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, unconsciously you both know that it’s a renewable resource. But if you spend a full day with that person giving them your full attention (in other words, with your phone turned off), they will feel like the most special person in the world.

Here’s another example. If you’re a parent (or a grandparent) of a young child, your fridge door is probably plastered with dodgy drawings. And one of your favourites is almost certainly a picture of yourself, despite the fact that your head is bigger than your torso, your hair looks like it’s been transplanted from the head of Pennywise the clown, and you’re missing a few fingers. But, how much do you love that drawing? More than words.

Now imagine a different scenario where your child (or grandchild) gives you a gift of an AI-generated picture of you, which is “perfect”, or so we’re told by the AI-pushers. Which picture do you prefer? The hand-drawn clown you, or the picture-perfect AI you? Exactly.

But why do you love the “imperfect” hand-drawn picture instead of the “perfect” AI-generated picture? Because, your child (or grandchild) spent time drawing it for you. And our time is the greatest, most valuable gift we have to offer.

So what’s this got to do with music? Whenever someone uses AI in the songwriting process, they’re depriving the world of their greatest gift: time. It’s the equivalent of the kid giving his parents (or grandparents) an AI-generated picture instead of a hand-drawn picture. Every time either of these things happen, a piece of humanity dies.

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So yes, using AI in the songwriting process saves us time, but spending time is the whole point. Music, without time spent making it, is a pointless contribution to the world. It has no value and no worth, and the world is far better off without it.

But we’ve been fed the lie of convenience, and the masses have swallowed it hook, line and sinker! Convenience is the new idol. Saving time, the new goal.

But saving time does not make our lives better. Spending time in the right way does.

Think about it. Let’s say you’ve got a fun day-out planned with your best friend. Now what if I told you that I can save you a full day of your life, which you can get back and then use for something else. You see where I’m going with this, right? So, instead of you going on your fun day-out, I’ll go for you. There, I just saved you a full day. You’re welcome. Wait, you’re not thanking me? But I saved you a full day!

As this thought-experiment shows: our lives are not improved by saving time, they’re improved by spending time wisely.

We need to embrace meaningful inconveniences, like the process of writing a whole song from start to finish, all on our own. When we do difficult creative projects like this, we become better humans and the world becomes more humane.

So, if you’re feeling inspired to embrace the inconvenient and time-consuming act of making music, then you can get started right now by reading my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. And if you wanna learn my secret method of Song-Whispering, which is a way for your song to guide you so it feels like it’s writing itself, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course.

Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.

Ray Harmony :)

*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.

Help keep the Songwriter's Ark afloat.

Photo by Mart Production

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 co-founder of Hack Music Theory, a YouTube channel with over 250,000 subscribers learning the fast, easy and fun way to make music without using AI, cos it ain’t no fun getting a robot to write “your” songs!

Photo by Jordan Benton

Outro music by Ray Harmony, based on the music theory from GoGo Penguin "Everything Is Going to Be OK".

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