
Percentage of notes that fall on a chord tone of the underlying harmony.
Smooth
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
89
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 89/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
87
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 87/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
88
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 88/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
95
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 95/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
73
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 73/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Black Hole SunAverage 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.
