A Quick Note on AI Music
Before getting into this, a quick disclaimer.
I’m aware of the criticisms around AI-generated music, and many of them are valid.
I’m not trying to pass this off as something it isn’t or pretend I wrote and produced these songs in the traditional sense.
This is just a personal, creative side project using AI tools as part of my Spanish learning process.
Nothing more ambitious than that.
Writing Songs in Spanish with Suno and LLMs
When I started learning Spanish through comprehensible input, I wasn’t planning to write songs.
Most advice in this space is clear: prioritize input, delay output, let the language build naturally.
I still agree with that.
But I found a kind of detour that doesn’t feel like traditional output at all: co-writing songs in Spanish using an LLM and generating them with Suno.
This ended up being one of the most engaging parts of my process so far.
The Process
The workflow is simple:
Start with:
- a concept
- a handful of Spanish phrases (usually pulled from videos)
Then iterate with an LLM:
- shaping lyrics slowly
- adjusting tone, imagery, and rhythm
- reworking lines repeatedly
Finally:
- feed the lyrics into Suno
- experiment with style, lyrics, phrasing and arrangement
This isn’t real-time output. It’s slow, deliberate, and heavily guided.
Las Estrellas de Mallorca
This was the first Spanish song I worked on.
It came from a Dreaming Spanish video comparing Mallorca and Barcelona. One of the speakers described growing up in Mallorca before mass tourism and spending nights on the beach watching the stars.
That image stuck.
At the same time, I was reading Love in the Time of Cholera, which, among many other themes, touches on modernization and the erosion of natural beauty.
The idea became: the stars as silent witnesses.
The song takes their perspective, watching generations pass: their hopes, heartbreak, and fleeting lives.
Writing this in Spanish forced me away from precision and toward feeling. I leaned on imagery instead of perfect phrasing.
And that made the song better.
Insonorización
This was the most recent Spanish song I worked on.
Instead of starting with an image, I started with a list of phrases I had collected: al fin y al cabo, insoportable, hace falta me da cuenta, and others.
From there, I built a concept: talking to and from the perspective of a social media algorithm.
The song expanded into something broader: addiction, compulsion, and being trapped in loops you recognize but can’t seem to escape.
Insonorización became about insulation, but not peaceful insulation. More like being sealed inside a system that dulls everything except the marginally less satisfying next hit of stimulation.
Compared to Las Estrellas de Mallorca, this one is tighter, more claustrophobic, and more direct.
Why Writing in Spanish Feels Different
Before this, I had written about a dozen songs in English.
In English:
- I overthink word choice
- I avoid clichés aggressively
- I worry about sounding derivative
In Spanish:
- I don’t have that baggage
- I don’t know what’s cliché
- I don’t have a strong sense of what’s overused or what the full connotations of words and phrases are
So I focus on:
- rhythm
- imagery
- emotional coherence
- simplicity of expression
Not knowing enough to be self-conscious is surprisingly freeing.
Does This Help with Acquisition?
Strictly speaking, CI says this isn’t necessary.
And I agree.
But this kind of output is different:
- slow
- guided
- built on input you’ve already seen
It reinforces vocabulary in a meaningful context.
You sit with phrases longer, reshape them, and see how they work.
I wouldn’t replace input with this.
But as a supplement, it’s been motivating and effective.
First and Last (So Far)
Las Estrellas de Mallorca and Insonorización mark the first and most recent songs I’ve written in Spanish.
There’s a clear progression:
- from external observation to internal experience
- from wide perspective to tight psychological loops
- from image-driven to phrase-driven
They also capture something else: creating in a language I don’t fully understand yet.
Takeaway
There’s something strange about writing songs in a language you’re still acquiring.
You don’t fully control it. You don’t fully understand it.
But you can still create something meaningful.
And that has made the process of learning Spanish more engaging, more creative, and more fun.