Back to the Future Theme – Intro
Back to the Future Theme – Verse
Back to the Future Theme – Chorus
Back to the Future Theme – Chorus Lead-Out
Back to the Future Theme – Bridge
Back to the Future Theme – Instrumental
Back to the Future Theme – Outro 1
Back to the Future Theme – Outro 2
Related Music Concepts
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
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
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
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Half-Diminished Chords
A diminished triad with a minor seventh on top — softer than fully diminished
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
C♯ Mixolydian
Tempo
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
C#4 – C#5
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
73
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
46
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
9
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
75
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♭ Major
Tempo
153 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
Bb3 – Eb6
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
75
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
10
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
72
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
146 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
Gb3 – Ab5
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
#IV
Chord Complexity
100
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
99
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
59
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
A Lydian
Tempo
146 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
E2 – A#4
Mood
Tense, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
67
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
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
F Lydian
Tempo
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
F2 – C6
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
74
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
77
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
43
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
81
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 Lydian
Tempo
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
A2 – A#4
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
bIV(add9)
Chord Complexity
97
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
96
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
10
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
100
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
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
Db3 – Ab5
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat, Bright
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
94
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
68
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
79
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♯ Mixolydian
Tempo
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
A2 – C#5
Mood
Tense, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
65
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
91
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
99
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
59
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
C♯ Mixolydian, A♭ Major, D♭ Major, A Lydian, F Lydian
Tempo
154 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Soundtrack
Melody Range
E2 – Eb6
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord
I
Chord Complexity
90
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
91
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
85
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 Back to the Future Theme
About the Key
C♯ Mixolydian
It is the 11st most popular key among Mixolydian keys and the 42nd most popular among all keys. The C♯ Mixolydian scale is similar to the C♯ Major scale except that its 7th note (B) 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.
C♯ Mixolydian Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Verse |
|
|
| Chorus |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Chorus Lead-Out |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Bridge |
|
|
| Instrumental |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Outro 1 |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Outro 2 |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
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.
E2 – Eb6
Melody range across 47 semitones
0.97 beats/note
Across 338.8 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
88%
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.
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
90
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 90/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
91
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 91/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
53
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 53/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
85
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 85/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
86
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 86/100 — above average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Back to the Future ThemeAverage 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.
