Ray Harmony

  You’re Listening to Music Wrong.  You’re Listening to Music Wrong. I am, too. We all are. It’s tragic, but we can fix it. Over the last 20 years, music has been devalued and demoted. It used to be the hero. Now it’s the sidekick. The soundtrack for working or socialising or whatever. However, if you’re a Gen Xer like me, you’ll remember spending countless hours sitting in front of your hifi captivated by great records, which physically spun around on your player. We listened with all our attention, doing nothing else. Just listening. Back then, listening to records was considered a hobby. Listening was an activity, because it was active. That’s the key word. Active. But as our attention got stolen away from us by smart phones, listening to records became passive. Music was no longer the main attraction. No, that was reserved for looking at our phones. Without us ever consciously choosing to do so, we relegated music to soundtrack status. That’s one of countless reasons why both myself and Kate (my wife) deleted all our personal and professional social media accounts back in 2015. We’re now celebrating our 10-year anniversary of not being on social media. It’s been one of the best decisions of our lives, by far! In fact, next month I’m celebrating my 19-year anniversary of being sober, and honestly, I rank these two celebrations as equals. But despite not being on social media, Kate and I are still listening to music wrong. And it’s not because of our phones. My phone is a decade old, so most apps won’t work on it. I’m not buying another smart phone, though, so when this phone stops working, I’ll be returning to a dumb phone. I’m much happier being a luddite. For now, at least, I’m still a smart phone owner, but the only app I use is Spotify. However, Spotify alone is enough to pull my attention in too many directions, and as a result, I almost never actively listen all the way through albums anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I listen to albums every day, but it’s while I’m working, exercising, reading, or eating. Music is never the main event, it’s the soundtrack. That’s depressing. That needs to change. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Every night I read for two to three hours. I love books! That’s why I only ever read paper books. Focusing on a non-fiction book for hours every day has been invaluable for maintaining my attention span. And I’ve been reading like this for many years. But despite being able to focus on an academic book for three hours, when I’m finished reading for the night and I open Spotify for my dedicated two-hour listening session, my focus instantly scatters. My attention span vanishes. It’s like a magic trick! What did Spotify do to my ability to focus? I’m sure all music streaming apps are the same, but as I use Spotify, I’ll be talking specifically about that app. So I first started using Spotify the month it launched in Canada back in 2014. It was life-changing! It was a music library beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Like many Gen X teenagers in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I had a dream of one day having a whole room filled with records, floor to ceiling on every wall. Forget about that, though, now I had almost every record ever made in the palm of my hand. What sorcery was this? I loved it! I spent hours every day listening to albums that I’d always wanted to own, but buying records ain’t cheap, so my wallet had always been significantly smaller than my appetite for music. Spotify was my key to gaining access to the world’s biggest music library for a few bucks a month. It seemed too good to be true. And it kinda was, because after a few years, it all began to change. When I opened the Spotify app one day, I was suddenly confronted with all these podcasts. Podcasts!? They’re great, yes, but not in a music library. They’re a distraction from the artists and their albums. Against my better judgment, though, I tried a few podcasts. I was curious. Then  the next day when I opened Spotify, I was confronted with new episodes from the podcasts I’d listened to, as well as other podcasts that were similar to the ones I’d listened to. They all looked fascinating, but how was I supposed to listen to all those podcasts and still have time for listening to albums? Then one day I opened Spotify and they’d added videos. Videos!? But I signed up for a music library! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Spotify then added audiobooks. For a booklover, this was (and still is) something I absolutely cannot say no to. Included in my Spotify plan, I get 15 hours of audiobook listening time every month. I have to use those hours, I can’t help myself. But that’s about half an hour a day that I used to spend listening to albums that I’m now spending listening to audiobooks. And these days when I open Spotify, I get new audiobook recommendations based on what I’ve listened to. That’s on top of all the new episodes from podcasts I listen to, as well as recommended podcasts that I haven’t listened to. And then there’s also all the new releases from artists I’ve listened to, as well as recommended artists that I haven’t listened to. Yet there are still only 24 hours in the day! So despite not being on social media, despite having a barely functional 10-year-old phone with only the Spotify app on it, and despite having an attention span that can focus on reading an academic textbook for three hours, I can’t stay focused when I open Spotify. There’s simply too many choices. It’s overwhelming. I feel like I’m trying to drink from a fire hose! That feeling reminds me of when I lived in London and I used to frequent this amazing Chinese vegan restaurant in Camden. It had an all-you-can-eat buffet, and every dish was delicious. I don’t think I ever left that place not feeling sick! That’s how I feel after my two hours of dedicated listening every night. Spotify is an all-you-can-listen-to buffet, and I leave afterwards having listened to part of an audiobook, a couple podcasts, and only a few songs from random artists that were recommended. I feel stuffed. And exhausted. It’s far from the dream-come-true music library I originally signed up for back in 2014. If you’re on social media and/or you have more than one app on your phone, I feel for you. I really do. I can’t imagine how stuffed and exhausted you must feel! It’s impossible to keep up, and trying is futile. So, I’ve designed a plan that will (hopefully) enable me to enter the daily all-you-can-listen-to buffet and exit two hours later, feeling nourished and rejuvenated. