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TheoryTab / Taylor Swift / New Year's Day
New Year's Day
Song Analysis

New Year's Day Chords and Melody

New Year's Day
New Year's Day – Verse
New Year's Day – Chorus
New Year's Day – Chorus Lead-Out
New Year's Day – 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
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Song Stats Verse
Key C Major
Tempo 96 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Country, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range C3 – G4
Mood Tense, Complex, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 71
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 70
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 44
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 Chorus
Key C Major
Tempo 96 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Country, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range C3 – E4
Mood Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 58
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 60
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 37
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 67
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 Chorus Lead-Out
Key C Major
Tempo 96 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Country, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range C3 – E4
Mood Bright
Most Used Chord vi
Chord Complexity 44
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 59
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 58
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 Bridge
Key C Major
Tempo 96 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Country, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range C4 – F4
Mood Bright
Most Used Chord vi
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 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 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 57
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 All Sections
Key C Major
Tempo 96 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Country, Folk/Americana, Singer-Songwriter
Melody Range C3 – G4
Mood Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 56
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 40
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 58
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 New Year's Day

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
Verse
I vi7 I64 IV7sus2
Ways to Go by Grouplove
Dreamworks logo by John Williams
Shiksa by Say Anything
Click Clock Wood by Grant Kirkhope
Got The Love by Don Diablo and Khrebto
Downtown by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Love Like Ghosts by Lord Huron
291 songs →
Chorus
I vi7 IV7sus2
Gravity by Sara Bareilles
Fields Of Gold by Sting
Crazy by Aerosmith
Wild Ones by Flo Rida featuring Sia - Basto Remix
Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison
Big Bang Theory Theme Song by Bare Naked Ladies
Friday by Rebecca Black
1,906 songs →
Chorus Lead-Out
IV7sus2 I vi7 IVsus2 Vadd9 I vi7
C'est La Vie by Fish Leong
Route 29 - Pokemon Gold and Silver Versions by Junichi Masuda
Sincerity Is Scary by The 1975
Out Of The Blue by Debbie Gibson
Rain Is Falling by Electric Light Orchestra
The Times They Are A-Changin' by Bob Dylan
Just Like Henry by Dressy Besssy
12 songs →
Bridge
I vi IV7 Vsus4
I Only Want To Be With You by Dusty Springfield
Passion for Exploring by SoulEye
Doctor Worm by They Might Be Giants
The Sign by Ace Of Base
Ooh La La by Britney Spears
Slow Down by Myla Smith
Crazy by Aerosmith
911 songs →

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.

𝄞 𝄢
C3 – G4
Melody range across 19 semitones
0.70 beats/note
Across 120.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100% Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
73% 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
56
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 56/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
37
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 37/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
40
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 40/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
58
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 58/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
56
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 56/100 — above average

Metrics Radar Chart

New Year's DayAverage 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.

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Roman numerals represent chords by their position in a key rather than by letter name. For example, in the key of C major, I = C, IV = F, V = G, and vi = Am. This relative notation makes it easy to compare chord progressions across songs in different keys. Click here to learn more about relative notation.
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Relative notation describes chords and notes by their function within a key, rather than by their absolute pitch. This means a I–V–vi–IV progression is the same pattern whether the song is in C major, G major, or any other key — making it much easier to recognize common patterns across songs.