Combining Family Memories and AI to Make Music
Juggling Milestones and Spinning Stories with Suno AI
I’ve got a lot going on right now, and to keep up, I’ve actually started mapping my projects out on a calendar.
The reason? Birthdays! It seems like everyone has a milestone this year. My granddaughter is turning 21, another is turning 18, and Auntie Hez would be 100 if she were still with us. Hey, we’re going to celebrate anyway because she would definitely want us to! But behind the scenes, all these celebrations add up to several projects—on top of my usual workload.
One of the fun things I’ve been playing around with lately is Generative AI Music. I’ll admit, when I first heard about it, I didn’t think much of it. I figured real musicians should make real music, right? But then I found some niche areas where AI-generated music actually works.
For professional musicians, AI can be a creative muse—a tool for new ideas or starting points. For me, a rusty musician with modest skills, AI fills a different gap. It works in areas where music wouldn’t have existed otherwise. I mean, who else is going to write a song for the grandkids about their revolutionary war ancestors or a playful love tune to my cat—the emotional support pet who throws up all the time?
This is my favorite use, personalized music—something fun and custom that certainly rivals the tinny sounds in greeting cards or the horrid jingles that come from my youngest granddaughter’s toys.
In the spirit of keeping family traditions alive, I decided to make a personalized song, using Suno AI, for Auntie Hez’s birthday. Her real name was Esther, but I never called her that. She picked up the nickname “Hez” as a kid, when she and her siblings used to imitate the Hoosier Hotshots, a popular hillbilly band. She always played the part of Hezzie Trietsch, whose instrument was a washboard with various bells and kitchen implements attached to it. Auntie Hez loved music, and I thought, what better way to honor her?
So, in the vein of “show your work,” I’ve put together a short video showing my progress on making a Suno song for Auntie Hez. It’s not perfect, but I’m learning as I go, and I’ll share more once as I catch my breath from all these birthdays!
Here's a link to the video:
If you want to play with Suno or other AI music tools yourself, here are some good starting points, along with a few YouTube videos that I found helpful on the topic.
A basic overview of Suno:
This application changes regularly, so what I mention today will change soon. The help docs tell you all the latest info at help.suno.com. I am not going to include screenshots here, because you can get them there. There are also advanced features that I did not cover here.
Establish a login at suno.com. Hint: I'm working through the web browser on a computer. The functionality is similar on the mobile app, but you may want to squint at the small print and continually correct typos from using the tiny on-screen keyboard. Other than that, it's all pretty similar 🙂
Choose from two options for lyrics:
Enter a few words describing what kind of song you want and allow the AI to generate the lyrics. (Example: 1940’s Big Band Tune about Auntie Hez and her 100th Birthday Celebration)
Enter your own lyrics and a description of the music. Do this by toggling the "Custom" button to display the lyrics box. Hint: If you are not accustomed to writing lyrics, try letting Suno generate them first, so that you can get some ideas. What Suno outputs will not be very good, but it can get your creative thoughts flowing. Try changing Suno’s lyrics first, and with practice you'll learn to write your own from scratch, which I recommend for all storytellers.
Add a title. Hint: Depending on the song, you may generate many multiple versions, so change the title with each attempt to help you differentiate between versions and use the "Like" or "Dislike" buttons to help you remember which versions you prefer.
Describe your song. If you chose to add your own lyrics, go to the space for the song description and (in 120 characters or less) explain the style of song you want, such as “Classical Piano with Male Vocals” or “Swing Jazz with Trumpet and Upright Bass.” Hint: to find interesting sounds, browse through the library of tunes other folks have created, and see what they have used.
Click "Create" and wait. You will receive two outputs.
These may be full songs, partial songs, or full songs plus some extra garbage at the end (such as random spoken words. I can't think of anything more ridiculous than AI spoken word at the end of a song, "That Auntie Hez, she's always in my heart. Uh huh. Oh yes.")
If you received a partial song, you may choose to "extend" using the button by that name. To learn more about extending, see the help docs.
Download the song you liked. This option is out to the right of the song title in your library of songs. Look for the 3 vertical dots, click, you will get a menu of options. If you extended it, download both parts.
Perform necessary surgery. If it had strange garbage at the end or came in two parts, use an editing program to fix it up. Note: I am now seeing a "Crop Song" feature inside of Suno. Not sure what that does yet. As I said, features change quickly.
Use any Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Free options include Garageband (Mac) and Audacity (Mac and Windows),
If you already use video editing software, this can also handle simple audio editing tasks.
If you haven't edited audio or video before, it will seem intimidating at first, but if you look for some YouTube tutorials, you will catch on quickly.
A Few Tutorials to Get you Started:
For those of you who prefer not to click on links these days due to phishing concerns, I've included the exact titles so you can type them into your search engine.
How To Use Suno AI to Create the Perfect Song (The Real AI Agents) - Does a fairly reasonable basic walkthrough.
How To Make A VIRAL AI Music Video (For Free) - Matt Wolfe - Matt covers all thing AI.
Complete List of Prompts & Styles for Suno AI Music (2024) | by Travis Nicholson | Medium - To help you find some interesting song styles.
The Future of AI and Music: AI-Created Music: Ethics and Debatable Considerations - Music Industry Weekly
AI Music Tools to Try:
Suno.com: This is the one I’ve been using to create my Auntie Hez song. It's fast. It's fun. The voices are so-so. It has a habit of not finishing the songs now and again, so that you must use that “extend” feature.
Loudme.ai: Another fun AI music generator that has been consistent for me. It always seems to generate full songs without needing to piece them together afterward. It does sometimes add those funny voices at the end. I call it Ghost Rap. Right now it does not seem to have a very good way of organizing your library of songs (liking, deleting, etc.)
Mureka.ai: I haven't tried this one. I have been hearing about it a lot lately.
Udio.com: Many people like Udio. I have not used it much because it produces what I find to be rather unusual outputs, but this may be because I don't know how to use it.
The Best AI Tools in Music from AIMusicpreneur - This list includes more advanced tools as well as other options that I did not list above.
More about the Hoosier Hotshots
Wikipedia: Hoosier Hot Shots - Wikipedia - During the Depression and World War II, when most of the news in the paper was bad news, people really liked this band because added some levity to their lives.
If you’re curious about what AI can do for your music projects—or if you just want to have some fun making a personalized song—these tools are a good place to start. Now, I’ve got to get back to my calendar before I miss another birthday!