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Here’s the plan in a nutshell. Every night when I open Spotify for my two-hour session, I’m going to start by actively listening to one album all the way through. Simple plan, but this will protect my sacred music time. Also, another bad habit I’ve picked up in Spotify is reading the artist’s biography while listening to their album. And after that, I’ll usually look at their other albums, or worse, go down the rabbit-hole of similar artists. Not anymore, though. I’m going to put my headphones on, push play, put my phone down, close my eyes, and listen with all my attention. Just like the old days. By the way, if you feel inspired to try my plan for your listening sessions too, I recommend downloading the album, and then putting your phone on flight mode so you’re not disturbed by notifications. My phone is almost always on flightmode anyway, because I try to minimise the EMFs in my environment. The less EMFs, the less stress on our bodies and minds. Also, something I’ve been working on for a while is minimising the albums in my saved library. I’ve found that I get overexcited about saving albums, but then every time I go into my saved library I’m overwhelmed with all the options, and end up listening to a song here and a song there, but never going deep into one album. So, I’m trying to think of that space as my Desert Island Discs collection. It’s my own personal Hall of Fame. I’ve currently got around 80 albums saved, but it’s getting smaller every month. When I notice an album that I haven’t listened to in a while, I remove it from my saved library. The fewer albums there, the deeper I can explore each one. My goal is to get down to my Top 40 albums, and then I’ll use a “one in, one out” policy to maintain that size. It’s been a surprisingly fun project to whittle down these albums to my all-time favourites. I’ve also noticed that the fewer albums in my saved library, the more I value and appreciate each one. Interestingly, I have no albums saved from my childhood or teenage years. All my favourite albums have been ones I’ve discovered over the last few years. Not sure what that says about me, psychologically speaking, but hey, that’s a story for another day. And it’s not that I only listen to new music, it’s just that the recordings tend to be new. For example, my favourite recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is from 2020. It’s performed by the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble, and conducted by Trevor Pinnock. Old music, but a new recording. This album is easily in my Top 10 all-time favourites. And speaking of great new albums. Yes, searching for these gems is like a treasure hunt. It’s thrilling! I love doing that. But it’s also one of the main reasons for my scattered focus. So, I’m designating a little time in every session for treasure hunting, but only after I’ve actively listened to one of my saved albums all the way through. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we used to listen to the same album hundreds of times. We’d know all the lyrics, all the melodies, all the riffs, all the drum beats, and even a lot of the drum fills too. It wasn’t uncommon for a Gen X teenager to be able to air-drum the fills while listening to their favourite albums. I miss knowing albums that intimately, and I miss the way that knowledge deepened our appr

  The 4 Types of Artist. Which Are You?  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. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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.     Donate. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat.  Photo by Mart Production     About. 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".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  AI Is Not a Tool. Stop Calling It That.  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. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. 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.     Donate. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat.  Photo by Mart Production     About. 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".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  AI Is Killing Music! This Is How We Save It.  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat.   Photo by Mart Production     About. 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".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  AI Saves Us Time. That’s Bad!  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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.      Donate. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat.  Photo by Mart Production     About. 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".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  AI Can't Make Music.  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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?  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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.     Donate. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat. Photo by Mart Production     About. 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".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  Making Music is Hard. Why Bother?  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.  Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox.  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 :)     Donate. Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat. Photo by Mart Production     About. 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 Wout Nes  Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".     Podcast. Listen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write aCatchy Melody.     Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file   If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2877864/catchy-melody        Intro.  British band Glass Animals are absolutely massive! At the time of writing this, they’re ranked #257 in the world on Spotify. Most artists as famous as them have achieved their success as a result of an obsessive striving for celebrity. However, Glass Animals seem to be obsessed with making catchy music instead. And not only that, their music is surprisingly creative for a band as successful as them. If you’ve been doing our Hack Music Theory tutorials for a few years, you’ll know that we don’t usually cover “celebrity artists”. The reason for that is because (nowadays) there’s an inverse correlation between the success of an artist and the creativity of their music. For an artist to achieve a fanbase of tens of millions, their music needs to appeal to the masses. And most people (nowadays) want “sugary” ear-candy music that’s pleasantly predictable, i.e. boring, bland background music. So why are we doing a tutorial on such a huge band? Well, Glass Animals’ new single “Creatures in Heaven” is a masterclass in catchy melody writing. The lead melody in their chorus has a whole bunch of creative hacks, as well as a very clever twist in its tale. So, inspired by “Creatures in Heaven”, here’s our 6-step method for writing a great melody that’s catchy enough for the masses. But first… Tea!     Step 1. The Chords  Open your DAW, leave the time signature on 4|4, but change your tempo to 80 BPM. Next, create a four-bar loop on your melody track, with a 1/16 grid. Okay so you may be wondering why the first step in a melody tutorial is… the chords?! Well, all great melodies are written over chords, or implied chords (chords are “implied” when they’re not played separately but their notes are incorporated into the melody instead). The reason it’s best to write a melody over chords is because it gives the melody a harmonic progression. Without this progression, the melody will sound mind-numbingly boring, as it won’t go anywhere harmonically. The difference is night and day. It’s like walking through a beautiful forest along the ocean compared to walking on a treadmill in a stinky gym. There’s no comparison! So let’s get our chord progression written, that way we’ve set ourselves up to write a great melody. Glass Animals are in the key of D major for their chorus (so we’ll use it too), and they use four chords in their progression (so we’ll do that too). D Major (notes) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D E F♯ G A B C♯  D Major (chords)* 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Dmaj Em F♯m Gmaj Amaj Bm C♯dim   As you probably know (or as you’ll hear if you play it), the diminished chord is crazy dissonant. It’s safe to say that using C♯dim ain’t gonna appeal to the masses, so take that off your menu. But other than that, you can use whatever you want. Glass Animals use all three major chords, and only one minor. Playing three major chords in a major key gives their chorus a wonderfully uplifting vibe. So, think about your balance between major (happy) and minor (sad) chords. Also, think about the order of your chords. Glass Animals play the root chord (Dmaj) second. This detracts attention from it and creates a more fluid atmosphere. We played Dmaj last, though, which creates a more final ending. You can play Dmaj wherever you want, but consider where you want to draw people to the “home” chord. Here’s our progression: Gmaj → Bm → Amaj → Dmaj *If you need help working out the chords in a key, read Hack 10 in our Free Book.  Once you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in the root note of each chord for a full bar (in a low octave). These roots will provide harmonic reference for your melody, which you’re gonna write above. This way you’ll be able to hear the relationship between each note in your melody and its accompanying chord. When you’ve finished writing your melody, mute these low roots. Then, create another track specifically for your progression, and draw in each full chord (i.e. 1, 3, 5). Root note of each chord in progression (key note, D, highlighted)     Step 2. The Drama  Great melodies contain drama, and there’s no better way to bring the drama than by using a big interval.* You see, larger intervals create intensity, while smaller intervals create continuity. You need both. In fact, you need a lot more smaller intervals than bigger intervals. However, if your melody contains only small intervals, it’ll be awfully boring. On the other hand, if your melody contains only big intervals, people will presume you were thoroughly drunk when you wrote it. *New to writing melodies? Use the Melody Checklist in our Songwriting & Producing PDF.  