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.…
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…
Making Music Is Bad for Your Mental Health . Songs need listeners, but most people are too busy scrolling nowadays. You’ve just finished a new song. You love it! You’re beyond thrilled. You can’t wait for people to hear it, so you excitedly upload it and click publish. And you wait. And you wait some more. Then you refresh. Maybe it just needed a refresh. No. Still nothing. Ah! There’s a…
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…
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…
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…
Forget Meditation, Listen to Music . Meditating isn’t effective enough anymore. As people become more addicted to their phones, society’s obsession with mindfulness meditation grows. I think that’s because the collective unconscious knows that we desperately need to take back control of our minds, as our lives are being wasted through endless hours of meaningless scrolling. There are only 24 hours…
Writers & Readers Against AI . If you’re pro-human, join Paul Kingsnorth’s campaign. The brilliant English writer Paul Kingsnorth recently launched a campaign for everyone who loves humans and human creativity. So if you also miss the good ol’ days when you could read, listen or watch something and know that a human made it, then please join this campaign. And please do it today. This is urgent!…
AI Human vs Human AI . A brief history of transhuman music. Most AI-generated songs now sound more human than most human-made songs. How did music go so horribly wrong? It all happened so fast, too! If you’re a Gen Xer like me, you’ve witnessed this whole process unfold from start to finish in just a few decades. As a kid I remember the first time I saw Depeche Mode performing live on some TV…
Musical Heroes in the AI Age . Nø Førmat! You need to know about this record label. Nø Førmat! is an independent record label based in Paris. They’ve been around for over 20 years, and they’re one of my favourite labels. I love so many of their releases, but my current favourite is the album “Synthetic Hearts” by South African duo Msaki & Tubatsi. It’s a masterpiece! I’ve got a soft spot for South…
We Are the Orchid Children . A call to highly sensitive musicians. “Dandelion” children are those resilient and healthy kids who can survive and thrive under most circumstances. “Orchid” children, on the other hand, are those sensitive and fragile kids who need the right kind of support in order to survive and thrive. This is according to four decades of research by the world-renowned pediatrician…
The Music Theory of Fun . These two things make songs feel good… In my previous essay Who Killed the Fun, Fun, Fun? I told the story of how music was intentionally transformed from a fun and communal activity into fear propaganda that’s consumed alone. All within a few decades. I concluded with an invitation to make something fun, and then to share it with the world. We need it! The most…
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…
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…
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.…
The Best Music Is Behind Us . But that’s a good thing! Here’s why… This essay began as a “Best Album of 2025” post, where I was going to share my favourite album of the year and what I loved about it. As you would have noticed from the title, though, it grew into something entirely different. Why? Well, according to Spotify’s Wrapped analytics, my favourite artist of 2025 (who I listened to for…
The Geography of Musical Scales . Finding peace in pentatonic places. It’s thought that pentatonic scales are the most ancient of all the musical scales. Regardless of whether that’s true or not, it’s worth paying attention to these five-note scales because of their unique consonance. You see, they contain two fewer notes than the scales we’re used to hearing, so they have a spaciousness that no…
Music is Mind Control . Lyrics are little Derren Brown’s in your brain. Do we have free will? That ancient question actually misses the point, because the concept of free will implies that we’re free to act on our desires. Okay. That’s fine. But where do our desires come from? That’s the real question! For example, if you get home from work and you’re trying to decide whether to go for a run or…
This Is The Only Pure Music . A celebration of non-classical absolute music. Music has united people for millennia, but nowadays it’s been weaponized to divide us. I’ve personally experienced its uniting effects, though, so I know what’s possible. You see, I was born and raised in apartheid South Africa. I lived there until 1999, leaving a few months after Mandela’s presidency ended. I loved…
Don’t Lie! You Listen to AI Songs . There’s no way to avoid them, unless you do this… I’ve been speaking out against AI-generated music for a while now, but people keep telling me (proudly) that they don’t listen to songs made by AI. They also keep telling me (proudly) that AI songs are crap. Sadly, the only thing these comments tell me is that those people don’t understand that AI has a hidden…
Music Is Dead . Good Riddance! AI killed the recording star. Now what? Have you heard AI-generated music? It’s better than most of the music that humans are making nowadays. Even worse than that, though, is the fact that music generated by machines ironically sounds more human than most music made by people. But that’s nothing new. There’s been a dehumanizing trend in music ever since the drum…
You vs Phone . Who Will Win? A musical method to take your attention back! How many seconds can you sit still and focus on your breathing, without your mind wandering? If you’re like most people nowadays, your answer to that question is somewhere under 10 seconds. Seriously. And that’s the “new normal”. Ever since the neolithic revolution, when humans first began to live in an unnatural way, we’ve…
