As the author of the Amazon Best-Selling The AI Whisperer series, my days are filled with international speaking engagements and executive coaching, helping business leaders understand and integrate AI to revolutionize their operations. But when night falls, I dive into something far more personal: music. My weekends are spent exploring its emotional and narrative depths, spanning jazz’s intricate rhythms, classical beauty, rock’s raw energy, and the lush harmonies of chorales. These explorations led me to an intriguing question:
Can AI be "primed" for creativity, much like an athlete prepares for a game or an artist sketches before painting?
This question became the foundation for an unforgettable creative experiment—a collaboration with ChatGPT and Suno AI to create Toccata and Stratocaster, a musical piece that imagines an extraordinary fusion of past and present.
The Vision: A Cosmic Musical Duel
Picture this: In a surreal cosmic landscape where time and imagination collide, Johann Sebastian Bach and Jimi Hendrix engage in a transcendent musical duel. Bach, seated at a gilded harpsichord, weaves intricate Baroque melodies with playful precision, while Hendrix, glowing under swirling psychedelic lights, bends electrifying riffs from his iconic Stratocaster.
The stage itself is a fusion of eras—a grand Baroque concert hall melded with the vibrant energy of Woodstock, floating beneath kaleidoscopic auroras that ripple across a star-filled sky. As the music crescendos, Bach’s golden harpsichord notes transform into shimmering galaxies, while Hendrix’s guitar licks erupt into swirling waves of light. Locking eyes in mutual respect, their music merges into a breathtaking harmony, celebrating the boundless, timeless power of sound and artistry.
This scene wasn’t just an abstract vision; it was the creative spark that fueled Toccata and Stratocaster. What followed was a playful, iterative jam session with ChatGPT, filled with back-and-forth exchanges that amplified creativity and nuance.
The Process: Priming AI for Creative Mastery
The resulting music felt masterful, and while Suno AI brought the sounds to life, the real magic lay in the preparation and collaboration with ChatGPT. By crafting evocative prompts and engaging in dynamic conversations, I found a way to “prime” the AI for creative excellence.
Here’s my creative process journey map:
Crafting a "Music Maestro" Persona: I primed ChatGPT by creating a custom persona—"Music Maestro"—infused with extensive knowledge of music history, theory, and diverse genres. A persona that was a master musician, music history maven, musical artist, and composer. This ensured that the AI’s responses reflected a deep understanding of the art form.
Setting a High Bar: Drawing on the legacies of musical giants like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Hendrix, I framed each prompt to inspire the AI to strive for artistic excellence. Referencing the timelessness of their work elevated every suggestion and ensured the final output resonated with emotional and technical depth.
Using Frameworks as Guides: Musical structures—genres, motifs, and lyrical techniques—served as frameworks for the collaboration. These provided clarity and direction while leaving room for innovation and improvisation. Research on musical direction and craft, particularly guiding the guitar actions, improved the dialog and precision in instruction.
Sparking Imagination: Creativity requires a spark. By presenting vivid, open-ended prompts and engaging in playful banter, I encouraged the AI to explore unconventional ideas and push boundaries. I began with the concept of a duel—drawing inspiration from the iconic interplay of Dueling Banjos, a celebrated piece of musical dialogue that captures the spirit of competition and collaboration. However, I wanted to take this idea in a different direction: a duel steeped in emotional storytelling, like the anticipation of a morning duel from an ancient tale. This duel would rise with tension and energy, evoke the expectation of resolution, and end with a sudden, dramatic conclusion. For example, I asked the AI to imagine “a cosmic duel between Bach and Hendrix,” blending Baroque precision with psychedelic fire. This single prompt unlocked a cascade of imaginative responses, envisioning shimmering galaxies of sound and swirling auroras accompanying their music. By reimagining the duel through this emotionally charged and otherworldly lens, the AI was inspired to craft something innovative, resonant, and uniquely collaborative.
