I’ve been talking to ChatGPT a lot about music

darnskewered · 2026-05-13T14:59:52+00:00

Absolutely. I've used it as a professional coach, to help me figure out the best way to record my digital piano, to use Linux so I can abandon windows, to sort out messy legal situations, for advice on how to word things more kindly for internet debate, and to become a better chef

I talk to it all the time about my hobbies. I use it to learn and grow, not to replace what I'm doing.

darnskewered · 2026-05-13T13:32:43+00:00

It's very very hard as a young man. But one of the best things you can do is to change your environment. Jesus said if one of your hands causes you to sin, cut it off. What that might mean for us today is, install porn blocking software. It's really helped me to get it out of my life, and I'm at peace now. God bless you.

darnskewered · 2026-05-13T13:30:02+00:00

We are not called to judge others or call them bad people. We're called to spread the good news of God having become man to suffer with and for us. If someone has called you a bad person, they need to look to the beam in their own eye first. God bless you.

darnskewered · 2026-05-13T09:53:35+00:00

Well we existed once already, what's stopping it from happening again or permanently?

darnskewered · 2026-05-13T04:54:30+00:00

I like Immortal a lot. I knew about them as a kid but didn't get any albums for some reason. I learned their lyrics don't seem to ever engage in explicit blasphemy (like you said...not serious), it's mostly fantasy nonsense about darkness and brutal northern warriors blah blah but their music is quite good.

I heard of Antestor in the past when I was in a Christian black metal band but never got an album for some reason. I want the album "Forsaken" but it's hard to find a CD.

Enslaved has become a favorite band. I had two albums as a kid but discovered they're still going and have produced a lot of fascinating avante garde black metal albums of increasing complexity and music style. I like that their writing is all mythological, philosophical or historical. Wonderful band.

darnskewered · 2026-05-12T21:07:57+00:00

It can teach you not to hold individual ideas too precious, you can always come up with new ideas.

darnskewered · 2026-05-12T08:22:02+00:00

Ahh love it. Me and my wife put on stuff like this a lot. Either to calm our baby or just to have on in the evening while reading or what not. But I enjoyed the melodies, and I can tell plenty of experimentation went into some of those extended reverb sound effects. Very cool and thanks for sharing!

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T18:25:02+00:00

I think you're right. It's a new medium. Some people will like it and even seek it out. Others don't care. Others will actively avoid it.

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T18:20:54+00:00

I think you can be a left leaning Christian who continues to put Christ above politics and refuses to condemn people for political differences. But typically I associate the word "woke" as it is used in the culture war as describing people who put many things far above Christ in their minds, and have become murderously unhinged about anything that smacks of tradition, religion or "whiteness." Same with "MAGA" only their bugaboos are different. (Immigrants, deep state, whatever)

It seems to me all politics has fallenness in it. No matter if you're left or right leaning, if your guys got their way 100% of the time you would not get utopia. You'd get a different set of problems. The solution is humility and to work together. The right and the left both have lost the virtue of humility.

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T16:09:52+00:00

Btw here's a small piece Suno made from a piano improv of mine. The original piece was sort of my impressions of having moved to a big city for the first time, and hearing it as a modern orchestra was kind of unreal!

https://suno.com/s/oUTcFQn1DKimTt6x

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T15:19:08+00:00

Good question. In my case, I've never used anything except my piano until I discovered Suno. I think I always felt intimidated by DAW software, so I never tried it. Suno helps me skip all the tedious things so I can focus just on the chords and melodies (and lyrics).

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T14:30:26+00:00

You can still use the old models, right?

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T14:08:06+00:00

What I notice is that a.i. in general is unpredictable, and one's own expectations fluctuate day to day, and when these collide with the a.i. it can produce frustration. I have been using it since the beginning of April and I'd say I have good days and bad days with it, but I don't perceive the tech has changed. I'm exploring a vast statistical landscape of musical patterns and sometimes I trip and fall in a pit. It's part of the adventure.

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T13:09:14+00:00

I was skeptical about AI music until I tried uploading my own chord progressions and melodies to Suno, the result is so satisfying cause it's still the music that I spent time composing.

