Comparison

Hooktheory II vs APM Sweep

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Hooktheory II

This app helps you understand and create sophisticated music by teaching advanced chord progressions and melody techniques. Learn from interactive exercises and audiovisual examples inspired by popular artists. It's designed for musicians looking to enhance their songwriting skills.

Highlights
  • Learn seventh chords, embellishments, and secondary chords
  • Master minor harmony, modes, and modal mixture
  • Discover songwriting tactics from famous artists
  • Interactive exercises and audiovisual examples
  • Compose chords and melody in various scales
  • Utilize chord inversions and complex chord types
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Continue on your musical journey! Build on the foundation you learned in Hooktheory I, and discover an intuitive and deep understanding of richer, more sophisticated music. Unlock the songwriting tactics used by The Beatles, Bowie, Queen, Michael Jackson, and more. Learn about seventh chords, embellishments, secondary chords, minor harmony, modes, and modal mixture. Validated by over 30,000 hobby and pro musicians like you, the Hooktheory Book Series is the best-selling how-to series for musicians for a reason. Hooktheory II isn’t like other music theory books. Hooktheory teaches with an easy-to-understand music format that emphasizes chord and melody function. Rich audiovisual animations play along as you learn. We dissect popular songs and show you how the pros do it. Immediately practice concepts and tactics with our companion musical sketchpad, Hookpad. There is nothing else like it! Fun to read. Easy to understand. Full of practical knowledge. Learn from 84 interactive exercises and 228 audiovisual examples from artists like The Beatles, Elton John, Queen, David Bowie, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, Coldplay, Van Morrison, Adele, Ariana Grande, John Mayer, and many more! In Hooktheory II, you’ll learn the following skills: • Composing chords and melody in minor (and other scales). • Using chord inversions (reordering chord tones) to create effective bass lines. • Using complex chord types (e.g. 7th chords, extended chords, suspended chords, and “add” chords) to enrich your chord progressions. • Using secondary chords (chords based on a different key) to create tension. • Combining melody and chords from multiple scales (modal mixture). • Utilizing songwriting techniques like energy control, deception, and harmonic scope to control listeners' expectations. Benefits: • Simple piano roll notation (sheet music knowledge not required). • Every concept + technique demonstrated through an actual song. • 228 audiovisual examples from artists like The Beatles, Elton John, and Queen. • Reinforce learning at every step with 83 exercises. • Designed to be used with Hookpad Music Making Software. Hookpad lets you immediately practice every concept and tactic you learn in the books. To sum it up: Hooktheory II will teach you all of the essential techniques for crafting effective and compelling chord progressions and melodies. Reading Hooktheory II doesn’t require the ability to read sheet music or any music knowledge outside what was covered in Hooktheory I. On average, it takes about twelve hours to read (but more to fully absorb) so it isn't a huge time commitment. Dedicate only a few days to absorbing this book and gain a lifetime of skills that will give your music that professional edge.

About

APM Sweep

This application helps measure and analyze a room's acoustical performance, including reverberation time and clarity. It suggests materials to improve sound quality and allows for saving, loading, and exporting results in common spreadsheet formats. PDF reports with photos can also be generated.

Highlights
  • Acoustical performance measurement
  • Reverberation time and clarity analysis
  • Material recommendation for improvement
  • Save, load, and export results
  • Generate PDF reports with photos
  • Tutorial slideshow for guidance
Features
Read full description

APM Sweep is the successor of the well known APM Tool: it let you quickly measure the acoustical performance of a room (reverberation time, clarity, etc. in octave and third octave bands), check if that room is well suited for its purpose and, if not, choose which materials can improve the acoustical quality. Everything still there but with an exciting improvement: now you can use all the power of the Exponential Sine Sweep technique for the measurement process, so your results can be extremely precise and accurate. You can also, save, load and export results in common spreadsheet format. The app can also generate pdf reports with photos. A tutorial slideshow explains the app use. Required at least iOS 11.0

Screenshots

Hooktheory II4 screens
APM Sweep4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: APM Sweep at Free against Hooktheory II's $19.99. APM Sweep also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). Hooktheory II's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 1.0) and review sentiment (92% vs 50%). On ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

APM Sweep is free to download; Hooktheory II costs $19.99 up front. Hooktheory II sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. APM Sweep asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Hooktheory II holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Hooktheory II has 28 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 92% of Hooktheory II's written reviews are positive against 50% of APM Sweep's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Hooktheory II ships an update monthly, APM Sweep every 10 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
Hooktheory II versus APM Sweep: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHooktheory IIAPM Sweep
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating4.8 (28 ratings) — better1.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews92.0% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings28 — better1
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 10 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#165 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS13.0 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size123 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHooktheory LLCLorenzo Rizzi

Customer experience

Hooktheory II

All ratings28 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral3.6%
Negative3.6%
Written reviews25 reviews
Positive92.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative4.0%

APM Sweep

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative100.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Hooktheory II

One-time1
  • Full Version$19.99
None

APM Sweep

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hooktheory II free?
Hooktheory II costs $19.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is APM Sweep free?
APM Sweep is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Hooktheory II or APM Sweep?
Hooktheory II is rated higher. Hooktheory II averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while APM Sweep averages 1.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Hooktheory II or APM Sweep have ads?
Neither Hooktheory II nor APM Sweep shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hooktheory II or APM Sweep?
Hooktheory II ships an update monthly, and APM Sweep every 10 months. Most recently, Hooktheory II was updated on September 21, 2026 and APM Sweep on September 24, 2026.

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