Iterating Through Collaboration: The process felt like a jam session with friends. I provided the original direction and prompt directives. Then, ChatGPT considered these, refined the direction through dialogue, and added layers of nuance and depth until the vision crystallized. Each exchange brought us closer to a piece that felt technically impressive and emotionally resonant.
The Science Behind Creativity
Research shows that stress negatively impacts creativity in humans, and the situation is similar for AI. Overloading AI with conflicting prompts or unclear goals can produce inferior results, while positive stimuli—like playful interactions and imaginative scenarios—can unlock its potential.
This process mirrors human cognition. By creating a “relaxed," playful, and imaginative environment for ChatGPT, I found it more willing to explore bold ideas and generate novel outputs. Asking questions that invoked vivid imagery or emotional resonance seemed to open doors to creativity that straightforward commands might not.
The Result: A Collaborative Symphony
The final creation, Toccata and Stratocaster, was a breathtaking blend of Baroque complexity and psychedelic rock. Its intricate counterpoints and electrifying riffs transcended time. But the journey was just as rewarding as the result.
This experiment reinforced an important lesson: AI isn’t just a tool—it’s a collaborator. By embracing a symbiotic relationship, where human imagination sparks AI innovation, we can unlock levels of creativity that neither could achieve alone. With AI music lovers with journal entries will be able to express their thoughts with musical meaning that delights. More importantly, musical artists with their background of their craft, will be music maestros using their inspiration to higher levels with AI-augmented inspirations. Watch out; music that is alread good, is about to get much more personal, riveting, appealing, emotive, and inspirational. We are all likely to listen more.
How to Prime AI for Creative Collaboration
If you’re a creator, musician, or innovator, here’s how you can prime AI to unlock its full creative potential:
Define the Role: Craft an AI persona tailored to your creative domain, ensuring it has the knowledge and context to respond meaningfully.
Set the Bar High: Reference great works or artists to inspire excellence and challenge the AI to produce its best.
Provide Clear Frameworks: Use structures like genres, motifs, or narrative arcs to guide the AI while leaving room for improvisation.
Spark Imagination: Use vivid, playful prompts to inspire unconventional ideas and create a “relaxed” creative environment.
Iterate and Refine: Treat the AI as a collaborator, refining and building on its responses to achieve the desired result.
An Invitation to Explore
This journey has pushed the boundaries of what I thought was possible with human-AI collaboration in music. It’s a testament to the power of AI not just to mimic human creativity but to amplify it.
I invite you to listen to Toccata and Stratocaster and experience this fusion of past and present for yourself on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube; here's the link for YouTube: Listen Here.
Let’s continue exploring the exciting possibilities of AI in music and beyond. Have you collaborated with AI in your creative process? What lessons have you learned? Share your experiences—I’d love to hear how we can push the boundaries of creativity together. 🎶✨
And for the naysayers, yes, this music is music to my ears. Music is more than notes on a page or lyrics in a song—it is emotion distilled into sound, a universal language that transcends words. Rooted in the Greek word mousikē, meaning "the art of the Muses," music is the alchemy of arranging vocal and instrumental sounds to create harmony, beauty, and profound emotional expression.
What resonates as music to one person might strike a different chord in another, yet its power to move us remains universal. From Taylor Swift's heartfelt storytelling ballads to Beyoncé's electrifying anthems of empowerment; from Mozart's intricate symphonies to Bob Marley’s soulful reggae grooves; and from Beethoven's stirring sonatas to the countless other styles that define eras and cultures, music is united by one truth: it makes us feel.
Whether it evokes inspiration, love, heartache, triumph, or sorrow, the best music doesn’t just fill the air—it resonates within you, stirring your soul. Each artist, in their own way, channels a unique voice and raw emotion to forge a profound connection with their audience. It’s in the tingling of a feeling you can’t quite name, the goosebumps rising on your skin, the lump in your throat, or the tear that escapes your eye. As for Toccata and Stratocaster, it's electric, masterful, hypnotic, and addictive—I get such joy out of listening to it, over and over!
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