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Ray Harmony

Ray Harmony

By: Hack Music Theory
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The unorthodoX ideas 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
  • Replaced by Robots.

    Replaced by Robots.
    Oct 21 2026
    Replaced by Robots. The truth is that AI has already taken over. Before I read my new essay, I just wanna let you know that everything on our website is now half price. Whether you’re a complete beginner wanting to learn how to make music for the first time, or whether you’re intermediate (or even advanced) wanting to elevate your music from good to great, there’s a course or PDF to help you reach that next level. And they cover all genres, too. And just a heads up that unless the AI robots stop stealing my work, I’m going to have to close down Hack Music Theory on May 1st 2027, so if you’ve ever been tempted to learn my secret Song-Whispering method for making great music, then enroll soon! To be clear, I’ll still be posting regularly, but only on Substack. If you wanna keep following my work, then please subscribe at rayharmony.substack.com. It’s free to subscribe, and I don’t put any of my posts behind a paywall, they’re all free! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Enjoy, and now here’s my latest essay, which explains the reason for having to close down Hack Music Theory after being in business for 10 years. Thanks for reading, and a heartfelt thank-you for being here. You are deeply valued. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the alleged over-reaction to threats of AI stealing jobs and replacing people, but in reality, AI has already stolen countless jobs and replaced countless people. This is not speculation, it’s recent history. I can personally confirm this, because I’ve been replaced by robots. Have you been replaced, too? If so, please share your experience in the comments. It’s vital to speak out about this, as it seems most people don’t know that this has already happened for many of us. Or maybe they’re just in denial? I guess it’s all fun and games until the robots come for their jobs. Then they’ll believe us. So why is there all this talk about people over-reacting? Well, it’s a textbook gaslighting campaign. If you’re like me, then you can spot these a mile away nowadays. Same technique, different details. Welcome to Animal Farm. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. They need us to deny our senses, because we’re looking around at the world and can see all the robots that have already replaced humans. Just look at the checkouts in stores. They’re almost all self-checkout robots. There are hardly any checkout staff any more. And when you email most companies now, you get a reply from an AI agent. That’s at least one or two humans replaced by robots in small companies, and tens or even hundreds in big corporations. The evidence is everywhere. We can all see it (and verify it) for ourselves. So, this essay is my attempt to counter the gaslighting campaign, and to acknowledge all my fellow brothers and sisters who’ve also been replaced by robots. I see you, and I see your suffering. Please know that you’re not alone, and you’re definitely not crazy. We are indeed living in a world where humans (and humanity) are rapidly disappearing. And please know that you’re in the right for not being happy with how things are unfolding. Here’s some more evidence, from my experience. Google analytics emails me a report every month for the Hack Music Theory website. When I compare the numbers from 2021 to 2026, Hack Music Theory turned up in a similar amount of searches. There are still almost 100K people every month being offered my teachings in their search results. But (and it’s a massive but), the number of people who actually end up on our website has decreased by about 90%. And in turn, our income has also decreased by about 90%. And for the record, we weren’t making tons of money before the AI era, we were getting less than a high-school teacher makes. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So when all these AI fanboys on all these podcasts are saying that AI won’t steal jobs, please know that they’re lying. AI has not only stolen countless jobs already, it continues to violate copyrights and steal intellectual property every second of every day and night. When people ask AI about music theory, it comes to my website and YouTube channel (as well as other teachers’ websites and YouTube channels) and steals our teachings, then gives it to the person who searched, as if the robot wrote that explanation itself. And now that the person has that explanation right there on the same screen, there’s no need for them to visit our website. Every day and every night AI continues to steal our intellectual property and give it away for free. How is this legal? And yes, I’ve heard all the defenses and excuses and arguments, and how I just need to get with the times and change how I do things. But I’m a teacher. I’m in my late 40s, and teaching is the only thing I’ve ever done. After high school, I moved to Los Angeles to study music, then moved to London where I was a college...
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    10 mins
  • Overwhelmed With Content? Use This Method.