The Uglification of Music . Can a return to beauty save music? Okay I know you’ve just started reading this, but please stop (temporarily), then go and listen to the second movement of J.S. Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major. Its nickname is “Air on a G String”, so just search for that. Even if you know this piece, please go and listen to it again. Then come back. I’ll wait… So how do you…
Don’t Trust Me, I’m an Expert . Confessions of an INFJ. I’m a multi award-winning music lecturer with over 30 years of teaching experience, 10 of those years being at one of the UK’s largest colleges. I studied classical guitar, piano, and music theory (all to the highest grade) at the world-renowned Royal Schools of Music. Then I moved to Los Angeles to study contemporary guitar and vocals at the…
You Can’t Make Music without Using Theory . “I don’t use music theory, because rules limit my creativity.” If I had a dollar for every time I heard someone say that in my 30 years of teaching music theory, I wouldn’t be living in a rented one-bedroom apartment, that’s for sure! The Oxford dictionary defines language as a “system of communication.” We can’t communicate through speech without using…
Hearing Music from the Future . Materialist science tells us that we hear with our ears, and see with our eyes. But if that’s true, then how do we explain extra-ocular vision? If you haven’t come across this jaw-dropping phenomenon where blind (or blind-folded) people can see, look it up, and be prepared to have your worldview flipped. If you don’t know where to start, I recommend the work of…
You’re Listening to Music Wrong . You’re Listening to Music Wrong. I am, too. We all are. It’s tragic, but we can fix it. Over the last 20 years, music has been devalued and demoted. It used to be the hero. Now it’s the sidekick. The soundtrack for working or socialising or whatever. However, if you’re a Gen Xer like me, you’ll remember spending countless hours sitting in front of your hifi…
The 4 Types of Artist . Which Are You ? Every song is born from an idea. So where do ideas come from? In other words: What or who is the cause of your imagination? Your answer to this question is tied to your worldview, and that determines what type of artist you are. The first type of artist believes that ideas come from the brain, and are a result of firing neurons. If you believe this, you’re…
AI Is Not a Tool . Stop Calling It That . I’ve tattooed myself. Three times! You know what? It hurts a whole lot more when you do it to yourself. You know what else? It looks terrible, too. Why? Because a tattoo machine is a tool that an artist uses to create images in the skin. I had the tool, and I even had the imagination to come up with a creative idea for the image, but I did not have the…
AI Is Killing Music ! This Is How We Save It . Hardly anything is real anymore! And that includes most people. They walk around staring at their phones with earbuds in, ignoring the reality all around them and instead choosing to live in their screen’s virtual reality. Regardless of what their senses tell them, if their screen says it’s real, then it’s real. If their screen says it’s true, then…
AI Saves Us Time . That’s Bad ! Time is our only non-renewable resource. People talk about “spending” time and “spending” money, but these two types of spending are opposite. We can always make more money, but we can never make more time. Therefore, the greatest, most valuable gift we can give someone is our time. Think about it. No matter how much money you spend on a gift for someone,…
AI Can't Make Music . AI can’t make music. Let me explain… The reason almost everyone thinks AI can make music, is because the definition of music has changed. As a side note, it’s interesting how more and more definitions seem to be changing nowadays, isn’t it? But that’s a story for another day… What’s important to us here is the original definition of music. In other words, what music meant to…
Making Music is Hard . Why Bother ? I never thought this day would come. But here it is. After 30 years of teaching music to thousands of students, I’m facing a previously unimagined challenge: convincing people who want to make music that they should learn how to do it. Never in human history has there been any other option. But now, there are robots that can make “your” music for you. Is it…
Every song is a musical story. When we read a story, we don't want a timeline of events. We want an unfolding narrative with scene setting, emotional dynamics, and exciting twists in the journey. In music, this is the Art of Arranging (video). Ray & Kate :) PS: To learn how to arrange a whole song, plus every other step of the music making process, sign up for Apprenticeship #1 (online…
If your chord changes sound disjointed, you probably need to use inversions. That's just the fancy word for re-ordering the notes of a chord. For example, Am can be A C E, or C E A, or E A C. So, if your progression is jumping around from one chord to the next, re-order some of the notes to smooth the changes. Ray & Kate :) PS: For more on this hack and others, read our Songwriting & Producing…
If your melody is sounding boring, it probably lacks a motif. A motif is a short idea that's repeated to give the melody structure. So, play your melody and listen for the catchiest bit. Next, delete the boring bit. Now, copy & paste that catchy bit into the gap. If you need to change the notes to fit a different chord, that's ok, but don't change the rhythm. Ray & Kate :) PS: This hack is from…
Got a boring melody? It may be due to a small range, i.e. the distance between its lowest and highest note. This should be around a 7th or an octave. If it's not, extend the range and add some passing notes to smooth the contour. Ray & Kate :) PS: This hack is from our Songwriting & Producing Course which gives you all the music making essentials in one hour!
