Ray Harmony's Blog

Every song is born from an idea. So where do ideas come from? In other words: What or who is the cause of your imagination? Your answer to this question is tied to your worldview, and that determines what type of artist you are.

The first type of artist believes that ideas come from the brain, and are a result of firing neurons. If you believe this, you’re what I call a natural artist.

The second type of artist believes that ideas evolve from other ideas, and are a result of inspiration from other artists’ work. If you believe this, you’re what I call a humane artist.

The third type of artist believes that ideas come from an impersonal universal mind, and are a result of connecting to this unified field. If you believe this, you’re what I call a quantum artist.

The fourth type of artist believes that ideas come from a personal God (or gods), and are a gift from his spirit (or the spirits). If you believe this, you’re what I call a supernatural artist.

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Each worldview encompasses vast diversity, but artists within each type have a common belief of where their ideas come from. For example, the supernatural category includes Christians and hunter-gathers. On the surface they seem drastically different, but a deeper look reveals that both groups are living in a supernatural reality.

On that note. It may come as a surprise to artists in the other three categories, but up until very recently in human history, everyone was in the supernatural group. If you’re interested in learning about this fascinating topic, I recommend the excellent book The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity by the late, great anthropologist Marshall Sahlins (1930–2021).

Also, I appreciate that grouping all artists into these four worldviews neglects some other beliefs. For example, maybe ideas come from people in the future who’ve invented technology that transmits them back to us. Or, perhaps ideas are beamed down to us from ancient aliens living above the firmament. Or, maybe ideas float to us on the air breathed out by an advanced race living beyond the icewall. I could go on, but you get the idea. These are all valid hypotheses, and should not be discounted unless they can be disproven. However, for the sake of brevity, I’ll limit this to the four broad worldviews: natural, humane, quantum, and supernatural. Hopefully one of these will resonate with you.

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Also, each artist type can include the worldview of the previous type(s). For instance, a humane artist can also believe what a natural artist believes. This worldview sees ideas as a result of neurons firing in the brain, but that firing was due to an interaction with other artists’ work. If you believe this, you’re still a humane artist, you’ve simply included the natural artist’s worldview.

And for the record, no type is better than any other. That would be like saying the marathoner Eliud Kipchoge is a better runner than Usain Bolt, because Bolt stops after he’s run a hundred meters. That’s ridiculous! They’re two of the greatest runners of all time. They’re running different races, though, so it’s pointless to compare them as runners. Same with artists. Their worldviews do not determine how good their art is. Their ideas determine that! It’s all about ideas.

And that’s exactly why typing ourselves is important. Once we know what type of artist we are, we can know how to live up to the potential of our type. This will result in better ideas, and better ideas give birth to better songs. So which type of artist are you: natural, humane, quantum, or supernatural? Now that you’ve typed yourself, here’s how to live up to your artistic potential.

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If you’re a natural artist, you need to prioritise the nurturing of your brain. You can do this by sleeping enough, exercising daily, eating healthy food, drinking plenty of filtered water, getting fresh air and sunshine, grounding and minimizing EMFs in your environment, and daydreaming in a park (with your phone turned off).

If you’re a humane artist, you need to prioritise the nurturing of relationships with other artists. You can do this by meeting up with creative people face-to-face on a weekly basis and sharing ideas, or even better, collaborating. But, you can also be inspired by reading biographies of your favourite artists, both living and dead.

If you’re a quantum artist, you need to prioritise the nurturing of transcendence. You can do this by cultivating a daily meditation ritual, practising yoga and/or qigong, chanting, and listening to sublime music with headphones on and your eyes closed. I recommend the breathtaking album Vivaldi: Stabat Mater by Jakub Józef Orliński.

If you’re a supernatural artist, you need to prioritise the nurturing of worship. You can do this by praying throughout the day, giving thanks for all your blessings, singing praises, contemplating God (or the gods), reading scripture and other books in your tradition, listening to sacred music, dancing, and doing pilgrimages.

So, whatever type of artist you are, I encourage you to include some (or all) of these practices in your daily routine. And let me know in the comments what type you are, and which practices resonate with you.

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Lastly, please note that using AI to get ideas is not suggested for any of the types, because outsourcing your thinking never ends well. If you’re struggling to make music, the solution is not AI, it’s music theory. Music theory is the language of music, so when you learn how to use it, you can easily express yourself through melodies, harmonies, and rhythm. And it’s fun too, when you know how to do it!

