Top all-time · #2068
Hooktheory
Company blog · hooktheory.com/blogculturedata
Hooktheory is the company blog at hooktheory.com, writing about culture and data. Since 2012, 35 different Hacker News readers have linked it 66 times, most often “Hooktheory: Create Music”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2025-12-16, and you can follow it by feed.
Often recommended · 22 of 38 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Hooktheory for its interactive music theory lessons and books, the Hookpad composition tool, and the TheoryTab and chord trends databases of popular songs.
- Recommended for · 22 comments
- Commenters call the lessons a smart, modern way to learn music theory, the books and tools great, the ear-training challenge excellent, and the chord trends and
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 38 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Create amazing music with Hooktheory. Software and interactive learning material to help musicians write melodies and chord progressions.
Most-linked posts?
- Hooktheory: Create Music4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2019-12-18
- /trends4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2017-10-18
- Hooktheory - Improve your understanding of music4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2012-06-12
- /theorytab3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2016-10-26
- Show HN: Hookpad, a music editor with music theory inside made with React/Redux2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2018-08-21
- Analyzing the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-09-01
- /2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2016-09-19
- /books2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-12-18
- The music theory book you'll love2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-04-17
- /api/trends/docs2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-12-10
What Hacker News says?
Great list. I would add hooktheory: 6. https://www.hooktheory.com/hookpad (interactive composition tool) 7. https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab (searchable database of chord progressions in popular songs, playable in abovementioned tool) They also sell an interactive music theory primer, which I've not read, but everything else there is free (and amazing).
Comment linking /theorytab
on “Music Theory: An Education from First Principles”Submitted Analyzing the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns as a story · 222 points
HN discussionIndeed! There is a vast bibliography but starting with a music-school theory book is often really daunting... so searching for something different I found this series from Michael Hewitt [1], there are 3 books, one for theory, one for harmony and one for composition. Halfway through reading the first book I decided I needed to get better at inputting music to my computer, so I started to learn Reaper (which is a bit…
Comment linking /
on “I should have loved biology”Submitted I analyzed the chords to 1300 songs for patterns. Part 3 – Interactive Discovery as a story · 195 points
HN discussion> In case anyone is searching for a really smart, modern method for learning music theory, this is it: https://www.hooktheory.com I really want to buy the books but they're all DRM'd :-(. Here's hoping someone from there reads this page and releases it as an epub...
Comment linking /
on “Music theory for nerds”Submitted Part 2: I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns. as a story · 90 points
HN discussionIn case anyone is searching for a really smart, modern method for learning music theory, this is it: https://www.hooktheory.com The author devised his own system for visually representing notes, it makes it much easier to understand things like scale degrees and relative notation (and thus the theory around famous harmonies, melodies, etc). I think music tools are in desperate need for improvement... Starting with n…
Comment linking /
on “Music theory for nerds”Submitted Show HN: Hookpad, a music editor with music theory inside made with React/Redux as a story · 10 points
HN discussionWhat I’ve done: Hooktheory is more modern: https://www.hooktheory.com/books Learn an instrument & go through the level 1-5 theory books. Be sure to play the notes while you work through the book. Make songs & apply what you’ve learned.
Comment linking /books
on “Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?”Submitted Show HN: Automatically turn a major song into minor and hear how it sounds as a story · 6 points
HN discussionhttps://www.hooktheory.com/ This is a very good place to start and at least validate that you have the foundations. I mean both their courses and chord progression/melody database. Also, playing around with their composer is a very very easy and pleasant way to actually grok harmony. Rhythm/dynamics/etc you would need to learn somewhere else, but most people don't have a problem with that anyway. Disclaimer: While h…
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: How Can I Learn Music Theory?”Submitted A statistical study of inversions (slash chords) in popular music as a story · 5 points
HN discussionHi horsehead, I don't know if you made it to the Music Editor part of the site http://www.hooktheory.com/editor but you can use the Music Editor to write songs using I V IV (type 1,5,4 on your keyboard) and such. One of the main goals of Hooktheory is to make more people aware of these basic elements of music theory and help people incorporate it into their musical endeavors.
Comment linking /editor
on “I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.”Submitted In Defense of Popular Music: Why Reports of its Death are Greatly Exaggerated as a story · 5 points
HN discussionHi fferen, I V iv V is indeed a super popular progression. You can see an example of it here: http://www.hooktheory.com/analysis/view/james-blunt/youre-be... . One cool thing about the way we store music (using relative notation) is that we can compare any two songs to see how similar they are harmonically. For example, there are several "similar songs" shown below the I V vi IV example in the link that all use the…
Comment linking /analysis/view/james-blunt/youre-beautiful
on “I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.”Submitted Chord Progression Trends as a story · 3 points
HN discussionI'm not crazy about this analysis, but the basic tool ( http://www.hooktheory.com/ ) is pretty awesome. Props for including MIDI and sheet music exports. Edit: signup gave me an error 500, though.
Comment linking /
on “I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.”Submitted Hooktheory: Create Music as a story · 2 points
HN discussionThe app is pretty cool: http://www.hooktheory.com/analysis/view/celine-dion/my-heart... It animates the score for both "instrumental" and "youtube" sound.
Comment linking /analysis/view/celine-dion/my-heart-will-go-on
on “I analyzed the chords to 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.”Submitted The music theory book you'll love as a story · 2 points
HN discussionJust a note, it would be less ambiguous to say the chords are a 6 minor and 2 minor since minor 6th and minor 2nd are both intervals that don't relate to those chord qualities, for example the minor 2nd is a semitone above the tonic note, whereas a 2 minor chord (or ii, since lowercase represents minor chords in roman numeral chordal analysis) starts a whole tone above the tonic. Also, I think you mean the iii chord…
Comment linking /theorytab/common-chord-progressions/42
on “Basic Music Theory in ~200 Lines of Python”Submitted Screenwriter John August Discusses Hooktheory's Book on Music Theory as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> In building Jukedeck, we're applying our own theories about what makes good music. Have you thought about applying also common patterns found in the best selling hits? Hooktheory has a nice DB for this: https://www.hooktheory.com/api/trends/docs
Comment linking /api/trends/docs
on “Show HN: Jukedeck – create unique, royalty-free music for your videos using A.I.”Submitted Hooktheory - Improve your understanding of music as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYou might also enjoy Hookpad ( https://www.hooktheory.com/hookpad/new ) and Theorytab ( https://www.hooktheory.com/theorytab/view/daft-punk/get-luck... ) for examples. Hooktheory taught me a lot.
Comment linking /theorytab/view/daft-punk/get-lucky
on “Recreating Daft Punk's Da Funk with Overtone and Leipzig”Submitted Introducing Hookpad instruments and mixing as a story · 1 points
HN discussionOne site I use occasionally for helping come up with chord progressions is hook theory's chord trends [1]. It has an interactive graph that shows you how common it is for a specific chord to come next when you choose a starting chord. It's very helpful in looking at a few options out there, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time. 1. https://www.hooktheory.com/trends
Comment linking /trends
on “What chords do you need?”Submitted Easy and fun way to undersatnd music theory as a story · 1 points
HN discussionLove this stuff, great read. Also if you have not seen Hook Theory yet, worth checking out: https://www.hooktheory.com/about
Comment linking /about
on “What chords do you need?”Submitted Show HN: A daily challenge to improve your ear. as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
