Some time ago, I stumbled across the Hooktheory website when I found this article in their blog: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found. Impressive, I thought. I went looking for it again recently and discovered the rest of their website, namely Hookpad, Hooktheory I and II, and Theorytab.
Hookpad
This sort of detailed research combined with in depth musical theory helped the founders of Hooktheory create Hookpad, an intelligent musical sketchpad for songwriting. It guides you in writing melodies and choosing chords for popular music, even making suggestions when you're stuck. (For lyrics, you're on your own!)
The best part is Hookpad requires no knowledge of musical notation. As a piano player, it's tough to imagine anyone playing music without knowing how to read it, but that describes the majority of my guitar playing friends.
Honestly though, if you jam with others, know what a chord progression is and the importance of the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords, you will take to Hookpad. It uses relative notation for chords and you're already most of the way there. If you're lacking in theory, check out at least Hooktheory I first.
Using relative notation, it's easy to learn music. Hooktheory then uses a unique and simple visual method to map out a song. Now you can concentrate on the purpose and relationships between the chords in your songwriting. If none of this is new to you, trust me, it doesn't end here!
I took this image from an iPad screenshot of Hooktheory I, one of their best-selling interactive books. This is how Hooktheory shows musical notation across their website. You see a simple row of chords in relative notation across the bottom and numbers down the left side that represent scale degrees. Those scale degrees are used for the melody. By the way, the play button doesn't work here but it does in the books and on the website. Being able to hear the examples is a great benefit.
The melody notes used are indicated by horizontal bars with their length showing how long a melody note is to be held. The dark vertical lines are bars, indicating time, and they are subdivided. There is also a reason for the color coding.
As I said, this same basic notation is used throughout their website. Hookpad and Hookpad+ create it; Theorytab uses it to illustrate songs; and Hooktheory I and II explain musical theory with it. I have shown it in its simplest form here because adding editing buttons and more would confuse at this point but take this basic idea and think of building a song merely by pointing, clicking, and dragging.
Hooktheory I and II
Hooktheory I and II, are two interactive books that teach with concrete examples how to craft melodies and chord progressions like professional musicians. They are advertised as a "smart, fun, skill-building journey." Although there was little new theory for me in Hooktheory I - I have been learning chord theory for several years - the nuance of learning it from a songwriting perspective and in terms of harmonization was beneficial. Between the two books, sections on chord substitutions, borrowing chords from other scales, Vths of Vths and things like that were all new and valuable. And you didn't learn just what to do but also for what reason.
Never write music this way again!
Towards the end of Hooktheory II, they covered modes. Now initially I thought that section was overkill, the domain of jazz musicians, but then they demonstrated with examples from popular music - I was blown away. By the way, I was exposed to a lot of new music in the various examples.
They say, on average, the first book takes about 5 hours to read and the second one takes 12. It will probably take more time to fully absorb everything if it's all new. The books will also make a great reference. I applaud Hooktheory for making such concise and usable theory books.
Theorytab
Apparently I'm not the only one to notice mistakes in guitar tab websites. The people at Hooktheory decided to document 1,300 popular songs using their unique visual notation so you can see exactly how the songs are built. The best part is they're playable and automatically synchronized with Youtube videos of the songs. Wow!
Summary
I think I'm going to spend more time at the Hooktheory website. I have the Hooktheory books that certainly answered my theory questions. Now the Tabtheory songs are worth a perusal and Hookpad looks irresistible. Hookpad is free to use and Hookpad+, available by subscription, is feature rich including export abilities. The features are too numerous to mention - I strongly recommend you visit their website and have fun!
Another part of the website has music dictation games. It didn't take long for me to see how much I needed that for ear training. I listened to a music clip and then tried to duplicate it writing in the same notation common throughout the website.
There is also a section for teachers.
Hooktheory I & II are available for iOS, Android and the web. I purchased Hooktheory I for the iPad at $20.99 CAD. After I devoured it, I promptly went back for Hooktheory II at $27.99 CAD.
References
Hooktheory website
I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.
Images
Image 1, 3 and 4 from Pixabay. Image 2 was from the Hooktheory I iOS App.
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