Viva La Vida – Intro
Viva La Vida – Verse
Viva La Vida – Verse and Pre-Chorus
Viva La Vida – Chorus
Viva La Vida – Bridge
Viva La Vida – Outro
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
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
Song Stats
●
Key
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
F2 – Eb3
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV(no3)
Chord Complexity
48
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
13
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
65
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
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
Bb2 – Db4
Mood
Tense, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
48
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
29
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
65
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
46
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
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
Bb2 – F4
Mood
Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
48
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
63
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
60
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
45
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
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
F3 – G4
Mood
Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
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
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
17
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
87
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
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
Ab3 – Bb4
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
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
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
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
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.
Song Stats
●
Key
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
Ab3 – Db4
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
IV
Chord Complexity
68
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
5
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
80
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
A♭ Major
Tempo
138 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Rock, Pop, Folk, Alternative, Indie
Melody Range
F2 – Bb4
Mood
Smooth, Unexpected, Bright
Most Used Chord
vi
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
44
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
22
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
68
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 Viva La Vida
About the Key
A♭ Major
It is the least popular key among Major keys and the 20th 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 (A♭ Major, D♭ Major, and E♭ Major).
A♭ 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.
F2 – Bb4
Melody range across 29 semitones
0.97 beats/note
Across 288.0 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
99%
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.
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
65
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 65/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
44
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 44/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
22
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 22/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
68
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 68/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
44
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 44/100 — below average
Song Data
Metrics Radar Chart
Viva La VidaAverage 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.
