Hack Music Theory

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, the...

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 y...

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...

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...

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...

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 underesti...

  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...

  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 n...

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 t...

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...

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...

  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...

  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...

  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 so...

  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 sp...

  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 pedi...

  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 fro...

  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,...

  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 themselve...

  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 t...

  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 tha...

  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 r...

  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 lov...

  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 h...