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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© 2026 Revolution Harmony Music
Episodes
  • Who Killed the Fun, Fun, Fun?

    Who Killed the Fun, Fun, Fun?
    Jan 24 2026
    Who Killed the Fun, Fun, Fun? Music used to be our greatest joy, then this happened… 1964. Fun, Fun, Fun. That was a song on the album “Shut Down, Volume 2” by my childhood heroes, The Beach Boys. Go have a quick listen, the song is only two minutes long. But they’re two minutes of pure joy! “Fun, Fun, Fun” was released 62 years ago. So now I’d like you to compare it to any new single from 2026 in the New Music Friday playlist. What do you notice? Yep! Somewhere between the mid-1960s and the mid-2020s it seems we lost all the fun. In six decades we’ve gone from musicians playing real instruments while their fans dance together, to AI-generated songs that are consumed alone via earphones. Wow! It’s no wonder so many people are depressed nowadays. This is the story of who killed the fun, fun, fun in music. And more importantly… Why? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. The first thing we need to understand is that music is only one piece of the puzzle. Take a quick look at the new releases on Netflix, and compare those to the movies from the mid ‘60s. Then take a quick look at the new books on Amazon, and compare those to the ones from the mid ‘60s. It won’t take long to see the pattern. The majority of media being pumped out to the masses nowadays is designed to cause fear. Whether it’s nonfiction books about climate change, fiction books about the end of the world (and to be honest, it’s almost impossible to tell those two apart), or whether it’s movies about pandemics, TV shows about serial killers, YouTube videos about alien invasions, or Substack essays on global financial collapse. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes to see that the Fun, Fun, Fun has been thoroughly replaced with Fear, Fear, Fear. Welcome to the future. And yes, there have always been fear narratives in human civilizations. It’s how emperors control the masses. But, what’s vastly different now is the ubiquity of media. In the past, if an emperor wanted to pump out a new fear narrative to the people, it took years to circulate. And even then, vast areas of the empire were utterly oblivious to what they were supposed to be scared of. Nowadays, though, thanks to social media. When the emperor decides to circulate a new fear narrative, within hours it’s implanted into the consciousness of the masses all around the world. If it’s an extremely scary narrative, it can be global within minutes. These are the conditions we’re living in today. Once again, it’s hardly surprising that the majority of people are suffering from mental and physical health problems. So what’s the solution? You guessed it! Fun, fun, fun :) Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Sadly, though, with the fear propaganda constantly attacking us from every angle, it’s become extremely difficult to have fun. And for the record, when I say fun, I mean healthy enjoyment, not self-medicating. If you’re also a highly sensitive person (HSP) like me, then you’ll feel everyone else’s emotions as if they’re your own. So even if you’re staying offline and away from screens, you still absorb that fearful energy from other people. Therefore, the first step in this process is to snap ourselves out of the fear trance. And the best way to do that is to laugh. Whatever it takes to make you laugh. Do it every day, as a matter of utmost importance. For me, a short YouTube video of dogs eating peanut butter does the trick. Even just thinking about them makes me smile. And now that we’ve broken the spell of fear, the next step is to create something from this place of light-hearted energy. Being a music teacher, obviously I’d love it if you felt inspired to make music, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you bring something joyful into the world. A song, a drawing, a dance, a flower arrangement, a story, a joke, a cake, whatever you feel like creating in the moment. As long as you’re having fun making it. That’s the sole purpose! Enjoy every moment of the process. You’re creating something that wasn’t there before. It’s magic. How cool is that?! Then when you’re done. Share it. If you can, share it with someone in person. If not, that’s okay, share it online. But if you do that, be prepared for some trolling, as the internet doesn’t much appreciate cheerful things. This is how change happens, though. Because fun, like fear, is contagious. The more fun we share, the more positive the world becomes (including us). And the change will be exponential. We know that’s true, because it’s exactly how fear was spread over the last few years. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. If you’re still reading this, you obviously care deeply about the world. We need you. We need your fun creations. So please make something light-hearted this week, and share it with as many as possible. And please share it here in the comments too, so we can all enjoy your ...
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    8 mins
  • Musical Memoirs & Sonic Scrapbooks.

    Musical Memoirs & Sonic Scrapbooks.
    Jan 13 2026
    Musical Memoirs & Sonic Scrapbooks. How to find purpose, passion, and meaning in your life. Okay so what’s a musical memoir? Well, the Oxford Dictionary defines a memoir as “an account written by somebody about their life and experiences”. So a musical memoir is a musical account written by somebody about their life and experiences. This is an idea that’s been on my mind for a while, so I’d like to share it with you in this essay with the hope that you may find it inspiring. It’s a totally different way of approaching music, which we desperately need in this new AI age. Depending on the person, music is usually considered to be in one of the following six categories. And obviously this list is not exhaustive, but these are the most common ways of approaching music: Artistic, where the focus is on creativity and originality. Entertainment, where the focus is on performance and enjoyment. Social, where the focus is on community cohesion and bonding. Spiritual, where the focus is on connecting with the divine and worshipping. Soundtrack, where the focus is on enhancing and/or manipulating emotions. And for some, business, where the focus is on profit and revenue growth. So those are the conventional categories: artistic, entertainment, social, spiritual, soundtrack, and business. But as AI-generated music steals more and more work from all of these categories, we’re facing a meaning crisis as musicians. When the world doesn’t want our gifts any more, what do we do? And where do we find meaning and purpose in our lives now? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. That’s where my “musical memoir” idea comes in. I suggest we start approaching music in the same way that we approach photos. Most people have a smart phone in their pocket nowadays, so they tend to document their daily lives through pictures. Like a photographic memoir. These captured memories then get uploaded to an online gallery, which is the modern equivalent of those dusty old-school photo albums that used to fill our shelves. On a side note. Don’t you think it’s weird that so many people share their online galleries with the public? Any stranger can look at them. How creepy is that?! Back in the day, photo albums were private. Only family members got to look at them, and even that was embarrassing. I don’t remember ever letting any of my friends open my photo albums. No way! They were strictly family-only. What does it say about our modern culture that people are so willing to share their photos with strangers? Interesting times. But I digress. So I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. I’m proposing that we start capturing our memories in sound as well, by making autobiographical music. In other words, music as a memoir. And in between creating our musical memoir, we can constantly be working on our sonic scrapbooks. A sonic scrapbook is where we can keep all our musical ideas, which may or may not be turned into songs later. There’s no need to turn every idea into a song. Sometimes ideas are perfectly happy exactly the way they are. If you write a beautiful melody or chord progression or whatever, and you never feel the desire to turn it into anything more, then it’s complete. It has served its purpose. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. When Picasso did a pencil sketch and left it at that, it was complete. If he’d wanted to turn it into a painting, he would have. That’s what our sonic scrapbooks should be: A place where all our ideas are collected. They form a vital part of our musical journey, even if they don’t make it into the final narrative. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. The reason I feel so excited about this new approach to music, is that the work and its meaning can’t be stolen by AI. Remember, a memoir is “an account written by somebody about their life and experiences”. Let that sink in. AI will never be able to do that. Because, a memoir must be written by the person it’s about, as it’s an account of their life and experiences. AI will never know what it’s like to be you. Therefore, AI can never steal this work and its meaning from you. So if you’re like me, and AI has stolen over 80% of your work and over 80% of your income (and yes, that’s true), then I offer you this idea as a way to rebuild your musical life from the devastation of this global AI flood. Then at the end of your life you’ll have a one-of-a-kind musical memoir to show for your time here. How meaningful is that? Now that’s what I call a life well lived! On that note, if you’re feeling inspired to begin your musical memoir and sonic scrapbook, I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. Through a series of in-depth videos, you’ll learn my Song-Whispering method. It’s an intuitive way of writing, where you let the music guide you from blank screen to finished song. If you’re new to music, though, no problem. You can ...