If your beats all sound kinda similar, here's a hack to spice 'em up. Copy & paste your bass line into your drum track. Then divide those notes between the kick and snare, to make a pattern you like. Now, add 1/8 note hats. Enjoy! Ray & Kate :) PS: This hack is from our Songwriting & Producing Course which gives you all the music making essentials in only one hour!
An epic bass line needs 2 things: root notes to make it solid, and non-root notes to make it interesting. So, start by playing the root of each chord. Then towards the end of each chord, add one or two shorter non-root notes that link to the next chord's root. Simple, but epic! Ray & Kate :) PS: Download our Epic Music Guide for more.
To write an epic chord progression, you need common notes. For example, Am and Em both contain the note E, so E is a common note. It creates a strong link between those chords, which sounds powerful. If every chord in your progression has a common note with the chord after it, it'll sound EPIC. Ray & Kate :) PS: Download our Epic Music Guide for more.
To write an epic melody, start with a phrase of small intervals (i.e. 2nds and 3rds). Then, jump straight to a high note using a big interval (i.e. 6th or 7th). This dramatic climax will give your melody that epic "mountain top" sound. Ray & Kate :) PS: Download our Epic Music Guide for more.
It's rare to hear toms in drum beats. They're usually only in fills. That's a shame, because toms can add variety to your beats in a way that nothing else can. So to spice up any drum beat, simply move a few kicks in the pattern over to toms. Same groove, but a way more creative vibe! Ray & Kate :) PS: For all our drum tips, visit Hack Drums
Every chord progression tells a musical story. So regardless of the key, think about how many major chords you want compared to minor chords. This ratio determines the overall feel of your progression. The order of the chords makes a difference too, e.g. starting on a major chord gives an uplifting first impression, while starting on a minor chord creates a serious vibe. Ray & Kate :) Want all our…
Most new songs are in the same key from start to finish, which is one of the main reasons why they get boring after a few listens. Musically they don't go anywhere! Wanna make better songs? Change keys. The easiest way to change keys (i.e. modulate) is to use a different scale/mode from the same root, e.g. if your verse is in A Dorian, write your chorus in A Lydian. Ray & Kate :) PS: For our 3…
Most bass lines consist of only roots, or roots and 5ths. Boring! Remember, bass lines are melodies. They need contour, too. So, if your bass lines jump around between roots and 5ths, smooth them out by using small intervals to shape flowing contours. Ray & Kate :) PS: This tip is from our 1-Hour Crash Course
The 3rd note in a chord holds its emotion. So, to emphasize the happiness of a major chord, play its 3rd in the melody above (e.g. over Cmaj, play E). To emphasize the sadness of a minor chord, play its 3rd (e.g. over Am, play C). Ray & Kate :) PS: This tip is from our 1-Hour Crash Course
Modes are easy. They're just scales with different moods. For example, if you wanna make dark music, use Phrygian. That's all the white notes, with E as the root. Using uncommon modes will transform your music! Ray & Kate :) PS: Our simple hack for all the modes is in the Songwriting & Producing PDF
Most drum fills end on beat 1. This usually makes them predictable and boring. Try this instead: End your fill on a snare hit – normally around beat 2. This makes your fill longer than expected, which is unpredictable and thrilling! Ray & Kate :) PS: This tip is from Hack Drum Fills (PDF)
Drum beats get boring after a few loops. The main reason is 1-bar kick patterns. So, try this: Repeat your snare and cymbal patterns every bar, like usual, but make your kick pattern 4 bars. This will instantly improve your beats! Ray & Kate :) PS: This tip is from Hack Drum Beats (PDF)
Harmonic notes are in the chord, so they feel resolved. Non-harmonic notes are not in the chord, so they feel tense. Balance these two types of notes in your melodies, and your listeners will be thrilled and fulfilled. Have fun! Ray & Kate :) PS: This hack is from the Melody Checklist in: Songwriting & Producing PDF