If you’re new to music (or if you want a refresher), I offer you my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. It takes about half an hour to read, then you’ll have a solid foundation of the basics. And if you’re inspired to go deeper, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. You’ll learn every step of the music making process, from blank screen to finished song.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat .

Photo by Mart Production

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Pixabay

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

I’ve tattooed myself. Three times! You know what? It hurts a whole lot more when you do it to yourself. You know what else? It looks terrible, too. Why? Because a tattoo machine is a tool that an artist uses to create images in the skin. I had the tool, and I even had the imagination to come up with a creative idea for the image, but I did not have the skill. So, when I drew it, it was a mess. And when I tattooed it, it was a painful mess!

It was a thoroughly fascinating experience, though, and I did it under the supervision of a world-class tattooer. But, because I had not learned the skills and spent thousands of hours practicing, there was no hope of creating a good tattoo.

Throughout human history, tools were useless without the accompanying skills. And I’m going to argue here that they still are. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll have noticed how the definitions of words are changing at a rapid rate nowadays, so you need to keep your wits about you.

The Oxford Dictionary defines a tool as “a thing that helps you to do your job or to achieve something.” The key word in that definition is “helps”. Whether someone uses AI to generate a whole song or only the initial idea, AI is not helping them, it’s doing the skilled work for them.

A tattoo machine is a tool that helps the artist put their image in the skin. If the machine draws and tattoos the image on its own, then it’s not helping the tattooer, it’s replacing them. The skills are now in the machine, not the human. By definition, that machine is no longer a tool, it is the tattooer.

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Same with music. If a songwriter uses a digital audio workstation (DAW) on their computer to express their imagination and capture their ideas, then it’s a tool. If you use this software, you’ll know that when you open it, you’re greeted by a blank screen. Same for authors. When they open a new document in their word processor, they don’t find ideas for their next story, they find a blank screen. That’s because word processors and digital audio workstations are tools. They help. Nothing more. All the ideas and skills are exclusively in the humans.

It’s a common defence from AI users that they only use it to get the initial idea, and then they write the song themselves. But, using our imagination to come up with that initial idea is probably the most difficult part of the songwriting process. So using AI to get the initial idea is cheating. And more importantly, every time a songwriter does this, they’re cheating themselves out of their own imagination. If we don’t exercise our imagination, we lose it. When a generation of people lose their imaginations, and then go on to have children who are born into a reality without imagination, it’s a very different world. Is that a world you want?

Now, if someone chooses to use AI instead of their imagination, that’s up to them. But it’s a lie to say that AI is a tool that helps them come up with ideas. No, it’s not a tool. It’s a replacement for their imagination. That’s a whole lot more than a tool!

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Also, songwriters need to have the skills (and perseverance) to develop their initial idea into a full song. There are countless skills involved in going from a blank screen to a finished song. Even just that one skill alone of knowing when a song is finished, is difficult to learn. A tool, like a digital audio workstation or a guitar, helps us express our imaginations. By definition, if it comes up with the ideas or does the skilled work for us, then it’s not a tool, it’s the songwriter.

So the next time you hear a songwriter (or anyone in the creative arts) saying: “AI is just a tool”, please correct them. AI is not a tool, it’s The Great Reset of Skills & Ideas. And the more this “AI is a tool” narrative is pushed, the more vital it is that we hold on to original definitions. If we lose touch with those, we lose touch with reality.

If this has inspired you to learn the skills so you can express your ideas, then I offer you my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. It only takes about half an hour to read, then you’ll have a solid foundation to start making music. And if you’re already a songwriter but you’re frustrated because your music isn’t as good as you know it can be, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. You’ll learn every single skill you need to go from a blank screen to a finished song.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat .

Photo by Mart Production

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by barış erkin

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

Hardly anything is real anymore! And that includes most people. They walk around staring at their phones with earbuds in, ignoring the reality all around them and instead choosing to live in their screen’s virtual reality. Regardless of what their senses tell them, if their screen says it’s real, then it’s real. If their screen says it’s true, then it’s true.

On top of all the propaganda made by humans, the internet is also overflowing with AI misinformation and deepfake videos of people who are not themselves saying things they never said. And now, music streaming services are full of AI-generated songs by artists who didn’t write them, because the artists don’t even exist. Yet every day more and more humans choose virtual over real, screens over trees, and AI over elders.

