Waay: Learn music theory
Perfect for beginners
Free · In-App Purchases
Music theory can be empowering, exciting, and one of the biggest tools in your creative arsenal. Whether you already play an instrument or are just learning, Waay teaches you how to bring together notes into melodies, chords, progressions, and even songs. This is applied music theory—stuff you can take straight to your instrument and use.
--
“Best music theory learning app out there. I just want to say this app is completely amazing and an incredible amount of work must have gone into this. I have been looking for an app just like this to complete my learning between music classes and this has everything I need and more. I highly recommend!” —BigMat74, Oct. 20, 2023
"Absolutely phenomenal. This is better than any YouTube video, podcast, or music theory book I have read. Within 48 hours using this app I have actually comprehended what is being taught far beyond any previous comprehension for past products. Honestly they could charge more than double the amount and it would be totally worth it." —Artice, May 3, 2022
"It's obvious a lot of time, love and energy has gone into this app. It's very well thought out, easy to follow and keeps you coming back for more. The developer is super friendly and answers any questions you have. It's clear he has a real passion for what he does and genuinely wants to help out. Awesome work all round" —thatboyswiss, Jan. 8, 2019
"I have probably spent thousands of dollars perfecting tone on pedals, instruments, amps and apps, posters, printed media, online courses. The BEST PURCHASE has been your Waay app." —A.P., Apr. 1, 2020
--
You're writing a song, but keep getting stuck. What chords sound good together? What melody fits those chords? Waay helps you master these skills with its interactive exercises, bite-sized video lessons, musical examples, and progress-tracking tools. The Practice Space recommends a great time to practice each of your new skills too. Plus there's no Internet connection required! Perfect for your subway commutes and plane adventures.
Here’s what you’ll learn in each course:
Course 1: Melodies
• 8 video lessons, 11 interactive exercises
• The 12 notes in music and how we talk about them
• Intervals: Steps, half-steps, and moving between notes
• Keys: Learn what notes sound good together and hear audio examples
• Scale building: Build major and minor scales from scratch
• Songwriting: How do we apply theory to write music?
• Circle of fifths: The super-fast way to build scales… and more
Course 2: Chords
• 8 video lessons, 12 interactive exercises
• Thirds and fifths: The building blocks of chords
• Build major, minor, and diminished chords
• Songwriting: We write a song melody-first and then add just the right chords
• Magic formula: Which chords actually sound good together?
Also included:
• Relative majors & Fast minor scales
Courses 3 & 4: Progressions
• 10 video lessons, 30 interactive exercises
• The fundamental relationship between keys and chords
• Identify the key of a chord progression with six speedy tricks
• Shortlisting: Find chords to fit your chord progressions
• Musical judgement: Decide which chords *you* like best in your progressions
• ii V: Why is the ii V progression so important anyways?
• Choosing accidentals: Is it a sharp or flat? Learn that here
Courses 5 & 6: Intervals
• 10 video lessons, 20 interactive exercises
• Learn the complete set of intervals, from unison to 14th
• Inversions: How to flip intervals upside-down—and why you'd want to
• Enharmonics: Different names for the same note
• Compound intervals: Intervals bigger than an octave!