Over your first chord, write a handful of notes that end with a big interval around beat 3. And that big melodic jump should go up, not down (a large descending interval contains only a fraction of the drama of that same interval ascending). Be sure to begin your melody on beat 1, as this will make the most impact, and as this section is the chorus, first impressions matter even more than usual. Use a combination of note values for interest. And remember, if you wanna emphasize a chord’s major (happy) or minor (sad) vibe, then play its 3rd in your melody above. Melody’s opening segment with large interval (highlighted) for drama     Step 3. The Fall  You’re now gonna finish your melody’s first phrase with “the fall”. This is an utterly brilliant technique that Glass Animals use in their melody. And, it makes for a deeply pleasing balance between the drama and the gentle ride down afterwards. Your last note is currently that high note around beat 3, so now you’re gonna write a smooth contour that flows back down to somewhere around where you began. All good melodies have phrasing (i.e. where the melody rests), regardless of whether they’re sung or played on an instrument. This is because the melody itself needs to breathe, not just the singer. These rests also break-up a melody into digestible bits (i.e. phrases), which makes it easier to remember. So, end your first phrase on a longer note, and have at least a 1/16 rest at the end of your first bar (i.e. beat 4a). You can have an 1/8 rest if you prefer, but nothing longer than that, otherwise you’ll lose the momentum. First bar completed with “the fall” (highlighted)  Notice how we didn’t play the chord’s root (G) in our melody. That root will be played in the chords below, so you don’t need to play it unless you actually want to.     Step 4. Rhythmic Variation  Copy and paste your first phrase into bar two, and make sure to also start it on beat 1. Glass Animals use a great hack in their second phrase, which makes it familiar to the listeners while simultaneously freshening it up so it’s not boring. They achieve this by using rhythmic variation. Simple, but massively effective. By only changing a few note values, the phrase is both predictable and unpredictable. First phrase copied and pasted into bar two (highlighted)  Repetition is vital if you wanna appeal to the masses. People love a melody they know. But, too much repetition will make a melody predictable. And as soon as it’s predictable, their attention will move to some other novelty in their environment; probably their phone (it’s a sad reality that music is competing with phones for people’s attention). So it’s essential to repeat your melody for it to get stuck in their heads, and rhythmic variation will prevent it from losing its novelty and appeal. Glass Animals change almost all their note values, but only slightly. Let your ear guide you into the Goldilocks Zone in this step, as too much change will make the phrase sound unfamiliar, while not enough change will make it sound predictable. Lastly, Glass Animals add one new note at the end of their phrase, so it actually finishes on the last beat of the bar. This new note is a 1/16, which is completely unexpected, so it adds to the novelty. We did this too, but you don’t have to. If you don’t, though, then extend your last note so it also finishes at the end of the bar. Second phrase with rhythmic variations (highlighted)     Step 5. The Climb  We’re halfway through our melody now. And after two phrases that “fall”, Glass Animals counters that with a phrase that “climbs”. In the same way that the notes in our “falling” phrase aren’t all descending, the notes in our “climbing” phrase don’t all have to be ascending either. But, there needs to be an overall climbing contour and feel to it. So, you’ll wanna start this phrase slightly lower than your “falling” phrases, and then play around with writing a generally ascending contour. Also, Glass Animals start this phrase on beat 1+, which is another way of adding novelty and interest. We did the same. You don’t have to start there but you do have to start on an off-beat, as your previous phrase ends right at beat 1. And your melody needs a breath there, so your only other options are beat 1e or beat 1a. Before you jump in and begin writing this phrase, there’s one more guideline. After their climb, Glass Animals actually take their melody down a big interval. In fact, it’s the exact same big interval they use in their first phrase, but this time it jumps down instead of up. This provides a clever mirror image, which is utterly brilliant, but most people won’t notice that. What is noticeable, though, is how this low note extends the range (i.e. distance from lowest to highest note) of their melody. Climbing segment of third phrase (highlighted)   Good melodies usually have a range of about an octave. This ending note is the last opportunity to extend your melody’s range to somewhere around an octave. Final note (highlighted) of third phrase, extending melody’s range     Step 6. Melodic Structure  This final step is a game-changer! You see, when we hear Glass Animals’ third phrase (i.e. the “climbing” p

  How to WriteSweeping Arpeggios.     Free PDF Tutorialincludes multitrack MIDI file  If the link above does not work, paste this into your browser:https://hackmusictheory.com/album/2639559/sweeping-arpeggios        Intro.  