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Hack Music Theory

Hack Music Theory

By: Ray Harmony
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 Welcome to the unorthodoX thoughts of multi award-winning music lecturer Ray Harmony (older episodes were co-hosted by Kate Harmony, his wife and protégé). 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). This space is like a songwriters' ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last. Join over 250,000 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 @ HackMusicTheory.com© 2025 Revolution Harmony Music
Episodes
  • This Is The Only Pure Music.

    This Is The Only Pure Music.
    Dec 11 2025
    This Is The Only Pure Music. A celebration of non-classical absolute music. Music has united people for millennia, but nowadays it’s been weaponized to divide us. I’ve personally experienced its uniting effects, though, so I know what’s possible. You see, I was born and raised in apartheid South Africa. I lived there until 1999, leaving a few months after Mandela’s presidency ended. I loved Mandela, and he probably did everything in his power to unite the country. However, the story you don’t often hear is that musicians were more successful in bringing the people together. Two of these musical heroes were Lucky Dube and Johnny Clegg. Their crossover appeal resulted in audiences that consisted of fans who would never have come together under any other circumstances. It was magical! That’s the power of music. But it wasn’t only their music that united the previously divided nation, it was their lyrics too. While they didn’t sugarcoat the situation, they did choose to focus on a positive future vision where South Africans were united. As a result, their songs created that more united country they had envisioned. Now, when I listen to the new releases on Spotify every Friday, I don’t hear much in the way of positive lyrics that were written to unite people. In fact, it’s rather obvious that most lyrics were written with the exact opposite intention. But as Thumper said: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” The legendary rabbit uttered that wisdom over 80 years ago. It’s time we start living by this rabbit wisdom, which is why I’m sharing my musical method for doing this. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. In the celebrity culture we live in, most music has vocals because popular music tends to be all about the vocalists. They’re the stars. They’re the main attractions. It’s not about the song, it’s about the celebrity singing it. That is wrong for so many reasons, but that’s a topic for another essay. What concerns us here is something I called “pure music” in the title, but the formal term is “absolute music”. What is absolute music? It’s instrumental music, but at its purest. What do I mean by purest? Music that is presented without any preconceived concepts. In other words, music without a conceptual title. Arguably the best example of this is Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor. Beethoven composed this as absolute music. The listener could enjoy it with no preconceived ideas about what the music represented. Their imagination could conjure up whatever images it wanted. However, after Beethoven’s death, this sonata was given a nickname by a music critic. And for almost 200 years now, this breathtakingly beautiful piano piece has been painting pictures of moonlight in its listeners’ minds. How could it not? It is after all the Moonlight Sonata. But, what did listeners imagine before it was given that nickname? We’ll never know. We only know what one man imagined. This piece perfectly highlights the power of words. Even one word. And with that one word, every listener ever since has been primed to imagine moonlight when the piece is played. Words are powerful. Words shape our reality. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And that brings me to my main point. Songs convey their songwriters’ worldviews, but it’s precisely our differing worldviews that divide us nowadays. Up until a few years ago, it was perfectly normal to be friends with people who had different worldviews. In fact, that’s what used to make friendships interesting. Who wants to hang out with another version of themself? No thank you! I want open-minded friends who are totally different from me, with totally different worldviews from mine. That makes for fascinating conversations. Thanks to social media, though, the masses have been programmed into thinking that we need to surround ourselves with people who believe exactly the same things we believe. These online echo chambers fuel narrow-mindedness and intolerance. While I deleted all my social media accounts over 10 years ago, I know it’s futile trying to convince people to do the same. It’s by far the best solution, but another good solution is this: Stop listening to music with lyrics, and start listening to absolute music instead. And if you’re a songwriter, I encourage you to live by that rabbit wisdom: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all.” I appreciate that lyrics can be an outlet for expressing our disapproval at the “other side”. But there are better ways to do that, which don’t harm others (like journaling, for example). And until we realize that this ancient idea of the “other side” was invented by empires as a method for dividing and conquering the people, it’s best if we hold our tongues and say nothing at all. And yes, as songwriters, holding our tongues means writing absolute music...
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    9 mins
  • Don’t Lie! You Listen to AI Songs.

