I Can't Win – Intro
I Can't Win – Verse
I Can't Win – Chorus
Related Music Concepts
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Add Chords
A chord with an added tone that enriches its sound
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Song Stats
●
Key
B Major
Tempo
194 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Punk/Hardcore
Melody Range
B3 – C#4
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I(add9)
Chord Complexity
45
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
4
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
0
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
83
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
B Major
Tempo
195 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Punk/Hardcore
Melody Range
F#4 – D#5
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
49
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
12
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
61
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
B Major
Tempo
195 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Punk/Hardcore
Melody Range
G#4 – D#5
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I(add9)
Chord Complexity
35
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
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
82
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
B Major
Tempo
194 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Punk/Hardcore
Melody Range
B3 – D#5
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
42
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
16
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
82
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
About I Can't Win
About the Key
B Major
It is the 10th most popular key among Major keys and the 16th most popular among all keys. 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 (B Major, E Major, and F♯ Major).
B Major Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
ii7
Iadd9
IVadd6
Iadd9
IVadd6
Iadd9
IVadd6
|
|
| Verse |
I
IV
ii7
|
|
| Chorus |
Iadd9
IVadd6
|
|
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.
B3 – D#5
Melody range across 16 semitones
1.22 beats/note
Across 184.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
100%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
60%
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).
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
42
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 42/100 — below average
Melodic Complexity
26
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 26/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
16
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 16/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
82
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 82/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
11
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 11/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
I Can't WinAverage 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.