Do your arpeggios all sound rather similar? It’s a common problem for producers. Arpeggios are when you play a chord one note at a time, and it’s one of the best techniques for making your progressions more interesting. And while it’s definitely more rare to hear arpeggios than “block” chords in popular music genres, most of the arpeggios you do hear are rather boring. Merely playing chords one note at a time is not a foolproof way of making progressions more creative. If you want better arpeggios, you need to write an internal melody within them. Want even better arpeggios? Write two internal melodies, or maybe even three! What are we talking about when we talk about “internal melodies”? Well, the melodies need to be formed from notes within the arpeggios, as opposed to writing a melody over the top of them. There’s obviously nothing wrong with doing that, but it will be heard as a separate melody, not as part of the arpeggios. While there’s an abundance of genius examples of this in classical music, there are sadly not many to be found in popular music genres. If you’re into the rock side of things, Muse has plenty of creative arpeggios. Examples are even rarer on the electronic side of things, though, but Daft Punk comes to the rescue with their song “Motherboard” (check out their new “Drumless Edition” of this song, as it’s easier to hear the arpeggios). At 28 seconds into this track, the most beautiful arpeggios begin to sweep up and down. Despite their fast pace (i.e. 1/16 notes), they’re thoroughly calming due to their smooth, sweeping motion. And it’s not just the fast pace that makes their arpeggios so creative, it’s also their choice of notes. So, inspired by “Motherboard”, here’s our 5-step method for writing sweeping arpeggios, which are guaranteed to stand out from all those boring, clichéd arpeggios. But first… Tea!     Step 1. Chords  As arpeggios are simply broken up chords, the first step is to write a chord progression. So, set your tempo to 103 BPM, then create a four-bar loop and set your grid to 1/16 notes. Daft Punk play their arpeggios on woodwind instruments, but we’ll get to that in the last step. For now, we actually recommend using a piano, for two reasons. Firstly, piano arpeggios are beautiful, so if you want, you can keep them on a piano sound (we did). Secondly, the piano has a much bigger range than any woodwind instrument, so you won’t be held back by not being able to play a note because it’s too high/low for that instrument. Daft Punk’s arpeggios are in the key of E minor, so we’ll use it too:  E natural minor 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7 Em F♯dim Gmaj Am Bm Cmaj Dmaj    Regarding what chords to choose. This PDF is all about arpeggios, so we’re not going to cover the “chord choice” topic. If you need help with writing better chord progressions, we recommend our Songwriting & Producing Course. The only three guidelines we suggest are to choose four chords, avoid the diminished chord, and play the root chord somewhere (you don’t have to start with it, though). Here are the chords we chose for our progression: Cmaj → Gmaj → Dmaj → Em After you’ve chosen your four chords, draw in each chord’s root note for one bar. Root note of each chord in progression     Step 2. Low  Just a heads up, those long root notes are just there for reference, they’re not going to be part of your final arpeggios (you’ll mute them in the last step). Having the root notes there while writing arpeggios is a super helpful hack, because it allows you to hear the interval/harmony between each note in your arpeggio and the root of that chord. This way you can hear if each note is conveying the right emotion. Now, in this step you’re going to write the lower portion of your arpeggios. You see, sweeping arpeggios tend to cover a wide range. That’s what gives them their unique sound. Those boring, clichéd arpeggios that you hear most often usually only cover the range of each chord, which is almost always one octave or less. The range of Daft Punk’s arpeggios is just over two and a half octaves, and the range of ours ended up being just over three octaves. Those are massive ranges! And that’s one of the most notable features of sweeping arpeggios. As we mentioned in Step 1, writing this on the piano is ideal because not all instruments can accommodate huge ranges. We don’t know if this range issue was the inspiration behind Daft Punk dividing up their sweeping arpeggios between the clarinet and flute, but it sure is a beautiful outcome. The clarinet has a lower range than the flute, so their arpeggios start with four lower 1/16 notes on the clarinet, then the flute takes over and plays four higher 1/16 notes. So beautiful! We decided to do three notes for the lower portion of our arpeggios, because it gives us five notes to navigate up to the climactic peak and back down again. However, please feel free to use Daft Punk’s four-and-four formula instead. The lower portion of your arpeggio is going to be the first three (or four) 1/16 notes. So spend some time now experimenting with what notes you want to begin your arpeggios with. You’re going to use the same pattern for each chord, so make sure you really like the notes and their contour. We chose the (shockingly) simple pattern of 1, 2, 3, because we’ve got a trick up our sleeves that we’ll reveal below. Lower portion (highlighted) of Cmaj arpeggio   This lower arpeggio portion needs to anchor it, so playing the root is a must. You don’t have to start on the root, but it’s not a bad idea. Daft Punk do, and so do we. When you’re happy with your three/four notes, copy and paste them into beat 3. And yes, you’re going to sweep up and down twice over each chord. There’s two reasons for this. Firstly, the repetition will help your arpeggios to be more memorable. And secondly, if you only did one sweep up and down in each bar, your range would be absolutely ridiculously gigantic! As we mentioned above, our final arpeggios ended up sweeping across three octaves in a mere two beats, so imagine the GARGANTUAN range you’d end up with if your arpeggios swept over four beats, instead of two. That’s definitely way too much of a good thing! Now, here’s the trick we mentioned above. Instead of playing the same three/four notes in beat 3. Move them to create a variation. For the record, Daft Punk doesn’t do this in their song, it’s our little hack to add more melody into the arpeggios. And to make things even more interesting here, we don’t start this second lower portion on the root note, we start on the 5. We then play the root, and then the 3. Second lower portion (highlighted) of Cmaj arpeggio   When you’re happy with the second