    Don’t Lie! You Listen to AI Songs.
    Dec 1 2025
    Don’t Lie! You Listen to AI Songs. There’s no way to avoid them, unless you do this… I’ve been speaking out against AI-generated music for a while now, but people keep telling me (proudly) that they don’t listen to songs made by AI. They also keep telling me (proudly) that AI songs are crap. Sadly, the only thing these comments tell me is that those people don’t understand that AI has a hidden presence in music. It doesn’t matter if you listen to jazz or classical or world or whatever genre (or artist) you think is not using AI, if it’s new music, they’re probably using AI. But not in the way you think. They’re not prompting it to make their whole album. That type of AI usage is relatively easy to spot. For now. Mark my words, though, before the end of 2026, it will be indistinguishable from the real thing. But we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. In the meantime, here’s what you need to know. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Almost all music makers are using AI. Some are proud of it, some are not. The ones who are not proud of it, are using it in secret. Sometimes they only use it to come up with an idea, sometimes to help them finish a melody they’re struggling with, sometimes to write a whole chorus, and yes, sometimes to write a whole song. You’ll never know, because it’s being used in the writing process, and that’s always carried out behind closed doors. In secret. So even if the band records their new album live, you have no way of knowing if AI was used in the writing process. If you want to know all the ways that songwriters and producers are using AI in music, watch the YouTube video titled The AI Music Race is Over by the brilliant Rick Beato. Also, there’s an essay of mine titled AI Is Killing Music! This Is How We Save It., which offers a method for artists to write new songs and guarantee their fans that they’re 100% human-made, so check that out too. Now, here’s the takeaway message from this essay: If you listen to new music, you’re listening to AI. And yes, you guessed it, the only way to be guaranteed that you’re listening to 100% human-made songs is to listen to older recordings (from before AI was commercially available). In other words, albums from before the 2020s. One of my favourite collections of 100% human-made music is the MTV Unplugged series from the ‘90s. Oh man, it does not get more real than that! These recordings are infinitely more valuable than diamonds. Cherish them, please. Alice in Chains is probably my favourite one in the series, but Pearl Jam is a close second. These albums still give me goosebumps 30 years later. That’s human magic. AI will never be able to do that. AI can’t express the human experience. AI cannot ever be in the same category as Layne Staley. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Right, now go and listen to the Alice in Chains “Unplugged” album, and be prepared for your spine to tingle, as you’re about to be touched by true human magic. Just before you go, though. If you’re interested in learning how to make magic yourself, or if you’re already making magic but want to improve, then I invite you to help yourself to the many free downloads here. If you’re a beginner, start with 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. And if you’re intermediate or advanced, download the Free PDF Tutorials, which teach you how to make great music in all different genres. And lastly, I don’t paywall any of these essays, as I don’t want to exclude anyone. So if you can spare a few bucks, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. It’s only about the cost of one coffee per month for you, but if enough people join, then I can pay the rent and keep helping you every week. So if you’d like to see my work continue, head on over to HackMusicTheory.com/Join. A heartfelt thank-you for being here. And welcome aboard the 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. 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! Photo by Ayşe İpek Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music ...
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    5 mins
  • Music Is Dead. Good Riddance!

    Music Is Dead. Good Riddance!
    Nov 26 2025
    Music Is Dead. Good Riddance! AI killed the recording star. Now what? Have you heard AI-generated music? It’s better than most of the music that humans are making nowadays. Even worse than that, though, is the fact that music generated by machines ironically sounds more human than most music made by people. But that’s nothing new. There’s been a dehumanizing trend in music ever since the drum machine became popular in the 1980s. That trend was turbocharged by the invention of Auto-Tune in the late ‘90s. Remember that awful hit-single from ‘98 with the robot-style singing? Yeah, you know the one. Well, that song kicked off the penultimate chapter of this dehumanizing story of music. So it’s important to remember that decades before AI-generated music began to flood the airwaves, human-made music was already beginning to sound like it was being generated by robots. Now I’ll be honest with you, I do love a good conspiracy theory! And to my mind, the inverse correlation between human-made music becoming increasingly robotic-sounding (i.e. less human), while robot-generated music became increasingly human-sounding (i.e. more human), is rather suspicious in light of the transhumanism agenda. Just saying. Anyway, moving along… Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. With the vast majority of people embracing AI-generated music, it’s safe to say that human-made music is dying out rapidly. In fact, I’d argue that it’s already dead, because there’s no way to know if AI was used in the making of a song. Even if a song was recorded live, AI could have been used in the writing process. Either way, based on the current definition of music, it’s pretty much dead. That definition has changed numerous times, though, but if you want to know that story, read my essay AI Can’t Make Music. The last definition change, which is not much older than a hundred years, brainwashed most people into believing that recordings were music. But they’re not. Music is music, and recordings of music are just that: recordings of music. Two totally different things. It’s the same with videos. If you watch a video of someone talking, that’s not a person talking, that’s a video recording of a person talking. Two totally different things. But now with AI-generated music, it’s not even a recording. So the way we’ve previously been brainwashed into thinking of music as recordings is outdated. AI has killed the recording star. And there’s a brand new definition of music spreading through the mainstream consciousness. Music is now something AI generates within seconds, based on a prompt. And it won’t take long for prompts to be obsolete, too. So, music as we know it is dead. But you know what? Good riddance, as music was already transhuman decades ago. It’s time to take it back. Let’s rehumanize music! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. From the ashes, music is reborn. New. Untainted. This rebirth is an invitation to redefine. What is music to you? And what is its purpose in your life? Please think about these two questions. And answer them. Your answers matter. A lot! So we’re not mourning music here, we’re celebrating its rehumanization and our own personal redefinition. How exciting is that?! I’ll share my answers as an example, but don’t use mine, as they almost certainly won’t be right for you. Okay, so what is music? For me, music has become my medicine. I play music to change the way I feel. If I’m feeling anxious, I listen to Palestrina. That calms me. If I’m feeling drained, I listen to Mozart. That energizes me. If I’m feeling down, I listen to Haydn. That uplifts me. If I’m feeling unimaginative, I listen to Bach. That inspires me. In fact, I’m listening to Bach as I write these words. I always listen to Bach while writing each week’s essay. I rely on Bach. If he didn’t turn up for work every day, I don’t think I’d get much written. He gets my creative juices flowing, and then sustains them and keeps me focused. So my music library is now my medicine cabinet. There’s a recording in there for every issue. I only recently realized that’s what I’d been unconsciously doing for a while. Since this realization, though, I’ve been intentional about what I listen to and consciously aware of how it makes me feel. As a result, I’m able to navigate each day far better. And that’s all thanks to my new definition of music, and its purpose in my life. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. On that note. I now invite you to redefine music for yourself, as well as deciding what its purpose is in your life. If you feel like sharing your two answers, please write a comment, as I’d love to know what music means to you. And if you’re interested in learning how to make music yourself, or if you’re already making music but want to improve, then I invite you to visit my website and help yourself to the many free ...
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    7 mins
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