    Overwhelmed With Content? Use This Method.
    Oct 3 2026
    Overwhelmed With Content? Use This Method. One simple question can get your time (and your life) back! I deleted all my social media accounts 11 years ago, yet every day I’m overwhelmed with things to listen to. And that’s just on Spotify. There are countless fascinating podcast interviews, and more and more being uploaded every day. If you’re on social media, I can’t even begin to imagine how many choices you have. It’s beyond overwhelming! I’m obsessed with learning, and my main interests are philosophy, theology, psychology, anthropology, and history. But, all the waking hours each day aren’t enough to listen to all the podcast episodes I’m interested in. So I prioritize, then listen at a high speed in an attempt to learn as much as humanly possible. But this is utterly exhausting. Humans are not meant to take in this much information. And as there are still only 24 hours in the day, despite the ever-expanding universe of things to watch and listen to, I’m realizing that the more podcasts I devour, the less time I have for music. And when I say music, I don’t mean background music. I’m listening to Beethoven’s beautiful and uplifting Serenade for flute, violin and viola in D major (Opus 25) as I write this. But, I’m not actively listening. When we give music our full attention, it rewards us by changing our mind, body, and spirit. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Just a few minutes of music can change our biochemistry, which in turn changes our mood and our outlook. Or maybe it’s the other way round? Either way, music is magic. It’s arguably the most powerful thing that most of us have access to. If they could bottle the power of music, we’d all be rushing to buy it. Yet somehow, despite the fact that most of us have free music on tap, we spend hardly any time actively listening to it each day. That’s mad. I’m mad! Are you mad, too? Or to put it more accurately, we’ve been mind-controlled. If the masses were spending many hours actively listening to uplifting music every day, instead of scrolling on their phones, it would be extremely difficult to keep everyone fearful. And if the masses aren’t fearful, it’s pretty much impossible to control them. So they feed us fear propaganda 24/7, which we gobble up like fiends, and then waste our one precious life being scared of everything. This isn’t a new technique. It’s as old as civilization. They’re just getting exponentially better at influencing our beliefs and behaviour - thanks to progress and technology, which we’re constantly brainwashed into believing are great advances that make us so much better off than all the hunter-gatherers around the world who live happy and healthy lives without progress and technology. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So here’s how I’m trying to take back control of my time, and therefore, my life. Before clicking on something to watch or listen to, I’m asking myself this simple question: Is this art, or is this merely content? You can define art however you want, but at the end of the day, art nourishes and enriches us, while content only fills us. Not many of us need more content, but all of us could do with more nourishment and enrichment. Also, I’m thinking about what type of relationship I’d have with the thing I’m considering watching or listening to. Art is a two-way relationship, because it activates our imaginations. For example, the author Alexander McCall Smith, whose writing I love, has a new podcast called Positive Distraction. Each episode is a short story, written and read by the author. It’s a wonderful way to take a break from reality for a few minutes and withdraw into our imaginations. Content, on the other hand, is a one-way relationship: It feeds, we eat. Gobble, gobble, gobble. Another technique I’m trying out before watching or listening to something is asking myself this question: Will I feel better listening to one of my favourite albums instead of this thing? If the answer is yes, then I know what to do. And when all else fails, I simply ask myself: Can I live without watching or listening to this, or is this thing actually vital to my wellbeing? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So to summarise, when we encounter art, it invites us into an all-encompassing experience of heart, mind, and spirit. That’s how we can tell what’s art, and what’s merely content. And by the way, here’s a little tip for getting the most out of your listening. Research shows that listening to music alone actually increases its intensity. Yes, listening to music with other people is great for communal reasons, but being alone with the music is more intense. So if you’re listening to music to change how you feel, then do it privately. Eyes closed and headphones on gives an extra boost, too. Anyway, I hope that gives you something to ponder. And just before I go. If you’re ...
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    7 mins
  • AI Hitmaker to AI Hitman.

    AI Hitmaker to AI Hitman.
    Sep 16 2026
    AI Hitmaker to AI Hitman. Wow, that escalated fast! It was only two years ago that I was sitting here at my desk watching a video on how generative-AI was now able to make music. I remember thinking: Man, that song sounds awful, and super fake too! Fast forward a couple years to now, and hardly anyone can tell the difference between human and fully AI-generated songs. In fact, it’s worse than that, because humans have a bad habit of editing and tuning their recordings until they sound 100% mechanical. So, most AI-generated songs actually sound more human than human-made music. Sad, but true. However, we can forget about AI making hit singles that everyone loves, because now the AI Hitmaker has become the AI Hitman. And it wants to kill everybody! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Full disclosure here. I try my best to avoid the news, but Spotify keeps recommending podcast episodes about how AI wants to kill everyone, so I’m guessing that’s a thing now. If I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, great. If not, whatever. Because if there’s one lesson that the Covid era and its global fear campaign taught us, it’s that no good ever comes from making people fearful. So even if it’s true. If we are indeed on the metaphoric Titanic and it’s going down, then we might as well enjoy the music and be kind to each other. Doom-scrolling and panicking are not going to improve the situation. So if you’re sick of all the sensational headlines and fear propaganda, then come hang out here with me for some old-school human thinking and creativity. I deleted all my social media accounts 11 years ago, so if you click Subscribe below, I can guarantee you’ll be getting the most non-trending, non-sensational, non-divisive, non-AI-generated ideas on the internet. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Also, please head on over to the website WritersAgainstAI.net and subscribe to my colleagues, too. If you’re passionate about saving human skills as the world rushes headlong into transhumanism, then join me in supporting other people who’re also keeping the art of human creativity alive. We can’t do this without you. On that note. If you’re interested in making great music, you can download my Free Book and Free PDF Tutorials. I’ve got free resources for songwriters and producers at every level, from complete beginner all the way up to advanced. 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 contribution. And a heartfelt thank-you to all my paid subscribers. There are currently 20 of you. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, my friend, you are valued and appreciated. I’m Ray Harmony, and I hope you’ll join me again next time. Until then, remember to stop and smell the music. 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 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.
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    4 mins
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