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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
  • Life in a ‘90s Grunge Band.

    Life in a ‘90s Grunge Band.
    May 27 2026
    Life in a ‘90s Grunge Band. Comparing the music world of 1996 to 2026. It’s 9pm. Friday night. December 20th, 1996. Cape Town, South Africa. I walk out on stage. The air is thick with smoke from the fog machine and cigarettes, and probably something else too. A bright spotlight is in my face. The light’s hot. The weather’s hot. That middle-of-an-African-summer kinda hot. All I can see beyond the spotlight is a sea of people. The venue is sold out. In fact, it’s probably over capacity. We’re opening for South Africa’s biggest rock band, Springbok Nude Girls, who’d just signed a major label deal with Sony. But my band ROYD wasn’t far behind them, all thanks to the support of legendary DJ Barney Simon, who hosted the only rock show on national radio. His heavy rotation of our debut single led to it climbing up the national rock chart until it reached No. 1 just a few weeks before. To get there, we beat out Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins. Recalling this makes it feel like a distant dream, but it was in fact, reality. And I was only a teenager. This was truly a dream come true. The roar of the crowd intensifies with every step I take towards the microphone. I swing my long hair to the side of my face and pretend I’m about to speak into the mic. The crowd quietens. In this silence, without warning, we launch into the heavy opening riff of our No. 1 single “Impression X”. They. Go. Crazy! The dancefloor instantly erupts into a dangerous (yet friendly) pit of hair-windmills, body-slams, and flying flannel shirts. Welcome to life in the ‘90s. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Fast forward 29 years to December 2025. I get an email from the bassist, my best friend Rob Krammer, who now lives in Austria: “Dude, we should totally do something special next year to celebrate the 30-year anniversary of our debut release”. After the initial shock of realizing that three decades had somehow flown by, we decided that it would be awesome to get all our recordings re-mastered and re-released as one epic album. We excitedly emailed the drummer, my brother Tony Holroyd, who now lives in Japan. He’s one of those people who doesn’t show his excitement, though, or maybe he just doesn’t get excited, I don’t know. But after he revealed a sliver of enthusiasm, we knew we were onto a great idea! ROYD was formed in 1995 (out of the remains of a previous band) and broke up in 1999, when I moved to Los Angeles to study at Musicians Institute. In our four years together, we recorded one demo and four EPs. We went to record at Paris Studios once each year. And no, unfortunately it wasn’t in Paris. That was the name of the owner. But he was great, so we didn’t mind the fact that Paris was just down the road. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Back to December 2025. So I got in touch with my favourite mastering engineer, Tony Lindgren, over at Fascination Street Studios in Sweden, to see if he was up for the job. He was, and his genius has not only revived these dusty old ‘90s recordings, but he’s masterfully brought them up-to-date with the big, loud, modern music industry, without compromising their old-school character though. You can hear the results for yourself on Spotify, Apple, or any other streaming platform, just search for ROYD - The ‘90s Recordings. Or if you’d like to download the album for free, then head on over to HackMusicTheory.com/Royd. ROYD • The ‘90s RecordingsCover art hand-drawn in 1996 by Ben Ludik and his ballpoint pen So coming back to the title of this post. What was life like in a ‘90s grunge band? In other words, how does the music industry of 30 years ago compare to now? Instead of focusing on all the obvious things, like recording to tape in the studio, or running a newsletter and fan club using snail mail, or selling CDs at shows, or playing in front of people who were actually looking at us (not their phones), instead of all that, I’m going to focus on the feeling that us musicians felt about life in the music industry back in the ‘90s. And what feeling was that? Hope. You see, the music industry back then was a hopeful place to be, because every year it was getting bigger and better as music continued to become a bigger part of our shared culture. The future was not only hopeful, it was expansive. Opportunities were increasing with every passing year. There was a shared belief that music was a vital part of our daily life. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. If you didn’t live through this era, then watch the movie “Singles” from 1992. It perfectly captures how important music was in our lives back then. And it’s a really good rom-com, too! And if you prefer your movies a bit sillier, then watch “Airheads” from 1994. It’s silly, yes, but it totally embodies that feeling of hope we all had back then. The future was bright. And music was arguably the biggest shared ...
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    13 mins
  • 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
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