lower portion of your arpeggio, play the same pattern over your other three chords. Our lower pattern is: 1, 2, 3 and then 5, 1, 3. Lower portion of Gmaj arpeggio    Lower portion of Dmaj arpeggio    Lower portion of Em arpeggio     Step 3. Peak  Now that the lower part of your arpeggios is complete, it’s time for the upper part. Instead of writing this in one go, though, we’re going to divide it up. This allows us to bring more melody into the upper part, but we’ll get to that in the next step. For now, we’re focusing on the peak, which is where your arpeggios will reach their highest note. After that, they’ll begin their descent. High notes are attention-grabbing, so these peaks will stand out. Therefore, writing them first prevents us from getting distracted by the other high notes that’ll lead up to them. So, choose two (or maybe three) notes that you like over your first chord. Your peak is going to happen in beat 2, and then again in beat 4. But, before you get too attached to the notes you’ve chosen, copy and paste them over the next two chords as well. In other words, you’re going to play the same two/three notes as your peak in bars one through three. That peak has to sound equally good over all three chords. If it doesn’t, try different notes. This is a brilliant hack of Daft Punk’s, as that repetition creates stability through all their fast-paced arpeggios. We used F♯ and G as our peak notes. Over our first chord, Cmaj, the G is 5 and the F♯ is ♯4. Daft Punk plays the F♯ over Cmaj as well. We wanted to do that too, so we could share how clever this note choice is. You see, with their first chord being Cmaj, that ♯4 makes it sound like they’re in the Lydian mode*. This is a super clever and creative illusion, and makes their arpeggios instantly stand out!  *If you’re new to the modes, we recommend taking our Songwriting & Producing Course. Peak notes over Cmaj   Peak notes copied and pasted (highlighted) into bars two and three   So what about the peak notes in your fourth bar? Well, Daft Punk use a double-hack in their fourth bar. They use different peak notes. This creates a variation, which keeps the listener’s attention. And, it becomes the climax of their arpeggios as well. So, your fourth bar is going to contain the highest two/three notes of all your arpeggios. Try to create a satisfying, concluding feeling with them too. Also, while Daft Punk uses the same notes for both peaks in their fourth bar, we used different notes. This adds even more melody into our arpeggios. One thing to consider with your peak notes is to try a combination of harmonic notes (i.e. from the chord) and non-harmonic notes (i.e. not from the chord). If those concepts are new to you, here’s a couple of examples to demonstrate. Over the Cmaj chord, the harmonic notes are C (1), E (3), and G (5), because they’re in the chord. The non-harmonic notes over Cmaj are D (2), F♯ (♯4), A (6), and B (7). If you only use harmonic notes for your peaks, it will sound boring. If you only use non-harmonic notes for your peaks, it will sound like you got lost in

  How to Write Heavy BASS Lines  Step 1. Syncopated OctavesSet up one bar of 4|4 with your grid on 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 110 BPM. You’re gonna start by using only one note, and the octave of that note. We’re using A in our example. So, draw in every 1/16 note on the low A. Now, play around with moving a handful of them one octave up.These high notes will make accents in your bass line, so you want them to create a cool rhythm all on their own. And one of the best ways to do that is to syncopate most of them. In other words, most of them will not be on the main beats. All that syncopation adds tons of energy! Step 2. High LineYour bass line actually consists of two lines now: a high line, and a low line. So in this step you’re gonna add a melodic element to your high line. A great note to start on is the ♭3 (which is C in our example), as it’s super strong and moody! And by the way, if these flats and numbers confuse you, no problem, just read hack 8 in our free book (link below).Right, so what other notes should you use in your high line? Well, as we’re writing a heavy bass line, you wanna crank up the dissonance, so throw in a ♭2 somewhere (which is B♭ in our example). And if you use the ♭3 and the ♭2, then you could also use the 2, which is the note in between. And feel free to repeat notes. In our example, we played the ♭3 twice, the 2 twice, and the ♭2 once. And a shoutout to local Vancouver BC legends Front Line Assembly, as this lesson is based on the song “Purge” from their 2021 album “Mechanical Soul”.  Free BookAlso, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing.  Step 3. Low LineSo as you could hear, the bass line is already sounding good. And to be honest, most producers would think it’s now complete, but not Front Line Assembly! No, they’ve got one more trick up their sleeves, and that’s the dissonance they add to their low line.Most of their low line remains on the root note, however, they’ve moved a few notes down one semitone to the 7 (which is G♯ in our example). Also, at the very end, you could throw in a ♭3 for a little variation. This makes the bass line loop more smoothly as well.Adding this dissonance to your low line is a game-changer, as it’s super subtle (seriously, most people won’t even notice it), but it adds a feeling of heaviness that you simply can’t achieve without it!  PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write Advanced DRUMS  Step 1. PatternSet up two bars of 4|4 with your grid set to 1/16 notes, and your tempo at 136 BPM. Now, instead of starting to make your drum beat with the usual kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (like everyone else does!), you’re gonna start by writing your kick and snare pattern on the hi-hats.Wait, what?! I know that seems like a really odd thing to do, but this method is gonna result in a far more creative (and therefore “advanced”) drum beat. Okay, so there are many ways to write a creative pattern, but here’s an easy method. Start by playing every 1/8 note. Then, delete a couple of those. This creates variation. And then, move one or two hits over to the next 1/16 note. This creates surprise.  