If you’re like me, and you’re also horrified by this brave new AI world, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with grief for the loss of our old world where humanity mattered. But focusing on the past and everything we’ve lost makes us feel bad. And focusing on the future and how robots are gonna steal our humanity (and our jobs!), makes us feel worse. So what do we do? We continue to bring awareness to this problem, while simultaneously creating solutions in the form of a parallel system. So let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work right here in the present. How? We make music real again.

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That’s no easy task, though, because all new music cannot and should not be trusted. It’s similar to how the singing on recordings could no longer be trusted after the release of auto-tune in 1997. If you hear a recording from before ‘97 and the singer sounds good, then you know they’re actually a good singer. Unless it’s a Milli Vanilli lip-syncing type thing, but still, there were good singers on those recordings, it just wasn’t Milli Vanilli.

And obviously not every singer used auto-tune on their recordings after ‘97. However, I personally know studio engineers who secretly tuned vocals overnight, so when the singer arrived back in the studio the next morning, they wouldn’t even know their vocals had been tuned. They’d just be thinking: Wow, I nailed that! So if the singers don’t always know they’ve been tuned, how can we?

Now in the 2020s, we’re dealing with the songwriting version of this. If you hear a good song from before the ‘20s, then you know it was written by good (human) songwriters. Even if it was written by ghost writers, they’re good (human) songwriters. But now we can no longer trust the songwriting behind recordings.

And that goes for new albums by old-school Gen X bands, too. They could just as easily have gotten AI to write the songs, and then learned how to play them afterwards. Or perhaps the songwriter in the band was under immense pressure to write new songs that would become modern classics, so at home in secrecy they got AI to write the songs and the lyrics. The rest of the band wouldn’t even know they were AI-generated songs, so how can we possibly know?

By now you might be thinking: Why does it matter? If the song is good and I enjoy it, what’s wrong with it being AI-generated? Everything is wrong with that, because every time we choose AI over humans, we take another step into transhumanism. This is about a lot more than music! Even small choices make a difference, like choosing a check-out in the grocery store with a human clerk instead of self-checkout, and looking them in the eyes, smiling, and saying: Hello friend, how are you? Human connection is the only way to maintain our humanity.

Music is one of the most powerful ways for humans to connect. Every time we listen to an AI-generated song, instead of connecting with humans, we’re being connected to the machine. And yes, doing the research to ensure we’re listening to real music requires time and effort, but it’s worth it, just like it’s worth researching what we eat in order to ensure that it’s real food and not full of chemicals.

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So how on earth can we make music real again? Well I’m glad you asked, because I’ve had an idea! The only way to save music is to re-establish the trust that has been lost. And the only way to do that is to verify and certify songs that are human-made, in the same way old-school farmers get their food verified and certified as organic. That process is so expensive, though, that many organic farmers can’t afford it and so their food can’t be certified. Therefore, I suggest we use fan verification instead. As opposed to losing artists money, this would actually create a new income source for them. Here’s how I envision the process unfolding.

Seeing is believing, so in order to know that a song was made by humans, we need to see them writing it from start to finish. I’ve actually done this twice before in my online apprenticeship courses. Every minute of the songwriting process was filmed. This is not an edited behind-the-scenes documentary, it’s the entire warts-and-all songwriting process, from blank screen to finished song. This video footage is proof that I wrote those songs.

But with AI’s deepfake capabilities, video evidence can no longer be trusted either. In order for fans to know that a song is human-made, the artist needs to write it live in front of them. This would be nothing like a concert, though, it would be more like a weekend workshop. The event would be filmed, and the fans would sign a document verifying that it was real and not deepfaked. The artist could even do this as a songwriting tour, which would establish eyewitnesses in many different cities.

The creative process is magic, so having fans sharing in this would be the most thrilling gift artists have ever offered their fans. And as this would be such a momentous opportunity for the fans, the cost of a ticket could be a significant sum. Think about it. How much would you pay to watch your favourite artist writing their new album live, right in front of you. It’s a priceless offer!

And to write a full album, an artist would obviously need many of these live songwriting sessions. This will not only form intimate artist-fan relationships like never before, but it will also create a new and lucrative income stream. Fans who buy tickets to songwriting sessions will inevitably be superfans, and therefore willing to pay handsomely for the privilege of witnessing the magic unfold live.

Usually when writing an album artists hide themselves away for months, while their income dwindles as a result of not performing live. However, with these live songwriting sessions, artists would get paid not only for performing, but for writing too. And most importantly, they’d end up with an album full of songs that have each been verified and certified as human-made.

