Smooth Operator – Intro
Smooth Operator – Verse
Smooth Operator – Pre-Chorus
Smooth Operator – Chorus
Smooth Operator – Chorus Lead-Out
Smooth Operator – Solo
Related Music Concepts
Inverted Chords
Using a different bass note to change a chord's sound
Extended Chords
Stacking thirds beyond the 7th to create more complex sounds
Augmented Chords
A chord with a raised fifth that creates a bright, unresolved tension
Half-Diminished Chords
A diminished triad with a minor seventh on top — softer than fully diminished
Seventh Chords
Adding one more note to the basic chords
Altered Chords
Altered (raised or lowered) notes create tension and complexity in chords
Non-Standard Mode
New scales and home base chords for a different mood
Borrowed Chords
Using chords from parallel modes for contrast and emotion
Chord Progression Novelty
How unusual the chord sequence is compared to other songs
Bassline Motion
How much the bass moves stepwise between chord roots
Chord-Melody Tension
How much the melody clashes with the underlying chords
Song Stats
●
Key
D Dorian
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D3 – G#4
Mood
Tense, Complex, Unexpected
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
99
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
80
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
76
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
95
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 Minor
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
A3 – G4
Mood
Tense, Moody
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
70
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
69
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
23
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
D Minor
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
G3 – G4
Mood
Complex, Unexpected, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
93
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
66
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 Minor
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D4 – A4
Mood
Complex, Moody
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
76
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
9
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
28
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
D Minor
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
D3 – D4
Mood
Complex, Moody
Most Used Chord
i
Chord Complexity
85
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
36
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
48
Chord-Melody Tension: Quantifies how often melody notes fall outside the current chord, producing dissonance that creates a sense of instability.
Chord Prog. Novelty
47
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
D Minor
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
C3 – F5
Mood
Tense, Complex, Moody
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
78
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
90
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
●
Tempo
120 BPM
Meter
4/4
Genre
Jazz, Pop, Soul
Melody Range
C3 – F5
Mood
Tense, Complex
Most Used Chord
v
Chord Complexity
89
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
56
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
54
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 Smooth Operator
About the Key
D Dorian
It is the most popular key among Dorian keys and the 30th most popular among all keys. The D Dorian scale is similar to the D Minor scale except that its 6th note is a half step higher (B).
i ii IV VII
Most Important Chords
Chord progressions in Dorian have a characteristic sound due to the major quality of the chord built on the 4th scale degree.
D Dorian Cheat Sheet
Popular chords, progressions, downloadable MIDI files and more
About the Chord Progressions
| Section | Progression | Songs with this progression |
|---|---|---|
| Intro |
|
|
| Verse |
|
|
| Pre-Chorus |
|
No other theorytabs with this progression |
| Chorus |
|
|
| Chorus Lead-Out |
|
|
| Solo |
|
|
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 – F5
Melody range across 29 semitones
0.88 beats/note
Across 270.5 beats of melody
Stepwise Motion
Jumpiness
Repeaty
97%
Diatonic
Percentage of notes within the song's key.
62%
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
89
Measures how diverse and sophisticated the chord vocabulary is in this song.
Percentile: 89/100 — above average
Melodic Complexity
56
Measures the range, intervallic variety, and rhythmic complexity of the melody.
Percentile: 56/100 — above average
Chord-Melody Tension
65
Measures how much the melody notes clash or harmonize with the underlying chords.
Percentile: 65/100 — above average
Chord Prog. Novelty
54
Measures how unusual or unexpected the chord progressions are compared to common patterns.
Percentile: 54/100 — 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
Smooth OperatorAverage 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.
