Maybe there can be something like Theorytab but for community-made songs etc. People on it can give feedback constructive criticism on other peoples work and favorite their projects. This is to prevent the recent amount of non-existing pieces appearing on Theorytab or just share their songs.
This is probably a really large project to add but I just wanted to suggest something so idk.
I think this is a good idea. I’ve posted melodies on SoundCloud and Audiomack for several years, but can’t find them with an internet search. This is disappointing because I’d like my friends to find my compositions easily without any pay walls, truncated links, or other roadblocks, How about HookCloud as a straw man?
can this get added, i want to upload my own songs to something like this so other people can see. I cant upload it to theorytab cuz it will get taken down
they apparently added it, but you need to have a soundcloud link and it needs to go through manual approval. I hope in the future it will be like a theorytab-like system.
Hold on, wait a second, is it actually forbidden for real to add songs you’ve composed yourself as TheoryTabs? I’ve noticed tabs composed by users themselves have been taken down before, but at the same time no rule against adding your own work can be found in the TheoryTabs contributor guide (or my reading comprehension just sucks really bad), so how can they reasonably take down self-composed tabs when it isn’t even explicitly mentioned that you’re not allowed to do this? I’m kinda glad that this post just got bumped, because coincidentally I was literally just about to add a song/melody I composed myself to TheoryTabs, for which I have an original version I made in LSDJ which I’ve uploaded to YouTube and have already synced to the Hookpad project of said song/melody.
In my personal opinion, I think that the policy against adding your own work should be done away with (at least in part, as obvious troll songs or very poorly composed songs, like a song containing just one note and chord, would logically still get taken down). I honestly just don’t see why self-composed songs should be entirely out of the window by definition, and also how this could be reasonably justified, as this basically means that only very rich or famous artists (who are probably signed to record labels or streaming services) would realistically have a chance of being represented on Hooktheory. This essentially in practice just means barring the works of poor, disadvantaged and disenfranchised (or otherwise of low social status) artists whose only means of publishing their works is by uploading them to free servives like Soundcloud and YouTube, meaning that no one would likely ever cover their songs on Hooktheory since most of such artist will forever remain unknown by the general public.
Why limit ourselves to whatever pieces of music the record labels and radio stations tell us we should listen to or are made by artist who can afford to throw enough money at a record label or streaming service to officially release their song, when there are so many unheard and undiscovered pieces of music composed by Hooktheory users themselves, that might very well sound just as beautiful as or even better than officially released works approved by those with money and power or the right connections? I also believe that, when added as TheoryTabs, songs composed by Hookpad users can have just as much as, of not more of a potential to be used for educational purposes as officially released songs, so allowing self-composed works in TheoryTabs could legitimately help out countless of people trying to learn music theory and students being taught musical skills, and thus genuininely make the world a better place.
Oh, I didn’t explicitly know that we weren’t allowed to upload our own songs with Hookpad (without SoundCloud.)
You make some good points, especially about the exposure of smaller artists in comparison to bigger ones. I was also thinking that our own songs could contribute more unique chords to Trends and, as you said, be used for educational purposes. Maybe the devs will notice if this gets bumped enough.
If it’s not against the rules, I find it very weird that the admins/support would still delete those tabs. Why would they enforce “rules” that don’t even exist against good-faith contributors, and that on demand of trolls maliciously filing reports? I already mentioned this earlier the other day, but I really think it should become a bannable offense to repeatedly keep filing false reports, and it would be very nice if we somehow could get that nerd/troll (or perhaps multiple nerds/trolls) who falsely report self-composed TheoryTabs permanently banned from Hooktheory.
@frikandelbroodje Thanks for your feedback—your points are well taken.
The two primary reasons we take down tabs from TheoryTab are:
Vandalism/spam/bad faith analyses
Duplicates
As many of you know, we’ve been dealing with a significant influx of sophisticated spam bots creating fake accounts and posting tabs to the site. Staying one step ahead of them has been challenging, and unfortunately, a side effect of this effort is that real users’ work has sometimes been wrongfully taken down or blocked. We appreciate your patience as we work to refine our systems and get this right.
Regarding Personal Work on TheoryTab
The original purpose of TheoryTab was to help users learn music theory through the analysis of songs with cultural or educational relevance. These are often songs that users recognize or have encountered in their musical journey, creating a shared context that makes it easier to connect theoretical concepts to familiar, real-world examples.
While we’ve never explicitly forbidden the inclusion of personal projects, we haven’t actively encouraged it either. That said, over time, TheoryTab has grown tremendously and now encompasses a vast range of music from all genres, including many obscure works. This diversity has ultimately enriched the database and made it even more valuable as a learning tool.
We aren’t here to split hairs over what qualifies as “relevant enough” for inclusion. Instead, our primary focus is to ensure that all submissions are made in good faith, have educational value, and align with the broader goal of helping users explore and understand music theory.
Highlighting Community Work
To help showcase Hooktheory users’ creativity, we launched the Made-in-Hookpad Spotlight, which was the original topic of this thread. In the future, we might consider adding a dedicated section to TheoryTab for community work and analyses, creating a space for these contributions without impacting the main database’s goals.
So, does this mean that if I were submit my self-composed song/melody to TheoryTabs, it wouldn’t get taken down? I genuinely believe that my song/melody would have educational value, and that it could help people learn more about music theory. It for one uses a lot of modal mixture (mainly Phrygian, a little bit of Locrian, and lots of borrowed major chords from Dorian and Mixolydian), so I think it could function as a good start for teaching people how exactly modal mixture works and how to properly apply it in their own compositions.
Could YouTube support also be added, please? Most people have a YouTube account, but not that many people have Soundcloud, let alone Bandcamp. Adding YouTube would also make more sense due to the fact that it’s the (only) site used for TheoryTabs, in my opinion.