• Transposition: How to move songs to different keys
• Augmented chords and intervals
The Practice Space, first seven videos/exercises, and device syncing all come free. Access all content through a one-time purchase or subscription. Get in touch at tenkettles.com/contact if you have any questions—happy to help! -Alex
TERMS OF USE: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
more The "Foundations" exercise has been tweaked in response to some great feedback (thanks, William M.!), and an issue with the "Repeat lesson" button has been fixed. Feedback or questions? Get in touch anytime by tapping "Get In Touch" (in the sidebar, under "More") or through tenkettles.com/contact. -Alex
3.6.3 14/10/2025
In response to some fantastic feedback, this release includes a few tweaks to the exercise intro pages (thanks Neil T., Patti S., and Aleksei S.!), some revisions to the Transpositions II exercise (thanks, Bob R. and Jon H.!), and a tweak to the Relative Major question wording (thanks, Justin R.!). Questions or feedback welcome anytime; just tap "Get in Touch" in the sidebar. -Alex
3.6.1 22/04/2025
If we learn something deeply special and deeply useful, but then forget it a few weeks later, did we really accomplish anything at all? I'm not so sure. Thankfully, Waay has the Practice Space to turn everything you learn here into long-term skills. These aren't lessons that will fade! And this new version of Waay takes the Practice Space to the next level:
• Daily updates. Exercise freshness is now updated just once per day. Once you've refreshed your skills for the day, you'll be all up-to-date until the next day or later.
• Smooth scheduling. Have you ever had a day with *lots* of exercise reviews? Enough to make you a little unmotivated? We've updated the review scheduling algorithm to smooth out heavy days, leading to a much more even—and motivating—practice schedule.
• Performance. If you're a dedicated, long-time Waay user, you might have noticed a little lag here and there while Waay calculates freshness from your extensive practice history. Well, no more! The algorithm is now much more speedy. Same goes for both your progress graph and syncing—much faster.
• Lots more…
• If you've ever wanted to sort the Practice Space exercises by freshness, you can do that now; date formats have been simplified a little bit too (e.g., 279 days is now just 9 months).
• Wrong answers in your exercises are now made more clear with a strikethrough (Thanks, Richard!).
• Finally, the Transpositions I exercise has been refined to fix a bug (Thanks, Jon!) and to present a more realistic subset of musical keys.
As always, please get in touch if you run into any issues, have feedback, or just want to say hi! Tap "Get in touch" in the sidebar or visit tenkettles.com/contact. -Alex
3.6.0 13/11/2024
Here's what's new:
• New exercises. Three exercises have been added (and another two updated) in the Melodies and Chords courses. These exercises will help you develop a strong foundation for the order of flats/sharps and fast fifths.
• Completion screens I. If you're trying to refresh a three-star skill but only get two stars, Waay will now more clearly tell you why the skill wasn't refreshed.
• Completion screen II. Once you're finished a set of corrections, you can now return to the original exercise with one tap (Thanks, Jacob!). You'll also get more specific feedback on your performance (Thanks, Andrew!).
• Skipped taps. When scales were entered quickly, a button press could sometimes not be caught. This issue has now been fixed. (Thanks, Lillian and Andrew!)
• A few other minor tweaks, fixes, and additions.
I hope you like the new update! Please feel free to get in touch anytime with feedback or questions about Waay. You can tap "Get in Touch" in the sidebar (under More) or go to tenkettles.com/contact. -Alex
3.5.1 22/04/2024
"Intervals II" is here! In Waay's newest course, we dive into interval qualities, enharmonics, compound intervals, transposition, and more.
This course builds on everything you learned in "Intervals I." It completes the picture on intervals—and lays the foundation for more to come!
Questions or feedback? Email me anytime by tapping "Get in Touch" in the sidebar (under "More"). -Alex
3.5.0 25/01/2024
In Waay's new "Intervals I" course, you'll discover nine new intervals, how to invert them (and why you'd want to), and even one new type of chord! This new course builds on everything from the previous courses, taking your skills to the next level—and lays the groundwork for the "Intervals II" course coming in the new year.
Questions or feedback? Email me anytime by tapping "Get in Touch" in the sidebar. -Alex
3.4.0 21/12/2023
Here's what's new in this update:
• Exercise Difficulty. Each exercise in Waay has been tweaked: some are now easier, others are more challenging. But overall I think the skill required to get three stars is now much more consistent from exercise to exercise.
• Backspace Button. Anytime a question has a multi-part answer, you get a backspace button!
