Hack Music Theory

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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”.…

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…

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…

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…