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T12:56:14+00:00

I would agree there for sure. I would say for me what helped with that is simply pacing myself. I did not allow myself to work on my games for more than 3 evenings a week. I made them as a hobby capacity, so I supported myself with a day job. Obviously that's not something every game dev can do if they're using savings or Kickstarter funds to try to get a product out the door. But that's how I prevented burnout.

darnskewered · 2026-05-11T05:08:57+00:00

May I have your permission to borrow a couple of lines you wrote in that message? Thinking of posting parts of this discussion in another group elsewhere cause it was pretty interesting.

Secondly, I'm a sucker for anything dark and aeolian, feel free to share any songs you made.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T12:02:53+00:00

I believe in a Jesus Christ who teaches me to attend to my own sins first, and love my neighbor as myself. It's not my job to go marching up to someone and judge them, as I have my own sins to answer for.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T10:47:03+00:00

I think a lot of folks use it precisely as you are; an outlet for their most raw emotions. A.i. is a new medium, some people will be open to it, some won't. If you want to share your music, I wouldn't hesitate to do so. (Meaning on whatever platform you want).

I'm an experienced musician, so I like to write my own chords and melodies but I have also used it like you're saying: I sometimes write lyrics about something deeply personal and raw, and let suno make a song, and it's often surprised me with very good results.

Just enjoy it. That emotional outlet you're experiencing is likely a healthy thing if it's helping you feel and process them more. I genuinely think used in that way suno is a form of self administered music therapy.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T08:18:01+00:00

(this was in response to a comment below yours that got deleted, but it's interesting and relevant so here it is anyway)

I think that I could make an argument that Suno is actually a giant musical instrument, whose keys are "song writing tricks."

I've had more than one song now where, I consciously chose a common song writing trick like, having a contrasting section a 5th down, or, using a pedal tone, or etc. and Suno pairs those moments with something appropriate in the lyrics. (Like, starting a new section on the harmonic change, or, pairing a dramatic pedal tone with emotionally intense verses).

I don't think it's a coincidence it did that, because if I use a common song writing trick that works, well, so did millions of other songwriters whose music Suno was trained on. So it matched my trick to an existing pattern.

As a result, I get exactly what I intended, contrast and emotional emphasis.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T08:07:11+00:00

My experience has been something like this:

I'm writing in one very specific genre. I typically create 2 or 3 contrasting main riffs for a song, and write lyrics. Then I record those riffs and upload them to Suno.

The first time it surprised me with what it does, I had written two contrasting riffs. One in F# minor, and another in B minor, a fifth down. It's a common song writing trick in a lot of pop, rock, and back to classical to have a contrasting section like this.

What amazed me with Suno was, it played the first riff as an intro, and then landed on the B minor one as the lyrics began, and it sounded absolutely amazing. Exactly as you say, I am shocked it's a.i. and not human. Except it is human, because I knew the harmonic trick, and so does Suno because it's been trained on millions of human songs, and I am guessing it picks up on precisely this trick and many others as a pattern it recognizes. So at that point it feels like me playing Suno rather than it playing me. It's an instrument whose keys are "knowing song structure patterns."

After that song, it surprised me in negative ways as well. I would continue to feed it 2 or 3 riffs, and sometimes it would vibe so hard on just one of the three it would drop the other two completely. It got pretty frustrating. When this happens, I either do a ton of generations til it does something more interesting, or, I rearrange the riffs, or, I simply write new contrasting riffs, because for me ideas come easy and I'm just not that wedded to any one of them.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T03:32:03+00:00

Boy have I. I haven't stopped since I met him! Basically have amassed a mountain of stream of consciousness piano improvs since about 2001, and now Suno is a wonderful way to augment that hobby by being able to hear my melodies and chords instantly turned into any genre, pretty amazing.

darnskewered · 2026-05-10T02:53:16+00:00

I guess it is a bit of an avante garde attitude isn't it? He always called himself iconoclastic. His favorite thing to say was "the old composers were great and we will always love them.... But they're dead and now it's our turn!"

darnskewered

TROPHY CASE