Step 2. BeatRight, now that you’ve written a creative rhythm, it’s time to turn it into a drum beat. To do that, simply divide up your pattern between the kick and the snare. In other words, move some notes to the kick and others to the snare. But, instead of falling back into the conventional approach of kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats, purposefully avoid doing that in the first bar. This unusual approach in your first bar creates a huge amount of interest that grabs the listeners’ attention.But, if you repeat this approach in your second bar, it won’t sound as interesting any more, as they’ll be expecting it. So, in your second bar, you’re purposefully going to switch to a conventional approach with the kick on beat 1 and snare on the backbeats (i.e. beats 2 and 4). This cycling back and forth between an unconventional bar and a conventional bar keeps your listeners constantly engaged.And a shoutout to Royal Blood, and especially their drummer Ben Thatcher, as this lesson is based on his beat from their new single “Mountains at Midnight”. Just before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.  Free BookAlso, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing.  Step 3. PulseThis is the easy part. Just add an 1/8 note pulse on a cymbal. This simple rhythm glues the complex beat together. Ben actually switches the pulse between the hats for the verses, and the crash for the choruses. And if you need more help with your beats, download our Hack Drum Beats PDF (link opens in new tab). It contains everything you need to know for making great beats, all in one PDF. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write Locrian BASS Lines Step 1. BasicSet up four bars with an 1/8 note grid, and your tempo at 97 BPM. You’re gonna start by writing a basic bass line that plays every 1/8 note. This creates momentum. We’re in B Locrian here, which is just all the white notes from B to B. The Locrian mode is exceptionally dark, and what makes it so dark is the ♭2 (which is C in this example) and the ♭5 (which is F in this example). Now, because those two notes are what make Locrian sound so dark, you wanna be sure to use both of them in your basic bass line. But, start by playing the root note (which is B in this example) for the whole of your first bar, as that anchors it into the key. And by the way, if you find modes confusing, just read the mode hack in our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab). Step 2. EnergyNext, change your grid to 1/16 notes. You’re gonna create some syncopation now, which is when you accent an off-beat. This will pump energy into your rigid sounding basic bass line and bring it to life. You can add syncopation however you want, but here’s an easy method: shorten an 1/8 note to a 1/16 note, then lengthen the note next to it to fill the gap. Add a couple of these to each of your four bars. And a shoutout to fellow Canadian producer Rezz, as this lesson is based on her recent single “Suffer in Silence”. Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing. Step 3. Next LevelBy now your bass line will already be sounding good, but to take it to the next level, you’re gonna add some octaves. Rezz does something really cool here. She moves some of the notes that fall on the backbeat snare, up an octave. This accentuates those backbeats, and adds even more energy to the bass line. However, don’t do this on every backbeat snare, as that will actually lessen its impact. Also, somewhere in your bass line, move one syncopated note up an octave. This keeps your bass line fresh and unpredictable. Lastly, here’s a bonus step. Use a rest somewhere. This gives your bass line space to breathe. Rezz used a rest at the very end of her bass line, so we’ll do the same thing by deleting our last two notes.  PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write a Beautiful CHORD Progression  Step 1. Beauty Set your grid to 1/16 notes and your tempo to 113 BPM. We’re in the key of A minor here, which is just all the white notes from A to A.Right, so the first step to writing a beautiful chord progression is finding a beautiful chord. There are many beautiful chords, but a good guideline is to leave space for the harmony to breathe. Think about walking into a beautiful cathedral. The space is as beautiful as the structure.When applying this concept to chords, it’s as simple as not cramming too many notes in. Three notes is enough. But yes of course, you can use more notes if you want, it’s your music. In this example, the first chord contains the root, ♭ 3 and ♭7. And if all these flats and numbers are confusing, read hack 8 in our free book.  Step 2. Chord Beat This is the fun part! You’re now gonna turn your chord into a drum beat. A “chord beat”, if you will. If you’re playing this on a keyboard, you’re gonna play the root note (A) in your left hand, and the other two notes (C and G) in your right hand. Now, pretend your left hand is the kick drum and your right hand is the snare drum, and come up with a cool beat. And if you don’t play the keyboard, no problem, just do this step right here on the MIDI grid.Each hit is only going to be a 1/16 note, so the final result will sound really percussive, like a pitched drum beat. All those rests add rhythmic space to your harmonic space, creating a beautiful simplicity. And a shoutout to Sleep Token, as this lesson is based on their beautiful song “DYWTYLM” from the new album “Take Me Back to Eden”.  Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing.  Step 3. Bass Okay, so we’ve got one beautiful chord played over one bar. Now, let’s turn this into a four-bar chord progression. So, start by copying and pasting your first bar into the remaining three bars. You’re actually going to leave your right-hand notes the same throughout the four bars. This creates unity, which adds to the beauty.Next, spend some time moving your bass note up and down in bar two. Once you’ve found a beautiful place for it, stay there for the whole bar. Then, do the same thing for bars three and four. Sleep Token stays on the same bass note here for the two bars. You can do that, or you can move it, like we did in our example.  PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write a BASS Line with Harmony  Step 1. Low Harmony is when two or more notes are played together. And sadly, it’s rare to hear harmony in a bass line. The word “line” is actually used to convey the fact that it’s a melody, not a harmony. That’s how rare harmony is on the bass!You see, most producers think the bass frequencies are too low to play harmony. In other words, if you play two notes together, it’ll sound like a rumbling mess. But, that’s not true. That only happens when the two notes are close to each other. For example, if your root note is a low A, and you play a D above that. It doesn’t sound very nice if you play the D that’s five semitones above the A. But, if you play the D an octave higher, so it’s now 17 semitones above the A, it sounds absolutely beautiful!Alright, so now we know how to successfully add harmony to a bass line, however, we don’t yet have a bass line to add it to. So, step 1 is to write a cool one-bar rhythm on the root note. And we’re using A natural minor. Then, copy and paste that rhythm to three other notes, so you’ve got a four-note bass line over four bars. And feel free to throw in some passing notes to smooth the line out.And a shoutout to the British band GoGo Penguin, and especially their bassist Nick Blacka, as this lesson is based on the title track from their beautiful new album “Everything Is Going to Be OK”.  Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing.  Step 2. High Now it’s time for the fun part: writing another line over the top, so you’ve got two lines playing together. Start this step by choosing what note you want to use for the harmony over your root note. And this is where Nick Blacka was super creative, as he actually used one high note that sounds good over all four bars. You don’t have to do that, but it’s very cool, so we did something similar in our example. We used D as our high note for three bars, then we varied it in the fourth bar.Once you’ve chosen your high note, write a cool rhythm for it over your root note in bar one. Then, copy and paste that rhythm into the remaining three bars. Once you’ve done that, feel free to add some rhythmic and melodic variations to keep things fresh. But you don’t have to do that, if you just wanna keep things simple.  PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.

  How to Write a Standout MELODY  Step 1. First ImpressionsThere are many ways to write a standout melody, but it’s difficult to improve on the method PJ Harvey uses in her new single “A Child’s Question, August”. That’s because nothing grabs our attention like a bold first impression. And by first impression, I literally mean the first note of the melody.You see, PJ Harvey starts her melody in the Dorian mode, and the very first note she sings is the major 6th. That’s the one-and-only note that makes Dorian different from the super common scale that we hear all the time: the natural minor. The vast majority of people are not used to hearing a major 6th over a minor chord, so when her melody begins with that unusual note, it instantly stands out.So, in D Dorian, which is all the white notes from D to D, the major 6th is B. When we play B in our melody over a D minor chord, you can hear exactly how powerful that one note is at grabbing our attention. So step 1 in this method is to use that unusual note to begin your melody, then finish the phrase with usual notes.  Free BookJust before we jump into the next step. If there’s an artist you want us to hack, drop us a comment on YouTube.Also, are you new to music theory? Or are you experienced, but you want a refresher? Then download our FREE BOOK (link opens in new tab). It only takes 30 minutes to read, then you’ll have a solid theory foundation that you can instantly apply to your songwriting and producing.  Step 2: Second ImpressionsYour listeners are now familiar with that unusual note, which means that if you play it again, it won’t be unusual any more. In other words, your melody is now at risk of losing its initial impact and therefore losing your listener’s attention. The way PJ Harvey deals with this issue is brilliant!In the second half of her melody, instead of singing the major 6th again, she sings the minor 6th. That’s the usual 6th note in a natural minor scale, which we’re used to hearing. But, after getting our ears used to that unusual note, the usual note now sounds unusual haha. What a brilliant trick!So to maintain your listener’s attention, step 2 of this method is to create a powerful second impression by using the minor 6th (which is B♭) in the second half of your melody. In other words, you’re using the natural minor for this phrase.Just to recap, we’re starting our melody in D Dorian, then switching to D natural minor. So use the major 6th (which is B) as the first note of your melody, then use the minor 6th (which is B♭) in the second half of your melody. And if you need more help writing melodies, just download our Songwriting & Producing PDF (link opens in new tab) and follow the seven guidelines in our Melody Checklist. PODCASTListen below, or on any podcast app.