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Ray Harmony

Ray Harmony

By: Hack Music Theory
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The unorthodoX thoughts of multi award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony. Older episodes were co-hosted by his wife and protégé Kate Harmony. As a songwriter and producer, Ray has made music with Grammy winners and multiplatinum artists, including Serj Tankian (System Of A Down) and Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine). Join over 255,000 YouTube 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! Download Ray's free book at HackMusicTheory.com© 2026 Revolution Harmony Music
Episodes
  • Making Music Is Bad for Your Mental Health.

    Making Music Is Bad for Your Mental Health.
    Jul 17 2026
    Making Music Is Bad for Your Mental Health. Songs need listeners, but most people are too busy scrolling nowadays. You’ve just finished a new song. You love it! You’re beyond thrilled. You can’t wait for people to hear it, so you excitedly upload it and click publish. And you wait. And you wait some more. Then you refresh. Maybe it just needed a refresh. No. Still nothing. Ah! There’s a notification now. Jack192837465 gave it a thumbs up! But, your song is five minutes long, and you uploaded it three minutes ago, so Jack192837465 couldn’t have listened to the whole song. Well maybe he’s loving it so much that he couldn’t help himself and simply had to hit that Like button mid-song. If he’s enjoying it that much, he’ll definitely leave a comment after he’s finished listening to the song. Definitely. So you wait. And you wait some more. Then you refresh. Maybe it just needed a refresh. No. Still nothing. After another half an hour, you close your laptop and go eat chocolate. You’re defeated. What’s the point? Songs need listeners, but most people are too busy scrolling nowadays. And even if they do listen, they’re not paying attention, they’re just playing your song in the background while they scroll. And that, my dear friend, is why making music is bad for your mental health. Technically speaking, it’s not the making music that’s the bad thing, it’s the sharing it with a world that doesn’t value music anymore. And to be clear. When asked, people will say they value music, but their actions say the opposite. And always listen to people’s actions, not their words. Because their actions reveal their true values. Remember that. Actions reveal values. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. It seems that the first principle of philosophy in this brave new world is: “I scroll, therefore I am”. Any time the smartphone user is not scrolling, they feel like they don’t exist, or maybe they feel that the world doesn’t exist, or something like that. I don’t know, I deleted all my social media accounts 11 years ago, so I don’t scroll. The bottom line is this: If you do choose to share your music, then don’t expect people to give it their attention. That’s exclusively reserved for their phones. The best you can hope for is that people listen to your music in the background while they scroll. That’s it. But how horrible is that? And it’s okay to admit it. We pour our heart and soul and mind into making a song (or a painting, a piece of writing, a garden, or whatever art you create), and then we share it with the world, only to be told through their actions that they can’t even give our creation five minutes of their attention. The world’s indifference to our creation is a form of rejection. And it hurts. A lot. Indifference is arguably a worse type of rejection than someone not liking our music, because indifference leaves us with no hope, whereas rejection leaves us with the hope that people might like something we create in the future. It’s vital to be gentle and compassionate to your inner artist in these situations, because rejection activates the same part of our brain as physical pain. The hurt is real. Rejection feels painful, precisely because it is painful, in the most literal way. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So what’s the solution? A time machine. Then we can all go back to before the smartphone zombie apocalypse. Remember when people actually walked around looking up? And even better than that, when people used to drive their cars and look at the road, instead of their phones. Aaah… those were the good ol’ days! Okay, so while we wait for someone to invent a time machine, how do we cope with this rejection in the meantime? Great question. And please do let me know if you figure it out. I’m all ears! The only partial solution I can currently think of to prevent this rejection, is to avoid the cause of it. In other words, don’t share your music. Or share it, but don’t expect any response. The only thing you should expect is indifference. That second option is way more difficult, though. Maybe impossible. I don’t know. Everyone’s different. Maybe you can share your music and not expect a response. I certainly can’t. The indifference is just too painful. A few years ago it sent me into depression, which I’m still struggling with. That’s why I took a break from making music, and focused my creativity on writing about music instead. But now, thanks to AI, it turns out that people no longer value writing either. So I’m currently thinking of becoming a baker. People still value bread, right? Well for now, at least. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Anyway, I’d love to know how you’re coping with the pain of releasing songs into a world that doesn’t value music anymore, so please let me know in the comments. And if you’re one of the last remaining ...
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    7 mins
  • Wanting Fans Is Not Wanting Validation.

