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TheoryTab / Islands / We Swim
We Swim
Song Analysis

We Swim Chords and Melody

by Islands
We Swim
We Swim – Verse
We Swim – Verse and Pre-Chorus
We Swim – Pre-Chorus
We Swim – Chorus
We Swim – Chorus Lead-Out
We Swim – Bridge
We Swim – Pre-Outro
We Swim – Outro

Related Music Concepts

Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Augmented Chords
A chord with a raised fifth that creates a bright, unresolved tension
Diminished Chords
A chord built from stacked minor thirds — dark and unstable
7 Fully Diminished 7ths
A four-note diminished chord that strongly pulls toward resolution
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Altered Chords
Altered (raised or lowered) notes create tension and complexity in chords
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Suspended Chords
A chord with built in tension and release
Basic Chords
Chords naturally found in the key
Secondary Chords
Chords that temporarily shift the harmonic center
Song Stats Verse
Tempo 237 BPM
Meter 6/8
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range F4 – C#5
Mood Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord viio
Chord Complexity 63
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 10
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 39
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 89
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 Verse and Pre-Chorus
Tempo 234 BPM
Meter 6/8
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range F4 – F#5
Mood Unexpected, Upbeat
Most Used Chord i
Chord Complexity 37
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 68
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 32
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 70
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 Pre-Chorus
Tempo 79 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range C4 – E5
Mood Mellow
Most Used Chord i
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 8
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 34
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 34
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 Chorus
Key C Minor
Tempo 80 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range C4 – A#5
Mood Smooth, Mellow, Moody
Most Used Chord V
Chord Complexity 64
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 66
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 39
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 Minor
Tempo 78 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range C4 – C5
Mood Smooth, Complex, Unexpected, Mellow, Moody
Most Used Chord V
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 72
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 74
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
Tempo 79 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range A4 – C#5
Mood Classic, Mellow, Moody
Most Used Chord i
Chord Complexity 25
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 54
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 5
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 Pre-Outro
Key A Major
Tempo 78 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range E4 – E5
Mood Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 38
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 49
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 41
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 39
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 Outro
Key A Major
Tempo 79 BPM
Meter 4/4
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range F#4 – E5
Mood Smooth, Mellow, Bright
Most Used Chord I
Chord Complexity 41
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 11
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 53
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
Tempo 237 BPM
Meter 6/8
Genre Rock, Experimental/Avant-Garde
Melody Range C4 – A#5
Mood Smooth, Upbeat, Moody
Most Used Chord i
Chord Complexity 53
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 31
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 24
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty 52
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 We Swim

About the Key

About the Chord Progressions

Section Progression Songs with this progression
Verse
Hold The Line by Toto
Jinzou Enemy by Jin
Il Vento d'Oro by Yugo Kanno
Virtual Angel by ARTMS
Gyakko (Backlight) by Ado
I Wish This Lasted Forever by MarsMMV
Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey
6 songs →
Verse and Pre-Chorus
No other theorytabs with this progression
Pre-Chorus
Betonowy Las by The Dumplings
Ghost Mansion Theme by Pac Man World Rally
Saturnz Barz by Gorillaz
Kaleidoskop by Vroudenspil
Chorale for Jaspers by Homestuck
Moskau by Dschinghis Khan
Thwomp Desert - Mario Kart Wii by Nintendo
110 songs →
Chorus
Blow It All Away by Sia
Shadow Showdown by David J Franco
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
Nothing Lasts Forever by Girl's Day
Ba'al Battle Theme by Revo
Kass' Theme - Zelda Breath of the Wild by Nintendo
Girl's Not Grey by AFI
107 songs →
Chorus Lead-Out
No other theorytabs with this progression
Bridge
Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO
All Along The Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix
Only Girl In The World by Rihanna
Somebody That I Used To Know by Gotye
Diamonds by Rihanna
Language by Porter Robinson
Live Forever by Oasis
6,417 songs →
Pre-Outro
As Time Goes By by Dooley Wilson
Sorry Jack by The Living Tombstone
Grass Land - Yoshi Safari by Nintendo
The Entertainer by Scott Joplin
Catching Feelings by Drax Project
Welcome To Your Life by Grouplove
Love Live - Bokura no LIVE Kimi to no LIFE by Mu's
252 songs →
Outro
Turn Around by Conor Maynard
Can You Feel The Love Tonight by Disney
Home by Daughtry
Come On Over by Christina Aguilera
If We Hold On Together by Diana Ross
Levon by Elton John
You Shook Me All Night Long by ACDC
11,748 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.

𝄞
C4 – A#5
Melody range across 22 semitones
1.47 beats/note
Across 265.5 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
97% Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
77% 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
53
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 53/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
31
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 31/100 — below average
Chord-Melody Tension
24
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 24/100 — below average
Chord Prog. Novelty
52
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 52/100 — above average
Chord-Bass Melody
41
Measures the melodic movement of the bass notes across chord changes.
Percentile: 41/100 — below average

Metrics Radar Chart

We SwimAverage 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.