HOOK THEORY
4 September 2014
There are a number of free web apps available to help songwriters compose, or to help budding musicians learn more about their chosen instrument. The problem with most, however, is that they come stacked to the eyeballs with flashing ads. Which is part of the reason we thought TheoryTab and HookPad were cool – no ads. They’re also a nifty way to help find chord progression whilst composing .
Both apps are housed in the HookTheory website, which stems from a musical theory book for iOS, Android, Kindle, etc, which will cost you $15.99 to buy. Not that you need to purchase the book, in order to use its apps.
THEORYTAB
How it works is by showing you the “function of each chord and note within the song” (you’re composing), it can also “reveal structure” that wasn’t apparent to the user. For beginners, it can show the chord progression on any song in its database (users can also submit songs), by numbering the chords relative to a song’s key, allowing you to hear them in sync with the music.
Hitting the ‘Trends’ tab brings you to a graphic of coloured keys, when you click on a key, it opens a new graphic with all the the chords relevant to it.
There’s also a list of songs on the side in that key, from the database.
HOOKPAD
The second app on the website, is also free to use and acts as a “musical sketchpad” for songwriters. The website says that it “simplifies songwriting by helping you choose chords that sound good together and guiding you to write a good melody.”
It’s great for song building but if you want to export your composition to a MIDI file, well, it’s going to cost you. ‘Plus’ membership is priced at $5 per month, so not a terrible hit to the wallet.
The benefits of subscribing include:
- MIDI export
- Sheet music export
- Guitar tab export
- Magic chord
- Record mode
- MIDI input
- Looping
- Lyrics
You’ll also have unrestricted access to the how-to video series, with topics such as harmonisation, analysis, guitar voicing, songwriting, etc.
Something we thought was a nice addition, is the ‘teacher’s price’ which allows access to all the ‘Plus’ benefits for up to to 300 students. The website says that additional features like assignments and grading are coming soon and will be incorporated into teacher licenses. Currently, a teacher’s licence will set you back US$349 a year.
It’s not all roses & bourbon though, there’s some limitations in the apps, such as neither seem to account for any non-key-corresponding chords, the database is kind of small and there are a few progressions not accounted for. Also, some of the analysis on songs is incorrect.
In saying that, as a songwriting tool, that’s free to use, then the apps are definitely worth trying out.
If you’re interested in using TheoryTab or HookPad, then you can access both via www.hooktheory.com/site
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