Feedback on the changes? Send me an email anytime by tapping "Get in touch" in the sidebar (under "More") and I'll (almost always) get back to you by the next working day. -Alex
P.S., There's some big news coming for Waay. Sign up for the newsletter at tenkettles.com/newsletter to be the first to know (or tap "Free Newsletter" in the sidebar).
3.3.1 25/07/2023
Waay now offers syncing between your devices! If you have iCloud enabled (as most of us do), it'll just work. No separate login or setup required. But what if you want to keep your devices unsynced? That's OK too: you can toggle syncing on or off under "More" in the Waay sidebar.
Here's what else is new:
• Reset button. Want to scrap all your progress and start over? Just tap "Reset" in the sidebar.
• Backup/restore. Backups of your progress are now periodically stored on your device, just in case you change your mind about a recent reset!
• Fixed star counts. The max stars in the sidebar should now read 144 (not 150) for all Waay users with a full account.
Questions or comments? Happy to help. Get in touch anytime by tapping "Get in touch" in the Waay sidebar (under "More"). -Alex
P.S., If you want to hop onto our newsletter (educational content, giveaways, testing offers), just tap "Free Newwsletter" in the sidebar.
3.3.0 08/06/2023
Waay's got a new sidebar! Here's what you'll find in this update:
• Progress and Freshness. See your progress and freshness at a glance in the new Waay sidebar.
• Gestures. Swipe in/out from the left to show/hide the sidebar anytime (iPhone).
• News. Links to Ten Kettles' free articles on music theory, songwriting, and more now appear in the sidebar. Swipe down anytime to dismiss.
• Practice Reminders. A bug that occasionally prevented reminders from being delivered is now fixed.
• Various other tweaks and bug fixes
Questions, comments, or feedback? Get in touch anytime by tapping "Get in Touch" in the sidebar (now under the "More" menu). -Alex
3.2.1 07/11/2022
Waay's got a new sidebar! Here's what you'll find in this update:
• Progress and Freshness. See your progress and freshness at a glance in the new Waay sidebar.
• Gestures. Swipe in/out from the left to show/hide the sidebar anytime (iPhone).
• News. Links to Ten Kettles' free articles on music theory, songwriting, and more now appear in the sidebar. Swipe down anytime to dismiss.
• Practice Reminders. A bug that occasionally prevented reminders from being delivered is now fixed.
• Various other tweaks and bug fixes
Questions, comments, or feedback? Get in touch anytime by tapping "Get in Touch" in the sidebar (now under the "More" menu). -Alex
3.2.0 04/11/2022
Hello Waay users! Here's what's new in this update:
• Added haptics* (i.e., minor device vibrations) during exercises
• Rearranged the sidebar
• Added new articles to the "More From Ten Kettles" page (check out the interview with up-and-coming singer-songwriter Kaden Thrower!)
• Tweaks to the "Keep Learning" page (e.g., updated labels for Legacy users)
Questions/feedback? Happy to help! Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
*iPhone 7 and newer
3.1.1 23/09/2022
Today Waay introduces perfectly-timed practice reminders. Find out the moment a skill is ready to practice with our new notifications. And check the new icon badge (the red circle on the app icon) to see how many exercises are ready to go.
Questions, comments, or feedback? Get in touch anytime by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar. -Alex
3.1.0 18/08/2022
Practice Space! Skill Freshness! Recommendations! There's so much to this new release. Jump into the new Welcome video to see how it all works. Then you'll be ready to dive into *all* the new features:
* The Practice Space: A place to hone—and retain—all the new skills you'll be learning.
* Freshness: Waay now uses an amazing feature of the human memory to suggest optimal times to practice each exercise. Each exercise will stay "fresh" for longer and longer the more you practice it.
* Recommendations: Tap the Practice button (in the top right) to jump to the next recommended exercise.
* Corrections Exercises: Got a few answers wrong? No problem! Strengthen those weak points with the new corrections exercises.
* Untimed Exercises: Start building your skills at your own pace with a new timer toggle button in the Practice Space.