The final part of the process would involve rehearsing and recording the songs. Then the album would be released in tandem with the video footage of all the live songwriting sessions, as well as the fan-certified documents. Next, the artist would shift into performing mode and take to the stage, where they would be greeted by trusting fans who are confident in the knowledge that the songs are human-made.

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Now let’s address the elephant in the room. If you’re a songwriter, the idea of having to write in front of an audience is probably filling you with dread. I get it, I’ve done this twice before on live webinars. Know this, though, the fear disappears as soon as you get in the flow, and then the energy and excitement is utterly exhilarating! If you want to feel truly alive, write a song live. Yes it takes courage, but all the best things in life do.

And remember, writing music is simply expressing ourselves. That’s not scary. We do it all the time in conversations. If you talk to someone in your first language, you feel comfortable expressing yourself. But, if you try communicating in a language you’re not fluent in, then it’s an anxious and frustrating process. That’s where music theory comes to our rescue. If we understand the language of music, then writing songs is simply a case of expressing ourselves using that language.

So if you want to learn the language of music, then I offer you my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. You can read it in about half an hour, then you’ll have a solid foundation. Even if you’re not interested in writing your own songs, this book will help you appreciate music in a far more meaningful way.

And if you’re looking to become fluent in the language of music, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. That’s where you’ll watch the videos of me writing two whole songs from start to finish, while also teaching every step of the process, so you can learn and use my method in your own original way.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last. Donate to help keep the Songwriter’s Ark afloat.

Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat .

Photo by Mart Production

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Nano Erdozain

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

Time is our only non-renewable resource. People talk about “spending” time and “spending” money, but these two types of spending are opposite. We can always make more money, but we can never make more time.

Therefore, the greatest, most valuable gift we can give someone is our time. Think about it. No matter how much money you spend on a gift for someone, unconsciously you both know that it’s a renewable resource. But if you spend a full day with that person giving them your full attention (in other words, with your phone turned off), they will feel like the most special person in the world.

Here’s another example. If you’re a parent (or a grandparent) of a young child, your fridge door is probably plastered with dodgy drawings. And one of your favourites is almost certainly a picture of yourself, despite the fact that your head is bigger than your torso, your hair looks like it’s been transplanted from the head of Pennywise the clown, and you’re missing a few fingers. But, how much do you love that drawing? More than words.

Now imagine a different scenario where your child (or grandchild) gives you a gift of an AI-generated picture of you, which is “perfect”, or so we’re told by the AI-pushers. Which picture do you prefer? The hand-drawn clown you, or the picture-perfect AI you? Exactly.

But why do you love the “imperfect” hand-drawn picture instead of the “perfect” AI-generated picture? Because, your child (or grandchild) spent time drawing it for you. And our time is the greatest, most valuable gift we have to offer.

So what’s this got to do with music? Whenever someone uses AI in the songwriting process, they’re depriving the world of their greatest gift: time. It’s the equivalent of the kid giving his parents (or grandparents) an AI-generated picture instead of a hand-drawn picture. Every time either of these things happen, a piece of humanity dies.

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So yes, using AI in the songwriting process saves us time, but spending time is the whole point. Music, without time spent making it, is a pointless contribution to the world. It has no value and no worth, and the world is far better off without it.

But we’ve been fed the lie of convenience, and the masses have swallowed it hook, line and sinker! Convenience is the new idol. Saving time, the new goal.

But saving time does not make our lives better. Spending time in the right way does.

Think about it. Let’s say you’ve got a fun day-out planned with your best friend. Now what if I told you that I can save you a full day of your life, which you can get back and then use for something else. You see where I’m going with this, right? So, instead of you going on your fun day-out, I’ll go for you. There, I just saved you a full day. You’re welcome. Wait, you’re not thanking me? But I saved you a full day!

As this thought-experiment shows: our lives are not improved by saving time, they’re improved by spending time wisely.

We need to embrace meaningful inconveniences, like the process of writing a whole song from start to finish, all on our own. When we do difficult creative projects like this, we become better humans and the world becomes more humane.

So, if you’re feeling inspired to embrace the inconvenient and time-consuming act of making music, then you can get started right now by reading my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. And if you wanna learn my secret method of Song-Whispering, which is a way for your song to guide you so it feels like it’s writing itself, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat .

Photo by Mart Production

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Jordan Benton

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

AI can’t make music. Let me explain…

The reason almost everyone thinks AI can make music, is because the definition of music has changed. As a side note, it’s interesting how more and more definitions seem to be changing nowadays, isn’t it? But that’s a story for another day…

What’s important to us here is the original definition of music. In other words, what music meant to our hunter-gatherer ancestors. To them, music was an ineffable expression of the human experience, shared through pitched and rhythmic patterns. This was the universal meaning of music from the beginning of humankind. There are mystical elements too, which are vital, but that’s also a story for another day. So, how did the definition of music change?

It all began when music was corralled into the concert hall about 300 years ago, which turned it into a performance. And with that, it was no longer something everyone actively participated in. There were now active performers, and passive listeners. This was the fork in the road. From that point on, music was a product that could be monetized through admission fees. This was the first major definition change.

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Now, as with all progress, there are many benefits. However, knowing the costs of those benefits is essential in weighing up the pros and cons of the progress. Yes, there was a long list of benefits from domesticating wild music and transforming it into tame performance art, but the costs were severe.

For example, singing used to be something that people did communally. And they did it while moving in unison. Whether it was bushmen singing and dancing around a fire, or baptists singing and swaying in a church, the mental, physical, spiritual, and societal health benefits of this ritual cannot be overstated. And all that was lost when singing became something that the chosen choir did, while everyone else shut their mouths and sat on their asses.

Sadly, though, those losses are only the tip of the iceberg. When sound recording was invented less than two hundred years ago, it was the active musicians who were next in line to be disempowered. For the first time in human history, it was now possible to listen to music without anybody making it. It’s impossible for us to imagine how utterly bizarre that must’ve been. There were no musicians playing, yet people were hearing music. Where was it coming from? Mad times!

That was the second major definition change. Music had now been corralled into a disc made of resin. And these could be mass-produced and sold. Ka-ching! Instead of having to pay musicians for every concert, they could now be paid for one concert that was recorded, and then that recording could be sold an unlimited amount of times. Once again, a cost-benefit analysis for humanity should have been done. But it wasn’t. As always, the masses rushed headlong into a future that was even more unnatural, without even pausing to think about the repercussions. Sound familiar?

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And it’s worth stating clearly here that a recording of music is not music, it’s a recording. Just like a photo of a car is not the car. Think about it. If you want a new car and I give you a photo of that car, do you now have the car? Obviously not. You have an image of the real thing. Same with music. Think about it. If you want to hear the latest song from your favourite artist, you’ll open your music app and listen to it. But are you actually listening to the song? No. You’re listening to a recording of the song. That idea sounds crazy to us in the 21st century, but that’s only because the definition of music has changed twice already.

That brings us to the present, where we’re being told that AI can make music. But hopefully by now you can see why that’s a lie. AI can’t make music, because music is an expression of the human experience. AI can’t have the human experience, therefore AI can’t make music. The robots can do lots of things, yes, but making music is not one of them.

And even if you believe AI will become conscious one day, it can never be human, so it will never be able to make music. And yes, animals are conscious, and some species (like birds) have something similar to music. But that’s not music either, for the same reason: birds are not expressing the human experience. So let’s not get our definition of music confused by the mainstream narrative about AI. Music can only be made by humans. End of story.

These definition changes have resulted in us giving away our creative power as humans who actively make music. Over the last few centuries, we’ve turned into powerless, passive consumers of recordings. And now we’re not even listening to recordings anymore, we’re consuming soulless AI-generated sonic content.

So, if you’re feeling inspired to take your power back and become an active music maker, like all our ancestors were, then you can get started right now by reading my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. And if you’re already making music but you’re frustrated because it’s not as good as you’d like, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox .

Ray Harmony is a multi award-winning music lecturer, who’s made music with Serj Tankian (System Of A Down), Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine), Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad), Ihsahn (Emperor), Kool Keith (Ultramagnetic MCs), Madchild (Swollen Members), and more. Ray is also the co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

I never thought this day would come. But here it is.

After 30 years of teaching music to thousands of students, I’m facing a previously unimagined challenge: convincing people who want to make music that they should learn how to do it.

Never in human history has there been any other option. But now, there are robots that can make “your” music for you. Is it yours if you didn’t write it? No, but the masses embracing AI-generated music don’t seem bothered by that fact.

