A hook is not the best line you wrote — it is the line people can still hum in the car park. Two measurable things separate those: repetition (how much of the hook is the same few words again) and evenness (how evenly the lines sit in length, so one melody can carry them). This scorer measures both, plus a TikTok mode that checks whether your hook fits a seven-second clip.
The score is a shape-checker, not a judge of taste — it tells you whether the structure of your chorus behaves like a hook, so you can spend your creativity on the words inside it.
Hook Earworm Scorer
How to use it
- Paste your chorus or hook with one line per row.
- Choose the target: radio chorus, or TikTok/Reels short hook.
- Press Score my hook and read the four numbers: lines, repeat %, evenness, overall score.
- Apply the tips: nudge repetition up or down, even out line lengths, trim for short-form.
Best use cases
- Testing whether a chorus is hooky enough before you commit to recording it.
- Cutting a full chorus down to a 7-second TikTok sound.
- Comparing three hook candidates objectively instead of by mood.
- Fixing a chorus that “has great words but does not stick”.
- Great hooks repeat 25–55% of their words; below that you wrote a verse, above that a chant.
- Evenness beats cleverness: lines within a syllable or two of each other sing smoother.
- Short-form hooks usually need 8–14 syllables total — say it once, say it again, stop.
What good looks like
A hook that scores well looks almost boring on the page: short lines, similar lengths, one phrase said three times with one word changed. The interest lives in the melody and the one twist — not in four different ideas. If your chorus scores badly because it is “too interesting”, that is the diagnosis.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good earworm score?
Above 70 usually means the shape is working; below 50 means repetition or evenness needs attention. Read the tips either way — the number is a diagnosis, not a grade, and a great hook with one clever twist can score mid and still win the room.
Why is some repetition good?
Repetition is how a listener learns the hook on first listen — by the second chorus they should be able to sing along. The art is repeating with tiny variations: one word changes, the rest stays locked, and the change is the story.
Does it check rhyme?
No — this one measures stickiness shape only. Rhyme is craft, and the Rhyme-Scheme Annotator covers it; run both on a chorus and you have structure and catchiness checked in a minute.
Private?
Completely — scoring runs in your browser and nothing is uploaded or stored. See the disclaimer.
What is evenness exactly?
How similar your lines are in syllable length. Even lines let one melody carry the whole chorus; uneven lines force the singer to reinvent the phrasing every bar. You do not need perfection — just avoid one 14-syllable line stranded among sixes.
Keep going
Pair this tool with the rest of the workshop: