Waiting for Music.

Waiting for Music.  The lost art of attentive listening.  Countless books have been written about the concept of “Waiting for God”. The way I interpret the idea is rather similar to Wu Wei in Daoism. Essentially, a passive approach is the way to go. Or rather, not go. In fact, don’t go anywhere, just be. The lesson to be learned is that our civilization mindset makes us so obsessed with progress that we’re never just being. And being, not doing, is where contemplation unfolds. Where we glimpse the beyond. Here. Now. Not over there on the horizon, after we’ve bought this, or learned that, or achieved this, or quit that. And with AI taking over the world, the pace of everything is now increasing at an exponential rate. But even prior to AI, smartphones had already ended the era of waiting. Nobody is prepared to wait anymore. Just watch people, it’s shocking. Whether it’s at a bus stop, the checkout in a grocery store, or even drivers in their cars at a red light. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. It’s like we’re living in a zombie movie! People move around like normal, but they’re not here, they’re inside their phone. Just look around. They’re everywhere! If they have to wait more than a few seconds, their phones are whipped out faster than the cowboys whip out their guns in those quick-draw duels of Western movies. To be fair to the smartphone zombies, their draw speed is rather impressive. They’d beat Clint Eastwood, that’s for sure! This inability to wait can be called many things, like impatience or a lack of attention, but whatever you want to call it, it’s ruining us and our world. And that includes music. I remember reading that infamous study from way back in 2014 by the music analysis company The Echo Nest, where they discovered that a quarter of all songs played on Spotify were skipped within the first five seconds of listening. That was 12 years ago. What would it be now? Two seconds? And because people aren’t willing to wait through a song’s intro, songwriters simply aren’t using intros anymore. So our short attention spans are permanently changing the world and everything in it, including music. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. I hardly watch any TV shows or movies (as I’m a book nerd), but when I do, I have to watch the old ones, because anything new is way too intense. When I watch a movie, I love those old-school long intros. The longer, the better. It sets the scene and gets you in the right frame of mind to begin the journey. But nowadays, movies don’t have intros either, for the same reason songs don’t. They hit the ground running! They have to, otherwise people will watch something else. When I watch or listen to things from my childhood in the ‘80s, it’s amazing how long everything takes to unfold. I don’t read new fiction books, for numerous reasons, but I’m guessing this trend will be found in them too. It used to be taken for granted back in the day that if you were listening to a song, or watching a movie, or reading a book, you were not wanting to rush through it, you were wanting to savour the experience. But now we live in a world where everything has been turned into content. I hate what that word has been re-defined to mean. People proudly call themselves Content Creators. What do they make? Content. But what actually is content? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. The Oxford Dictionary defines content as “the things that are contained in something”. So what are the “things” that content creators are making? If someone creates music, that’s not a thing, it’s music. If someone creates a poem, that’s not a thing, it’s a poem. Humans don’t create content, they create songs, and stories, and paintings, and dances, and gardens, and films, and food, and poems, and performances, and woodwork, and so on. If someone is proudly creating content, then please don’t waste your time consuming it. Spend your valuable time (which is finite and running out every minute), experiencing the many beautiful and inspiring artforms that humans create. Why consume content, when you can bask in the wonder of human creativity? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And here’s a hopeful note to end on. Not all creative humans are giving in to the demands of the herd for short content with no intros and nothing other than hooks. The ever-evolving Steven Wilson, who used to be my neighbour in London (true story!), just released his inspiring new album “Requiem For A Village”. I’m not going to waste your time or mine by trying to describe it here, because just like chocolate, describing it doesn’t get you any closer to tasting it. But if you have the patience to wait for music, then I highly recommend giving this album 54 minutes of your full attention. It’s well worth it! Truly. Either way, I invite you into a daily practice of waiting for music. All of our attention spans have been ruined, though, so please be gentle with yourself as you develop this daily practice. Whatever you can manage today is worth doing. If you can currently only concentrate through a three-minute song with your full attention, that’s a great place to start. Do that for a week or two, until you can add one more song. This is music meditation, the magic will only reveal itself through consistent daily practice. And please, remember to have fun and enjoy the practice, it’s music after all!    Lastly, if you’re interested in making music yourself, 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. And if you’d like me to keep doing this work, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack.   A heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 28 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again.   If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, I truly appreciate you. 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 Andrea Piacquadio       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.

Your Favourite Album Might Vanish Soon.  Music can (and does) disappear from Spotify, Apple, etc.  I love music in all genres, and I have my all-time favourite albums in all those genres. Recently I had a craving to listen to one of my favourite hardcore albums. It’s titled “Baptism Of Fire” and was released in 2007. As far as I know, it was the only album by that band. Despite being an awesome hardcore band, they sadly never got the success they deserved. If you’re into hardcore, you may remember them. They were called To The Lions, and I think they were based in Ontario, Canada. So anyway, I opened Spotify and searched for the album. Nothing. What?! Maybe I spelt the name wrong? Nope. Okay I thought, well maybe I’m going crazy and I’ve somehow gotten their name wrong. Maybe they were called For The Lions, or something else Lions. I did a quick online search, and although I was happy to have my sanity confirmed by the fact that I’d gotten both the band name and album title correct, I was utterly shocked to realize the album had been deleted from Spotify. I’d listened to it on Spotify just a few months ago, so I know it used to be there. Just for interest, I searched the other streaming platforms. It had vanished from them, too. I have no idea why this album was taken down, and I don’t really care if it’s a licensing issue or whatever else, all I care about is the fact that I can’t listen to one of my favourite hardcore albums anymore. And that sux ass, to put it poetically! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. This isn’t the first time it’s happened either, because my favourite album from childhood is Still Cruisin’ by The Beach Boys. Hey, don’t judge, it was the ‘80s. And to be fair, even if it wasn’t, Kokomo is a classic! Despite being such a legendary album from the ‘80s, though, it’s also nowhere to be found. I still check Spotify regularly to see if it’s finally appeared, but as of today, still nothing. And that brings me to the point of this essay. Do you own your all-time favourite albums, or are you merely being granted temporary access to them? If it’s the latter, I recommend buying the CDs (or vinyls) now. Don’t wait, do it today. Seriously. Your all-time favourite album could disappear from the streaming platforms tonight. And yes, most of these albums can be found on YouTube, but the quality of those uploads is questionable at best. Besides, we’re old-school, we want the CDs on the shelf. We want to enjoy the artwork that instantly transports us back to a simpler time. So I went on Amazon and searched for that hardcore album. There was one copy left. That’s it. One copy! I couldn’t click the “Buy Now” button quickly enough. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. If your favourite album is old, all the more reason to buy the CD as soon as possible, because most record labels aren’t manufacturing CDs anymore. And sometimes it doesn’t even matter if the artist is super famous. I searched Amazon for that Beach Boys album, and there’s also only one copy left. But, it’s $146. So unfortunately, I won’t be owning that CD. It’s already too late to get my hands on my all-time favourite childhood album. For old-school music lovers like us, that’s heartbreaking. I’ve also noticed that lots of the albums I loved in the ‘80s and ‘90s have been remastered, and the original versions have vanished. Remastering is great, and of course the albums almost always sound better from it. But, it’s not the original album. When you’ve listened to an album literally hundreds of times, like we used to back in the day, it’s stored in our bodies. When it’s remastered, it doesn’t reignite that original spark and the associated feelings, because it sounds slightly different. On a different but related note. Over the last few years I’ve noticed the exact same thing happening with books. It seems like most of the books I buy nowadays are either out of print, or going out of print after the current run. Then there’s the suspicious replacing of properly manufactured books with Amazon print-on-demand books. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And don’t get me wrong. I love the whole print-on-demand thing that Amazon is doing, because it’s allowed all the independent authors (who are too “spicy” for the publishing companies) to get their writing out. My music theory book on Amazon is print-on-demand. I love it. That’s not the problem. The problem is that many older books are being tweaked to bring them in line with current ideologies, which is problematic for so many reasons. But most importantly, changing what a writer originally wrote should be illegal. If we disagree with what they said, good! Reading books by people we disagree with makes us think about different perspectives. That’s healthy, and that’s how we can live peacefully. If there’s only one approved way of seeing things, and all the publishers are exclusively publishing books that are in line with that ideology, then anyone who disagrees with the mainstream narrative has no public voices on their side who they can reference in support of their perspective. No good comes from a world like that. Also, ideologies are continuously changing, so tweaking old books to make them palatable to a modern audience will never work, because the goalposts keep moving. It’s ridiculous, and we end up with no record of our past! And just imagine how different these books are going to be in a hundred years from now. I thought the idea of writing a book was to capture the author’s words and preserve them? If every book is essentially a shared Google Document that publishers can continually edit in whatever way they see fit, what’s the point of writing books anymore? Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So, be sure to buy paperback or hardcover versions of all your favourite books too, because even if they are still available in the future, who knows how much of the text has been changed. And they’ll probably end up using AI censor robots. It would be so easy to simply get AI to tweak all the texts in all the books on a daily basis, in order to keep the herd brainwashed with the most up-to-date ideologies. And with AI voices narrating most audiobooks nowadays too, those are definitely not safe either. Okay, that’s my message for today: Build your physical library. Start small. Just buy your all-time favourite album on CD or vinyl today. Then next week buy your all-time favourite book in paperback or hardcover, if you don’t already own it. And then the next on your list. One physical item at a time. Hmmm… now I’m wondering: Is this prepping? Is this how music nerds and book nerds prep for the AI apocalypse? Maybe. Oh well. Either way, start today!  Lastly, if you’re interested in making music yourself, 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. And if you’d like me to keep doing this work, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack.   A heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 28 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again.   If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, I truly appreciate you. 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 Jonathan Cooper       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.

Mourning the Death of Music.  Why are people in such a hurry to kill art?  In my last two essays I’ve shared about how AI has stolen 90% of my income, as well as my reason to get out of bed in the mornings. I’ve been publicly speaking out against AI for over a year, though, and what I’ve consistently seen in people’s reactions is that they can be divided into two categories: Those who are sad to see human creativity being replaced by AI, and those who think AI is just a tool. I’ve already written an essay on how AI is definitely not a tool, based on the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of “tool”. If people want to call AI a tool, then they need to change the definition of “tool”. And I’m pretty sure that’s going to happen, because if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the last few years, it’s that the oligarchs love changing definitions! But, until they change the definition of “tool”, AI is absolutely 100% not a tool. Far more fascinating than the AI-is-just-a-tool groupthink, though, is the fact that our fellow humans are so aggressive towards those of us who are totally disorientated after the sudden loss of our careers, and for many of us, the loss of our purpose in life too. Despite the fact that I’ve been teaching music for over 30 years, I’m constantly being told to stop complaining and get with the times. But AI’s takeover happened so suddenly that I’m still mourning the death of music, and of teaching. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Why are the masses in such a hurry to tear down our past and rush headlong into a transhuman future? I don’t get it. Maybe it’s because I deleted all my social media accounts 11 years ago, so I don’t see all the viral posts that must be brainwashing the herd into believing that replacing humans with robots is a good idea. I don’t know?! Most of the time I feel like I’m living in a sci-fi dystopia, and I’m longing to return to a time when people actually looked up. Do you still look up? To return to my question, though: What’s the hurry? Why are people in such a rush to replace humans with robots? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments. I’m genuinely interested in trying to understand what’s behind this aggressive push. If their 30-year career was stolen by AI, wouldn’t they want some time to mourn that loss? Or would they be happy for everyone to tell them to stop complaining and get with the times? As with all technology, though, once it’s adopted, it’s here to stay. These are permanent changes, which can’t be undone. I find a great deal of inspiration from the Amish way of dealing with technology. They’re often misunderstood as being anti-technology. They’re not. They consider each new technology and whether it would improve the relationships between members of their community, as well as their relationships with God. If it would, they adopt it. Otherwise, they reject it. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. I also find inspiration from Wendell Berry (RIP) and his legendary essay: Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer. He was happy to start using a computer if it would’ve improved his life and his writing. But as he explains in this eye-opening essay, too much is lost when humans adopt this technology. And it’s totally fine to disagree with him, that’s not the point. The point is that we should all pause and consider each new technology, and whether adopting it would improve our life. However, this only works if we’re actually honest with ourselves. Otherwise it’s a pointless exercise. And if we’re honest, it’s usually not as clearcut as we’d like to think. Let’s take telephones as an example. I don’t mean smartphones, I mean those old-school gadgets with the cable that needed to be plugged into the wall. The Old Order Amish decided to reject them, which might seem extreme to us. But the telephone was the beginning of our isolation, our loneliness. It was the beginning of the lie about being more connected. If we’re honest with ourselves, we can see that telephones never connected people, they did the exact opposite. Before the telephone, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had to go to their house and speak face-to-face. That’s connection! Picking up the phone and calling them is not connection. You’re literally disconnected from them, otherwise you wouldn’t need the phone. Think about it. We live in an upside-down reality. The Ministry of Connection is actually The Ministry of Disconnection. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And yes, I know the long list of benefits. I’m a two-time immigrant, so I’m well aware that being connected to people on the other side of an ocean is not possible without phones. But at the end of the day, do the pros outweigh the cons? Once again, the point is not to agree with me, Wendell Berry, or the Amish, the point is that we all pause and reflect before adopting new technology. So when it comes to AI, of course there are tons of benefits. But are those benefits worth the cost of what you lose by bringing AI into your life? Only you can decide that.  Lastly, if you’re interested in making music yourself, 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. And if you’d like me to keep doing this work, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack.   A heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 23 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again.   If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, I truly appreciate you. 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 Brett Sayles       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.

AI Is Stealing Far More Than Jobs.  Loss of career/income pale in comparison to loss of purpose.  Before I read my new essay, I just wanna let you know that everything on our website is now half price. Whether you’re a complete beginner wanting to learn how to make music for the first time, or whether you’re intermediate (or even advanced) wanting to elevate your music from good to great, there’s a course or PDF to help you reach that next level. And they cover all genres, too. And just a heads up that unless the AI robots stop stealing my work, I’m going to have to close down Hack Music Theory on May 1st 2027, so if you’ve ever been tempted to learn my secret Song-Whispering method for making great music, then enroll soon! And just to be clear, I’ll still be posting regularly, but only on Substack and the podcast. So if you wanna keep following my work, then please subscribe in your podcast app (just search for “Ray Harmony”). Or you can subscribe to get my new posts sent to your inbox, which you can do at rayharmony.substack.com. It’s free to subscribe, and I don’t put any of my essays behind a paywall, they’re all free! If you want a way to support my work, though, then please give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share it with someone who may find it interesting, too. A heartfelt thank-you for being here, my friend, you are deeply valued. And now here is my latest essay. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. In my previous essay, Replaced by Robots, I shared how AI steals my intellectual property and gives it away for free. As a result of this theft, I’ve lost 90% of my income. Yes, 90%. And it was less than a high-school teacher’s salary to begin with. But, while I’m now making significantly less than minimum wage, that’s not actually the worst thing AI has done to me. Despite suffering from insomnia, I used to bounce out of bed every morning with purpose. People found value in my work. They liked the way I taught music. And they were happy to pay for my teaching. After AI began stealing my teachings and giving them away for free, though, there was no reason for people to visit my website anymore, let alone buy anything. So now, most days I don’t sell anything. Not even my book, which I’ve lowered the cost of the ebook format from 10 dollars down to a pathetic 99 cents. I only felt experienced enough to start writing that book after I’d been teaching for 20 years, and then I worked extremely hard on it for a whole year. Yet almost nobody is willing to buy it any more. Not even for 99 cents! When the world tells us that the work we’ve been doing for over 30 years is no longer of any value, there’s no reason to get out of bed in the mornings. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. AI has brainwashed people into believing that all intellectual property should be free. This is dangerous, because the world’s most creative humans are rapidly being forced into poverty. But, AI can only steal and recycle what these humans have previously created. What does a world look like when human creativity has ended, and all we have is remixed ideas from robots? So what do you do when AI takes your job? And rest uneasy, because unless we start resisting the robots soon, AI will eventually steal everyone’s work and their purpose for getting out of bed in the mornings. So what do we do? I don’t know. I’ve been suffering from depression and anxiety for years as a result of my life’s work being devalued to the point that people don’t even want to pay 99 cents for it. So I’m afraid if you were looking for solutions, then you’re in the wrong place. All I know for sure is that we need to resist the robots, and support human creativity. So please look at your monthly budget. Where can you reallocate a little money to the arts? And when I say “the arts”, I mean all the creative ways that humans use to express themselves, from playing music to writing fiction, from dancing to gardening, and all the other wonderful ways, too! Imagine if everyone in the world who owned a smartphone simply waited one year longer than planned before buying a new phone (or any other tech gadget), and spent that money on the arts instead. That would change everything, overnight! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Remember, you’re voting with your dollars every day. For example, despite the fact that my income is a lot less than minimum wage, I still buy paper books. I rent a basement suite, I don’t go out, I don’t eat much, the last time I went to a restaurant or got takeout food was in 2018, my phone is 11 years old, and I haven’t bought any clothes in many years. But, there are always new books arriving at my door. Priorities! Here’s another example. You know that financial guru who’s always talking about lattes, and how if people bought index funds instead of their daily latte, they’d all be millionaires eventually. That’s built on a ton of speculations and assumptions about the future, though, whereas spending your latte money (today) on supporting the arts, changes the world right now. You win. The artist wins. The world wins. Be the change you wish to see in the world. And for that artist who you give your latte money to today, you not only help them pay their bills, you also give them purpose, and that purpose gives them hope. You’re giving them a reason to get out of bed in the mornings. And that’s priceless. Please take a moment with me to imagine a world where people spend their daily latte money on supporting the arts instead. Now that’s a world I want to live in! And on that note, if you want to support my work, it’ll only cost you one latte a month. If my writing doesn’t resonate with you, though, I totally understand. I’m a Marmite kinda guy. Always have been, always will be! But please consider becoming a paid subscriber to another writer on Substack. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Or perhaps buy a paperback book with your latte money. Or go to a concert. I know that’ll cost you a few lattes, but live music is infinitely more valuable than coffee, and while that caffeine buzz will wear off after a few hours, the memories from a live show will last a lifetime. Now that’s value for money! Lastly, if you’re interested in making music yourself, 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. And if you’d like me to keep doing this work, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack. A heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 23 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again. If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, though, no problem, you can give the podcast a 5-star rating in your app, and share this episode with someone who may find it interesting. That helps support my work, too. Thanks for being here, I truly appreciate you. 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 Timur Weber         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.

Replaced by Robots.  The truth is that AI has already taken over.  Before I read my new essay, I just wanna let you know that everything on our website is now half price. Whether you’re a complete beginner wanting to learn how to make music for the first time, or whether you’re intermediate (or even advanced) wanting to elevate your music from good to great, there’s a course or PDF to help you reach that next level. And they cover all genres, too. And just a heads up that unless the AI robots stop stealing my work, I’m going to have to close down Hack Music Theory on May 1st 2027, so if you’ve ever been tempted to learn my secret Song-Whispering method for making great music, then enroll soon! To be clear, I’ll still be posting regularly, but only on Substack. If you wanna keep following my work, then please subscribe at rayharmony.substack.com. It’s free to subscribe, and I don’t put any of my posts behind a paywall, they’re all free! Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. Enjoy, and now here’s my latest essay, which explains the reason for having to close down Hack Music Theory after being in business for 10 years. Thanks for reading, and a heartfelt thank-you for being here. You are deeply valued. There’s been a lot of talk recently about the alleged over-reaction to threats of AI stealing jobs and replacing people, but in reality, AI has already stolen countless jobs and replaced countless people. This is not speculation, it’s recent history. I can personally confirm this, because I’ve been replaced by robots. Have you been replaced, too? If so, please share your experience in the comments. It’s vital to speak out about this, as it seems most people don’t know that this has already happened for many of us. Or maybe they’re just in denial? I guess it’s all fun and games until the robots come for their jobs. Then they’ll believe us. So why is there all this talk about people over-reacting? Well, it’s a textbook gaslighting campaign. If you’re like me, then you can spot these a mile away nowadays. Same technique, different details. Welcome to Animal Farm. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. They need us to deny our senses, because we’re looking around at the world and can see all the robots that have already replaced humans. Just look at the checkouts in stores. They’re almost all self-checkout robots. There are hardly any checkout staff any more. And when you email most companies now, you get a reply from an AI agent. That’s at least one or two humans replaced by robots in small companies, and tens or even hundreds in big corporations. The evidence is everywhere. We can all see it (and verify it) for ourselves. So, this essay is my attempt to counter the gaslighting campaign, and to acknowledge all my fellow brothers and sisters who’ve also been replaced by robots. I see you, and I see your suffering. Please know that you’re not alone, and you’re definitely not crazy. We are indeed living in a world where humans (and humanity) are rapidly disappearing. And please know that you’re in the right for not being happy with how things are unfolding. Here’s some more evidence, from my experience. Google analytics emails me a report every month for the Hack Music Theory website. When I compare the numbers from 2021 to 2026, Hack Music Theory turned up in a similar amount of searches. There are still almost 100K people every month being offered my teachings in their search results. But (and it’s a massive but), the number of people who actually end up on our website has decreased by about 90%. And in turn, our income has also decreased by about 90%. And for the record, we weren’t making tons of money before the AI era, we were getting less than a high-school teacher makes. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So when all these AI fanboys on all these podcasts are saying that AI won’t steal jobs, please know that they’re lying. AI has not only stolen countless jobs already, it continues to violate copyrights and steal intellectual property every second of every day and night. When people ask AI about music theory, it comes to my website and YouTube channel (as well as other teachers’ websites and YouTube channels) and steals our teachings, then gives it to the person who searched, as if the robot wrote that explanation itself. And now that the person has that explanation right there on the same screen, there’s no need for them to visit our website. Every day and every night AI continues to steal our intellectual property and give it away for free. How is this legal? And yes, I’ve heard all the defenses and excuses and arguments, and how I just need to get with the times and change how I do things. But I’m a teacher. I’m in my late 40s, and teaching is the only thing I’ve ever done. After high school, I moved to Los Angeles to study music, then moved to London where I was a college lecturer for 10 years, and then transitioned to teaching privately and online when I moved to Canada. I teach. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done for over 30 years. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. And this is not about identity, because I don’t see myself as a teacher, it’s just my job. Whether or not I have a natural talent for teaching is irrelevant, because I’ve spent decades learning and practicing in order to continually improve my teaching skills. And teaching is certainly not a lucrative career, so while it’s common for people my age to own a house and have kids, I rent a basement suite, I don’t have any kids, and I only spend money on bills, food, and books. Yet I’m still struggling to scrape by every month. But I’m told: I just need to retrain as something else. Apparently one door closes, and another one opens. Or so they say. Retraining costs money, though, which I don’t have, because we’ve had to spend our savings on paying rent and buying groceries. So at the age of almost 50 I have to somehow find the money to retrain and launch a new career?! Oh, and then after all that, I’ll be competing with people half my age. Will all those people who’re telling us that we just need to retrain be telling themselves that story when the robots steal their jobs? Probably not. And then there’s the lie of “transferable skills”. Have you also heard that one? “Oh don’t worry, the skills you gained from teaching music for 31 years are transferable, you can use them in a different career.” I know there’s an element of truth in that. Of course there is. But as always, the best lies are built on foundations of truth. So yes, maybe 10% or 20% of my skills are transferable, but 80% or 90% of them are not, because those skills are specific to music. And anyone else who’s also decades deep into a career will have the same problem: Our skills are highly specialized, and therefore hardly any of those skills are realistically transferable, in any meaningful way. Subscribe to get the latest posts in your inbox. So, what’s the solution? I don’t know. All I know is that resistance is the first step. Resist the robots. Avoid AI. Support humans. Don’t use the self-checkout in stores, go to the human instead. Look them in the eyes, and connect. And when you do online searches, always go to the source websites that the robots are stealing that intellectual property from. Also, please visit the website Writers Against AI and check out my fellow writers who’re celebrating human creativity and resisting the temptation to use AI in their writing. These courageous humans deserve our support. Anyway, I’m sorry for the depressing topic today, but it’s vital that we have these difficult conversations now, before things go any further. So I hope this at least gave you something to ponder. And just before I go. If you’re interested in making music yourself, 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, you can become a paid subscriber on my Substack. And a heartfelt thank-you to all the kind people currently paying. There are 19 of you at the moment. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again. If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution right now, 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 truly 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 igovar igovar      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.

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 interested in making great music yourself, 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 18 of you. I know each one of you by name. I see you, and I thank you for sticking with me through this difficult time. It means the world to me. And please know that I’m working really hard on overcoming my depression and anxiety, so I can post more regularly once again. If you can’t afford to become a paid subscriber or make a one-off contribution 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 truly 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 Andrea Piacquadio       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.

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.

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), 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 jonas mohamadi      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.

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.

  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.