* And more: Larger tap area on exercise buttons, headphone control support, new exercise completion awards, more time for the Formula Chords exercise (Thanks, Ben!), and lots of other tweaks too.
Your feedback helped shape this new release, as it will shape future releases too. So let me know what you think! Get it touch with any questions, comments, or feedback by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar. -Alex
P.S., All users who purchased Waay prior to this release are automatically upgraded to a Legacy account. That means you keep access to all the content you had before, but you also get all the new features too. Any issues with the upgrade? Get in touch by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar—happy to help.
3.0.3 27/06/2022
Practice Space! Skill Freshness! Recommendations! There's so much to this new release. Jump into the new Welcome video to see how it all works. Then you'll be ready to dive into *all* the new features:
* The Practice Space: A place to hone—and retain—all the new skills you'll be learning.
* Freshness: Waay now uses an amazing feature of the human memory to suggest optimal times to practice each exercise. Each exercise will stay "fresh" for longer and longer the more you practice it.
* Recommendations: Tap the Practice button (in the top right) to jump to the next recommended exercise.
* Corrections Exercises: Got a few answers wrong? No problem! Strengthen those weak points with the new corrections exercises.
* Untimed Exercises: Start building your skills at your own pace with a new timer toggle button in the Practice Space.
* And more: Larger tap area on exercise buttons, headphone control support, new exercise completion awards, more time for the Formula Chords exercise (Thanks, Ben!), and lots of other tweaks too.
Your feedback helped shape this new release, as it will shape future releases too. So let me know what you think! Get it touch with any questions, comments, or feedback by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar. -Alex
P.S., All users who purchased Waay prior to this release are automatically upgraded to a Legacy account. That means you keep access to all the content you had before, but you also get all the new features too. Any issues with the upgrade? Get in touch by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar—happy to help.
3.0.2 25/06/2022
Practice Space! Skill Freshness! Recommendations! There's so much to this new release. Jump into the new Welcome video to see how it all works. Then you'll be ready to dive into *all* the new features:
* The Practice Space: A place to hone—and retain—all the new skills you'll be learning.
* Freshness: Waay now uses an amazing feature of the human memory to suggest optimal times to practice each exercise. Each exercise will stay "fresh" for longer and longer the more you practice it.
* Recommendations: Tap the Practice button (in the top right) to jump to the next recommended exercise.
* Corrections Exercises: Got a few answers wrong? No problem! Strengthen those weak points with the new corrections exercises.
* Untimed Exercises: Start building your skills at your own pace with a new timer toggle button in the Practice Space.
* And more: Larger tap area on exercise buttons, headphone control support, new exercise completion awards, more time for the Formula Chords exercise (Thanks, Ben!), and lots of other tweaks too.
Your feedback helped shape this new release, as it will shape future releases too. So let me know what you think! Get it touch with any questions, comments, or feedback by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar. -Alex
P.S., All users who purchased Waay prior to this release are automatically upgraded to a Legacy account. That means you keep access to all the content you had before, but you also get all the new features too. Any issues with the upgrade? Get in touch by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar—happy to help.
3.0.1 24/06/2022
Practice Space! Skill Freshness! Recommendations! There's so much to this new release. Jump into the new Welcome video to see how it all works. Then you'll be ready to dive into *all* the new features:
* The Practice Space: A place to hone—and retain—all the new skills you'll be learning.
* Freshness: Waay now uses an amazing feature of the human memory to suggest optimal times to practice each exercise. Each exercise will stay "fresh" for longer and longer the more you practice it.
* Recommendations: Tap the Practice button (in the top right) to jump to the next recommended exercise.
* Corrections Exercises: Got a few answers wrong? No problem! Strengthen those weak points with the new corrections exercises.
* Untimed Exercises: Start building your skills at your own pace with a new timer toggle button in the Practice Space.
