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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
  • This Song Makes You Feel Good.

    This Song Makes You Feel Good.
    Aug 28 2026
    Counterclockwise Music. This Song Makes You Feel Good. When I listen to “Kokomo” by the Beach Boys, I’m instantly transported back to my childhood in the ‘80s. In fact, if I close my eyes while listening to it, I’m right there in my childhood house lying on my back with my headphones on, singing away to Mike Love and the boys. I can actually feel that old carpet under my back, and the warm African wind blowing in through my window. In my mind, I’m really there. And I’m a kid again. It’s so powerful that it feels like magic. And maybe it is. When I use “Kokomo” to time-travel back to 1989, I feel better within seconds. The darkness that surrounds me breaks up. As long as the song is playing and my eyes are closed, I don’t feel the depression. I know it’s still there, but as long as I’m back in 1989, the depression transforms from an unmovable, solidified reality, into a movable, quantum probability. And yeah, I know it’s escapism. But hey, there’s far worse ways of escaping reality than listening to a song, right? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. “Kokomo” was my favourite childhood song, so its power is second-to-none. Yet I hardly ever listen to it. Why? Well, I’m worried that if I listen to it too much, I’ll become acclimated to it. Like with coffee. If somebody doesn’t usually drink coffee, but then they have one mug of it, they’re bouncing off the walls. But if someone drinks coffee every day, it’s impossible for them to get the same boost as a non-coffee drinker. And the more coffee someone drinks, the less effective it is. That’s what I’m concerned about. The more I listen to “Kokomo”, the less effective it may become at transporting me back to 1989. So I use it sparingly. Very sparingly. I don’t have any other songs that possess that same level of magic. There are other songs that have a similar effect, but compared to “Kokomo”, they’re decaffeinated. So for now, I’d rather listen to it too little, rather than too much. Right, here’s my question to you: Do you have a song that instantly transports you back to a happy time earlier in life? And it doesn’t have to be your childhood, as a lot of people (including me) have childhood trauma. So your happy time could be when you were in your 20s or 30s, or whenever you were feeling good in the past. I’d love to know what your time-travelling song is, so please drop it in the comments. And I invite you to carve out a few minutes today to listen to it. Find a time when you can stop everything and listen with your eyes closed. And remember to put your phone in flight mode while you’re time-travelling. Nothing kills the magic like a notification. And it is magic, so I’m excited for you to feel it, too. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. This topic reminded me of the mind-bending work of psychologist Dr Ellen Langer, who conducted the famous “Counterclockwise Study” back in 1979. She got a group of elderly men to live in a house that was retrofitted to look exactly like the year 1959. There were old black-and-white TVs, radios, books, magazines, and music. All of it was at least 20 years old. And these elderly men were also asked to speak and behave as though they were 20 years younger. What happened next is shocking. Utterly shocking! After only five days of living in this house, Dr Langer measured their biomarkers. These men had literally reversed the aging process and become biologically younger. Even their eyesight improved! If you’re interested in reading more about this study, as well as Dr Langer’s other jaw-dropping research, I highly recommend her recent book The Mindful Body. So, inspired by this Counterclockwise Study, I’m now thinking of my magical time-travel song as Counterclockwise Music. And if you’re interested in making music, you can download my Free Book and Free PDF Tutorials. I’ve got 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 19 of you, so I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I’m deeply grateful. Thank you! If you can’t afford to subscribe at the moment 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 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), ...
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    5 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
  • 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
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