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Hack Music Theory

Hack Music Theory

By: Ray Harmony
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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
  • Creating Calm Through Song Structure.

    Creating Calm Through Song Structure.
    May 19 2026
    Creating Calm Through Song Structure. How to make a sonic sanctuary, like Tamikrest. My favourite Saharan rock band Tamikrest just released their new album “Assikel”, and I’ve had it on repeat this week. Why? Well firstly, this is a mesmerizing collection of songs that make me feel good. I can sense the warmth emanating from their laidback desert grooves. And considering it’s the middle of May and we’ve just had more snow here in Alberta, I’m well up for their hot Saharan vibes! Another reason I love this album is that it was recorded live in the studio, to analogue tape. That’s what I’m talkin’ about! It’s the only way to capture the magical synergy that’s created when a great band performs together. It’s been a rare method of recording since the 1950s, when multitrack recorders became common in studios. So for this reason alone, Tamikrest’s new album is worth a listen. But my favourite thing about “Assikel” is the unusual song structures. And that’s something we can all learn from this band. Their songs are not structured like regular songs, which switch back and forth between verse and chorus sections. When it’s done well, that switching is stimulating. But, the downside of being stimulated is that it’s the opposite of being relaxed. There’s nothing wrong with a coffee in the morning. But a coffee before bed? Well, that’s a very different story. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And as our fast-paced modern world speeds up exponentially, the calm that Tamikrest’s non-switching song structures create is a sonic sanctuary. In the sizzling Sahara, it’s far too hot for stimulation. The wisdom of the desert invites us to sit in the shade. This shifts our attention to stillness, and awakens an idea that maybe we don’t need anything out there. Maybe it’s perfect right here in the shade. I was born and raised in South Africa, and I remember that feeling of being so hot that you’re forced to sit as still as possible, because any movement creates heat in your body, and that’s the last thing you need. So you sit still. Sweating and contemplating. Contemplating and sweating. Until the need for water outweighs the need for stillness, so you stretch out your arm, slowly, and reach for the drink. So here’s the songwriting hack that we can all learn from Tamikrest: Songs don’t always have to be journeys through different sections, they can instead be contemplative explorations of one section.Stillness is a sonic sanctuary. For all these reasons and more, I’ve got Tamikrest “Assikel” on repeat. I’d love to know what you have on repeat this week, so please let me know in the comments. And thanks for listening, my friend, you are very much appreciated here. 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 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! 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
  • A Couplet a Day, Keeps Insanity Away.

    A Couplet a Day, Keeps Insanity Away.
    May 12 2026
    A Couplet a Day, Keeps Insanity Away. Daily creative habits for better mental health. We’ve just moved. Again. For more than a decade now, Kate and I have been averaging about one move per year. Last year we moved twice, but our record is an impressive three moves in one year! The reasons for moving so often are numerous. Sometimes it’s our decision, sometimes it’s not (like the move we just made). The owner of the property we were renting sold it, so we had no choice. Time to pack up our lives. And move. Again. Psychologists say that moving is one of the most stressful events in life. Having immigrated twice, having lived in four countries, and having moved so many times that I stopped counting when the number of places got to the mid-20s. I agree. Moving is stressful! And for creatives like us, one of the worst things about moving is the loss of our routine. We work so hard to carve out a little “me time” in our calendars for making art, and then we work so hard to protect that precious time against the countless encroachments. But once our creative routine is established, it’s life-changing. We’re better humans when we’re being creative. Creating is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Our bodies need to consume air, water, and food. Our souls need to create art. And for the record, when I say art, I mean anything original that we make. Yes it could be a song or an oil painting, but it could also be a flower arrangement or a loaf of bread. I have my own soda bread recipe that I’ve been honing for years, and making it puts me in the flowstate. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. But when we have to pack up our lives and move, making music and baking bread both come to an abrupt stop. This sudden cessation of creativity is devastating to our mental health. That’s why I began a new creative habit on January 1st this year. It’s a daily habit, and I haven’t missed a day, despite all the time-consuming activities that were added to my schedule over the last few months, like house hunting, packing, moving, and now unpacking. It’s for that reason that I started this new creative habit. Over the last few years my creative output has been dwindling, mainly due to depression, but that’s a story for another day. Back in December last year, I knew we were probably going to move again this year, and I also knew that there never seems to be enough time in the day to justify spending some of it making art, so I knew I needed a daily creative habit that could be sustained through all the inevitable disruptions. I actually got the idea from our daily yoga habit. Kate and I have been doing yoga every day for many years. Every morning, seven days a week, we do yoga. If we’re busy, we do less (on moving day, it was only 10 minutes). And when we’re not busy, we do up to an hour. But every day we do yoga. No excuses. It’s been life-changing, and I think it’s one of the few ways we’re hanging on to a tiny bit of sanity through these mad times! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So, here’s my new daily creative habit: writing a couplet. If you aren’t familiar with couplets, they’re simply two-line poems. And no, they don’t need to rhyme, unless you want them to. So every night in bed, I reflect on my day and think of the most important lesson I’ve learned. Then I write a couplet about it. And inspired by Wendell Berry, I write these with pen and paper. I love the limit of having to say everything I want in only two lines. It’s similar to a haiku. That strict limit forces us to think more creatively. It’s counterintuitive, but the more limits we have on our creativity, the more creative we need to be in order to express ourselves. Also, the concise nature of couplets means that we always have time to create one. We’re never too busy to write two lines. And the habit is working. It’s stuck. We’re in May now, and I haven’t missed a day. It’s also pretty cool to see my notebook filling up with creations. I’ve already got over 130 couplets. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. The last thing to mention about my new daily creative habit is that I decided before starting that I would not publish any of them. They’re like a journal. Personal. For my eyes only. I’m not even sharing them with Kate. The reason for this is to allow myself complete and utter freedom. As soon as we know that we’re making something that will be shared with other people, we start restricting ourselves. Sometimes that’s good. For example, if you want to start a band and play live shows, it is kinda essential that your songs are enjoyable to at least some people, otherwise you won’t get many gigs. On the other hand, if you’re making music exclusively for yourself with no intention of sharing it, then you can do whatever you want. Anything goes! And that’s liberating. So this is my invitation to you to start a daily creative ...
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    8 mins
  • Forget Meditation, Listen to Music.