    Wanting Fans Is Not Wanting Validation.
    Jul 29 2026
    Wanting Fans Is Not Wanting Validation. Music is social. No fans = No relationships. My previous essay, titled “Making Music Is Bad for Mental Health”, was a kind of eulogy to the pre-smartphone fan. You know, that person who used to listen with all their attention. Nowadays, people don’t really do anything with all their attention, and this indifference is why us creatives are struggling so much with our mental health. It’s painful to share our art with a world that’s too addicted to their phones to even give our work a few minutes of their attention. And while I did receive comments from people who were feeling the same, I was rather surprised to see so many comments from people telling me that I was seeking validation, and that I should be happy to make music even if nobody listens to it. This saddened me. Deeply. Because it revealed how isolation is considered to be totally normal now in every part of life, even the parts that were previously considered to be social events, like playing and listening to music. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So, this post is to set the record straight. For all those people who think that it’s perfectly okay for music to be an isolated experience, please understand this ancient fact: Music is communal. And it always has been, up until very recently. For evidence, please read some anthropology books to see the role that music played (and still plays) in the lives of hunter-gatherers. Then, please read some history books to see the role that music played in society through the centuries. Whether it was singing around a fire or in a church, whether it was listening to music in a concert hall or in a pub, music was always communal. Thinking of music as an isolated activity is like thinking of a tree falling in a forest when nobody is around to hear it. Did it make a sound? No. And just like that falling tree, when our songs don’t have listeners to hear them, they don’t make any sound either. This is not poetic. It’s literal. Human ears transform our songs from mere vibrations in the air into music. But here’s the catch: Those ears need to be attached to a human who’s actually paying attention. We’ve all experienced that bizarre phenomenon of talking to someone who’s scrolling on their phone, only to realize later that they didn’t actually hear anything we said to them. No attention, means no listening. Therefore, without someone’s attention, our music does not exist. And, the beautiful human connection we could have enjoyed from feeling the music together, never happens either. This is tragic. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So, as artists, it’s okay for us to want people to give our creations their attention. That’s how human cultures have always connected. So please, don’t let anyone gaslight you. And don’t gaslight yourself. Don’t convince yourself that this is the “new normal”. Even if it is, we’re creative people, so let’s use our imaginations and keep pretending that we live in a world where people value art and creativity. And I mean human art and human creativity. It’s crazy that we have to say that nowadays, but there you go. If enough of us imagine the world we want, maybe, just maybe, we can change this simulation. Lastly, if you’d like me to keep doing this work, please consider becoming a paid subscriber on my Substack, or making a one-off donation. If you can’t afford to at the moment though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app. That helps a lot, too. And be sure to grab your downloads of my Free Book and Free PDF tutorials. Thanks for being here, my friend, you are very much appreciated. 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 founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 10 million views and over 255,000 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! Everything here is 100% Human and 0% AI. Photo by Matheus Bertelli 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.
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    4 mins
  • Odd Time Signatures That Aren’t Odd.

    Odd Time Signatures That Aren’t Odd.
    Aug 7 2026
    Odd Time Signatures That Aren’t Odd. Rare Rhythms That Move People. American band Death Cab for Cutie recently released their new album “I Built You a Tower”, and the song “Stone Over Water” is a brilliant example of how to make music that’s rhythmically interesting without sacrificing its ability to move people, aka its danceability. And that’s a vital element of music, not to be underestimated. Because, if people can’t tap their foot or bob their head along to your song, they’ll find it frustrating and will probably hit that Skip button. To be clear, it’s easy to make rhythmically interesting music, but the cost is usually danceability. There’s an inverse correlation between how interesting a rhythm is and how danceable it is. The more interesting the rhythm, the less danceable. A great example of this is the Swedish band Meshuggah. I’ve seen them live numerous times, and watching people trying to dance to their songs is funnier than Monty Python’s “Ministry of Silly Walks” sketch! And then on the extreme opposite side of the spectrum, you’ve got the classic four-on-the-floor dance beat, which is the easiest groove to dance to, but it’s also the most boring, by far. So how do Death Cab for Cutie achieve this blend of danceable yet interesting? Well, they use a less common time signature: 6|4. While 6|4 is (sadly) rare in popular music genres, it doesn’t sound weird at all. That’s because the most common time signature is 4|4, so 6|4 is merely 4|4 with two 1/4 notes added. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And 6|4 is still an even time signature, so listeners can move along to it just like they can to 4|4. In fact, 6|4 feels just like 4|4 but with an extra half bar. The only people who would even notice that it’s an unusual time signature are musicians. 6|4 is arguably the most underused time signature. To understand why, we first have to talk about how popular musicians tend to informally group time signatures into two categories: 4|4 and Odd-Time. I think this is because the word “odd” can either mean odd as in numbers (like 3, 5, 7, etc.), or odd as in unusual. So despite the fact that it’s actually an even number time signature, 6|4 tends to be unofficially thrown into the odd-time category. What a rare gem! And that’s why it’s such a shame that there aren’t way more songs in 6|4. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And on that note, please open your Digital Audio Workstation and change your time signature to 6|4. This increase in bar length will spark your creativity too, because you’ll automatically write longer melodies, chord progressions, bass lines, and drum beats. This unusual characteristic will bring out some creative ideas, and it’s also super fun to be liberated from the constraints of 4|4. Anyway, I hope that gives you some ideas and inspiration for your music making this weekend, and if you want more, then download my Free Theory Book and Free PDF Tutorials. And if you’ve got a spare 60 minutes, then I can teach you all the music making essentials in a series of short step-by-step videos. After this one-hour Songwriting & Producing “Crash” Course, you’ll know how to make good music with all the instruments working together: lead melody, counterpoint backing melody, chord progression, bass line, drum beat, and more. So if you’re super busy, then enroll right now and you can go to bed tonight knowing how to write good music. Thanks for being here, my friend, you happy music making! 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 founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 10 million views and over 255,000 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! Everything here is 100% Human and 0% AI. Death Cab for Cutie - I Built You a Tower 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.
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    4 mins
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