Ray Harmony cover art

Ray Harmony

Ray Harmony

By: Hack Music Theory
Listen for free

Season's Savings | $0.99/mo for 3 months

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo. after 3 months - terms apply.
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
  • 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 ...
    Show More Show Less
    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.
    Show More Show Less
    4 mins
  • 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), ...
    Show More Show Less
    5 mins
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.