Making Music With AI

I've recently become fascinated with exploring new AI tools, especially Suno.ai for music creation. It's an incredible tool, but I found a limitation in crafting lyrics. Suno does a decent job, but the text input is restricted. A fellow AI enthusiast suggested using ChatGPT to generate lyrics and then inputting them into Suno to create the music. This method worked remarkably well, and I'm thoroughly impressed with the results. Let me walk you through my process of creating a song about an upcoming visit by Dusti Bowling, an author of several outstanding middle-grade books.

First, decide on your song's theme. Knowing that Dusti Bowling would visit our district next year, I chose her books as inspiration. For fifth and sixth graders, we picked "The Canyon's Edge," while seventh and eighth graders had four of her books to choose from. I asked ChatGPT to analyze themes, characters, settings, and descriptions in Bowling's books and then generate follow-up questions. The responses were detailed and thoughtful. Next, I requested an upbeat, catchy song about Bowling’s writing, incorporating these elements. The result was astonishing—complete with verses, chorus, bridge, pre-chorus, and chord progressions.

I copied the lyrics into Suno’s interface under the custom tab. After minor edits and specifying that I wanted a catchy song with acoustic guitar and drums sung by a female vocalist.  Suno generated two versions of the song in about a minute. This was a significant improvement from previous versions where extending songs was cumbersome and a multi-step process.

If you don't like the generated version, you can tweak the settings or regenerate it until satisfied. Exploring specific music styles using detailed descriptions is something I plan to delve into more by reading Suno’s blog and learning from other creators' prompts.

Suno offers an amazing feature where you can download not only an MP3 but also a karaoke-style video with captions highlighting the lyrics as they are sung—a perfect format for social media sharing.

For fun, I experimented by changing the singer to male and was amazed at the diversity in style and articulation. Inspired by Don McLean’s "American Pie," I asked ChatGPT to rewrite my song in that style. Although initially too long for Suno’s 3000-character limit, I edited it down and used descriptive phrases instead of McLean’s name to generate the song successfully.

Creating songs with ChatGPT and Suno is accessible even for those with limited musical ability. While this technology might threaten traditional singer-songwriter jobs, it democratizes creativity.

Recently, I used Suno to create instrumental music for a memorial service video for my mother-in-law. Conscious of copyright issues as a librarian, I opted for Suno’s instrumental creation feature and generated two beautiful piano pieces that fit perfectly.

This tool has revolutionized how I create content—from custom songs for school activities to memorable presentations. The integration of ChatGPT and Suno has truly changed the game. 

Here is my song: Journey Through the Desert.  Just for fun, I also had it rewrite the song using Don McLean's "American Pie" as inspiration.  Here is my song: Desert Pie. Lastly, here is my piano piece that I created for the memorial video:  In Loving Memory.

If you are interested in giving @suno.ai a try, use this link.  I don't benefit financially or anything, but they do give both of us free credits!