    Forget Meditation, Listen to Music.
    Apr 17 2026
    Forget Meditation, Listen to Music. Meditating isn’t effective enough anymore. As people become more addicted to their phones, society’s obsession with mindfulness meditation grows. I think that’s because the collective unconscious knows that we desperately need to take back control of our minds, as our lives are being wasted through endless hours of meaningless scrolling. There are only 24 hours in a day, and despite the fact that most people (including myself) don’t sleep nearly enough, we do still sleep some of those 24 hours away. Then the remaining time each day seems to disappear in a blur, and suddenly it’s bedtime again. So we close our eyes. The alarm rings. And we do it all again. I think it’s safe to say that no kid dreams of spending their one precious life this way. The people who viscerally sense this horror of modernity usually end up turning to some form of meditation as a path back to reality. And for the record, I meditate every morning, so I encourage this practice. However, I’ve come to think that meditation alone is no longer a powerful enough method in this modern world. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. It’s easy for us to forget that throughout the ages, the people who meditated were living in a completely different world. Not only did they not have social media and smart phones, but their pace of life was unimaginably slow compared to ours. Think about it, a hundred years ago most people still walked everywhere they needed to go. Now there are cars that drive themselves! And progress just keeps speeding up. So when people in the old-world meditated, it wasn’t for stress-relief or relaxation. It was mainly for religious reasons. Different meditation practices were used for different functions, but none of them were designed for improving mental health in the age of social media, smart phones, and AI. Once again, I encourage people to meditate, just remember that these practices were not designed as a technique for coping with our modern world. If you’re looking for help with that, there’s a far more effective method: listening to music! You see, actively listening to music not only helps to focus our minds, just like mindfulness meditation does, but music also resonates with our hearts and makes us feel. It instantly changes our emotions, which instantly changes our energy. If there was a pill that could do that, it would be the best-selling drug on the market. But all drugs have negative side-effects, whereas listening to music doesn’t. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Also, when we sit in silent meditation, we might get a break from outside stimulation, but if you’re an introverted intuitive like me, then this practice usually results in our thoughts getting even faster and louder in this silent, empty space. But if we actively listen to great music, like Bach or Vivaldi, it doesn’t allow our minds to wander. The music acts as a tether to our minds. And for people with obsessive thinking patterns like me, this mind-tether provides a deeply welcome break from our thoughts. And not only that, as I mentioned earlier, the music also tugs at our heartstrings and activates our emotions, which further helps our minds relax. So the opportunity cost of doing silent mindfulness meditation is expensive, because we could be listening to music instead. And if we choose the music wisely, and listen actively with our eyes closed, the music will literally change our physiology, and therefore our mood. Better moods lead to better days. And better days lead to better lives. This serves as my invitation to you to start practising music meditation today. If you’re not sure what music to choose, my favourite is an 18-minute long EP of Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater by the phenomenal Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Now, the only thing more magical than listening to music, is creating your own music. So if you need help making music, I’ve got you covered. From beginner to advanced, there are free resources for you on my website. If you’re a beginner, start by reading 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 of the basics. If you’re already making music, though, you can work your way through 30 free PDF tutorials. They’re step-by-step musical “recipes” you follow to instantly make better music. All genres are there, too. Electronic to hip-hop, classical to metal, and everything in between. Enjoy! On top of the free book, 30 free PDFs, and over 220 free YouTube tutorials, I don’t paywall any of these posts either. I don’t want to exclude anyone. But, if you’re enjoying all these free offerings and want me to make more, please support my work by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s only about the cost of one coffee per month, but if enough people join...
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    6 mins
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