There are only 12 notes in music, so it’s relatively easy to understand. But making music is not as easy. And making good music is rather hard. That’s because there are infinite ways to combine those 12 notes melodically and harmonically. And then there’s the eternal world of rhythm. Infinity x eternity. That’s a lot of options!

Yet despite the never-ending options, for a beginner songwriter it usually feels like every combination they choose ends up sounding a bit rubbish. Where are all those great combinations hiding? Only years of exploring will begin to reveal them.

Photo by Gerd Altmann

And therein lies the problem. In the good ol’ days before AI, if someone wanted to make music, there was only one option: learn how. But in this brave new world, why bother spending years learning and practising, when you can just get a robot to do it for you? No need for learning, practising, or even patience. A complete beginner can use AI to make a song (and the cover art too), then upload it to Spotify. All before breakfast.

And that brings me back to my new challenge of convincing people that learning how to make good music is worth the effort. That is my new passion. Because, we know from history that it only takes one generation to lose a skill. If humans can’t be convinced that making music is a skill worth preserving, it will be lost forever.

Just another fossil from those less “civilized” people of a bygone era. You know, those poor people who had to walk everywhere, grow their own food, and make their own music. Yeah those people. Wow, sucked to be them! Yes they were much happier and healthier than us, but still, no smart phones? Sucked to be them!

Photo by RDNE Stock project

So, why bother writing your own music? Because the process is what’s valuable, not the end result. The process of expressing ourselves by making music improves our mental health, our spiritual health, and even our physical health. And sharing our music in-person connects us to our fellow humans in a way that nothing else does. If all that’s not enough, how about this: making music is playful and fun! Remember those things? It’s what we used to do before smart phones were invented.

There’s one caveat, though. It’s only fun if you know how to do it. If you don’t, then it’s frustrating. And I suspect that’s the main reason why people are turning to AI. But AI is not the solution. The solution is learning and practising. And the more you learn and practice, the more fun the songwriting process becomes.

It’s like exercising. When we first start, it’s horrible. Our muscles burn, our lungs burn, and every fibre of our being shouts “STOP!” Sadly, most people do. But for the ones who persevere, something magical happens. Each week the burning gets less, and the shouting gets softer. Then one day right in the middle of an exercise session, we suddenly realize our inner voice is shouting: “GO! GO! GO!” It usually takes a few months to break through that barrier, but when we do, the fun makes it all worthwhile.

Photo by Barbara Olsen

I want you to enjoy that post-breakthrough fun with your music. There’s no better feeling. But it requires trust. And I’m not asking you to trust me. I’m asking you to trust yourself, and to trust the journey. Until you reach that breakthrough, it’s hard. But if you give up before then, you’ll never reap the health rewards. And you’ll miss out on a ton of fun, too!

With this new challenge in mind, I’m now visualizing Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

So, if you’re feeling inspired to get onboard, I recommend reading my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. And if you’re already making music but it’s not as good as you’d like, I recommend my online apprenticeship course.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark.

Ray Harmony :)

Photo by Wout Nes

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

Listen below, or on any podcast app.

Every song is a musical story. When we read a story, we don't want a timeline of events. We want an unfolding narrative with scene setting, emotional dynamics, and exciting twists in the journey. In music, this is the ​Art of Arranging​ (video).

Ray & Kate :)

PS: To learn how to arrange a whole song, plus every other step of the music making process, sign up for ​Apprenticeship #1​ (online course).

If your chord changes sound disjointed, you probably need to use inversions. That's just the fancy word for re-ordering the notes of a chord. For example, Am can be A C E, or C E A, or E A C. So, if your progression is jumping around from one chord to the next, re-order some of the notes to smooth the changes.

Ray & Kate :)

PS: For more on this hack and others, read our Songwriting & Producing PDF. It contains everything you need to know for making good music, all in one PDF.

If your melody is sounding boring, it probably lacks a motif. A motif is a short idea that's repeated to give the melody structure.

So, play your melody and listen for the catchiest bit. Next, delete the boring bit. Now, copy & paste that catchy bit into the gap. If you need to change the notes to fit a different chord, that's ok, but don't change the rhythm.

Ray & Kate :)

PS: This hack is from our Songwriting & Producing Course which gives you all the music making essentials in one hour!

Got a boring melody? It may be due to a small range, i.e. the distance between its lowest and highest note. This should be around a 7th or an octave. If it's not, extend the range and add some passing notes to smooth the contour.

Ray & Kate :)

PS: This hack is from our Songwriting & Producing Course which gives you all the music making essentials in one hour!