Press Room

Hooktheory is an ed-tech company that builds software and interactive learning materials that help people create music and become better musicians. Used by both amateur and professional musicians alike, Hooktheory's technology leverages data from tens of thousands of popular songs spanning all music genres to support songwriting, improvisation, music production, and general understanding of music theory. See more detailed information on Hooktheory's products below.

Hooktheory Team

Chris Anderson

As Hooktheory’s lead designer, Chris is the brains behind the look and feel of our products, music notation, and overall user experience. Chris is also a programmer and the lead architect of Hooktheory’s software and web services. He has a PhD from UC Berkeley in Engineering and is an avid musician and guitarist.

Dave Carlton

Dave wears many hats at Hooktheory. While he is heavily involved in developing our Hookpad music software, he is also the main voice behind our books and some of our most popular blog posts. He loves helping our users get the most out of our software and books and personally handles all of Hooktheory’s support emails. Dave has a Computer Science/Engineering PhD from Berkeley and a music minor and loves applying technology to education and music.

Ryan Miyakawa

Ryan is Hooktheory’s resident music theory aficionado and programs the brains behind Hookpad’s playback, music theory, and artificial intelligence engines. A classically trained pianist, Ryan loves deconstructing popular music to understand the elements of a great song. Ryan has a PhD in engineering from UC Berkeley and is delighted to combine his passions of science and music to help others create music.

Dennis Schwachhofer

Dennis is the principal architect of Hookpad's audio engine. A classically trained drummer and composer, Dennis has spent countless hours designing, cutting, and fine-tuning Hookpad's library of over 1000 instrument patches from scratch. A graduate of the University for Music and Performing Arts in Munich, Dennis is thrilled to lend his ear to the Hooktheory team and community.