* And more: Larger tap area on exercise buttons, headphone control support, new exercise completion awards, more time for the Formula Chords exercise (Thanks, Ben!), and lots of other tweaks too.
Your feedback helped shape this new release, as it will shape future releases too. So let me know what you think! Get it touch with any questions, comments, or feedback by tapping "Send me a note" in the sidebar. -Alex
P.S., All users who purchased Waay prior to this release are automatically upgraded to a Legacy account. That means you keep access to all the content you had before, but you also get all the new features too. Any issues with the upgrade? Get in touch at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com—happy to help.
3.0.0 23/06/2022
In the "Pulling chords" exercise (Progressions I), chords can now be entered in any order. For example, the question "What minor chords are in C major?" can be answered Am, Dm, Em… or Em, Am, Dm… or any of the other four possibilities. Thanks for pointing this one out, Art! Questions, comments, or suggestions? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.5.4 15/02/2022
Just a minor update: the "Newsletter" button now points to the updated Ten Kettles newsletter page. Got any feedback, questions, or comments about Waay? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.5.3 30/04/2021
In this update, I added a "More from Ten Kettles" button in the sidebar. There you'll find links to other apps and free resources from Ten Kettles! Questions, comments, feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com! -Alex
2.5.2 21/04/2021
New course available! In "Progressions," you'll learn all about chord progressions: how to identify the key of a progression, shortlist possible chords that'll fit, and then use your musical judgment to move forward.
And there's a lot more too, like new intervals and how to build a "ii V" progression. Once you're all done, you'll be able to complete (I'm not kidding) over 2200 chord progressions in a snap. Progressions I & II are now available as a single in-app purchase. Tap the "Courses" button in the sidebar to get started!
Here's what else is new:
• Double-tap videos to jump back 10 s
• All exercises tweaked to avoid occasional repeated questions
• Design improvements
• More efficient video format for smaller app size (even with new courses)
• Tweaks and bug fixes
Questions, comments, feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.5.1 15/03/2021
New course available! In "Progressions," you'll learn all about chord progressions: how to identify the key of a progression, shortlist possible chords that'll fit, and then use your musical judgment to move forward.
And there's a lot more too, like new intervals and how to build a "ii V" progression. Once you're all done, you'll be able to complete (I'm not kidding) over 2200 chord progressions in a snap. Progressions I & II are now available as a single in-app purchase. Tap the "Courses" button in the sidebar to get started!
Here's what else is new:
• Double-tap videos to jump back 10 s
• All exercises tweaked to avoid occasional repeated questions
• Design improvements
• More efficient video format for smaller app size (even with new courses)
Questions, comments, feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.5.0 03/12/2020
Hello! This release has a handful of little tweaks and improvements:
• A new "profile picture" camera with support for both cameras and orientations
• Fixed a bug that cropped up when two lessons were selected at the same time
• Fixed minor distortion in the sidebar star-count label
• Minor display tweaks
Questions, comments, or feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.4.1 18/10/2019
Ready to learn some chord-building skills? Waay now offers two full courses with the initial app purchase: "Melodies" and "Chords." Questions or comments? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.4.0 07/10/2019
Added support for iOS 13 and removed third-party analytics. Questions, comments, feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.3.2 24/09/2019
Hello! Here's what's new in this update:
• Waay is now optimized for Apple's brand new iPhone models.
• All lesson videos are now packaged right into the initial app download.
Questions or feedback? Get in touch anytime at alex[at]tenkettles[dot]com. -Alex
2.3.1 04/10/2018
The "Foundations" exercise has been tweaked in response to some great feedback (thanks, William M.!), and an issue with the "Repeat lesson" button has been fixed. Feedback or questions? Get in touch anytime by tapping "Get In Touch" (in the sidebar, under "More") or through tenkettles.com/contact. -Alex
more Version 3.6.3 14/10/2025
Data Not Collected The developer does not collect any data from this app.