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    7 mins
  • An Effortless New Year’s Resolution.

    An Effortless New Year’s Resolution.
    Jan 3 2026
    An Effortless New Year’s Resolution. One simple question that will change your future. New year’s resolutions don’t work. All the studies on them reveal this same finding. Yet every January 1st, millions of people make them. Again. Knowing that they’ve never worked before. In fact, the only thing that works about a new year’s resolution is its ability to make people feel bad about themselves. Because when they inevitably fail, they need a way to numb that pain. And whatever that involves, it usually ends up with them in a worse state than they were in before they started. One step forward, two steps back. If new year’s resolutions work for you, great. Keep on keeping on! If they don’t, though, then this essay is for you. I’m offering a completely different approach. And the best thing of all is that it requires no effort. So have you ever picked up your phone for a quick scroll, and then after what seems like a few minutes, you look at the time and realise you’ve been scrolling for an hour? This is what happens when we stop being aware. We shift into autopilot. There are many techniques available to help with this problem. But once we’re on autopilot it’s already too late, because even if we can become aware, it requires a huge amount of will power to snap ourselves out of this type of trance state. A far easier way, which requires no will power, is to simply ask yourself this one question before you begin any activity: What is the opportunity cost of doing this? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. If you don’t know what an opportunity cost is, let me explain. Whenever you choose to do something (like scrolling on your phone), you’re sacrificing all the other activities that you could be doing instead (like making music). But more importantly, you’re sacrificing all the benefits that you’d get from doing the other activity. In this example, the opportunity cost is the benefit you would have got from making music. That’s the true price you’re paying when you choose to scroll. And the longer you scroll, the higher the price you pay. If you scroll for one hour every day, that’s 365 hours this year that you could have been making music. And even if you forget about all the health benefits you’ll enjoy from making music, that’s still a heavy price to pay. Because imagine how many songs you could write in 365 hours. And sadly, most people scroll a lot more than one hour a day. So there you go. That’s my effortless alternative to the usual new year’s resolution! Before embarking on any activity, ask yourself: What’s the opportunity cost of doing this? Then consciously decide if you’re happy to miss out on the benefits you’d gain from doing that other activity. Those lost benefits add up really quickly, too. Imagine two versions of yourself, one that chooses to scroll for an hour every day, and one that chooses to make music instead. Due to the compound effect, the difference between these two versions of you will be vast by the end of this year. Which one do you want to be? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Remember, the trick is to ask yourself about the opportunity cost before you begin an activity. If you need to, write “Opportunity Cost?” on your hand every morning. Do whatever it takes to ask this question before you start doing something, especially if that thing involves looking at a screen. Screens hypnotize us. Literally. So before you give the screen that control over your mind, ask the big question! Even if you ask this question and then decide that scrolling is worth it, by asking it you’ve created some cognitive dissonance. This will bother your unconscious mind. And as this builds over time, you’ll find that you start choosing healthier activities simply to relieve your cognitive dissonance. Now, if you’re ready to begin your musical journey, you can start right now by reading 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 already making music but want to improve, then I’ve got 30 free PDF tutorials for you. They’re step-by-step musical “recipes” that you can follow to instantly make better music. And on top of the free book, 30 free PDFs, and over 220 free YouTube tutorials, I don’t paywall any of these essays either. I don’t want to exclude anyone. But, if you’re enjoying all these free offerings and want me to make more, please support my work by becoming a paid subscriber. It’s only about the cost of one coffee per month, but if enough people join, then I can pay the rent and keep doing this work. To sign up, please visit HackMusicTheory.com/Join. If you can’t afford to at the moment, though, no problem. You can give Hack Music Theory a 5-star rating in your podcast app, that supports my work too. Either way, thank you so much. Happy New ...
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    6 mins
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