TED KOCHER — WRITING ESSAYS · OCCASIONAL

Writing

Four pieces so far. One is for music students trying to decide what to do about the robots. One is about a very cheap guitar. One is about how an instrumental musician ended up writing lyrics, and ends with a promise. The newest is a research paper, more or less, that checks on the promise. It turns out all four are about the same thing.

PIECES

01

A Study in B3

2026 · A research paper, of sorts

An open music model, run on a laptop, against six commercial engines and one tavern. Asked for D minor, it chose D-sharp minor seven times in fifteen, then matched its own plan twenty times in twenty. Includes drawbars you can play.

READ
02

Sixteen Thousand Clips and One Honest Sentence

2026 · On process, for instrumentalists

One source played by hand, two hundred generations that are almost right, the round trip through Pro Tools, and the lyrics a lifelong instrumentalist never planned to write.

READ
03

The Robot Sang, I Told the Truth, and Nobody Ever Called Me Again

2026 · On AI, for music students

The tools are astonishing at execution and entirely without appetite. They will do almost anything except want. Includes a receipt: a personal app built in the time it takes to make a pour-over.

READ
04

The $369 Guitar That Ruined Everything

2025 · An ode to a cheap guitar

A Squier Telecaster, an hour of a friend’s time, a set of flat-wound 11s, and the freedom of an instrument your dog can knock over.

READ