cs.HCAug 14, 2026

Musical Mirrors: The LLM as Sounding Board in Songwriting

Authors: Xiao Xiao

Organizations: Institute for Future Technologies De Vinci Research Center, De Vinci Higher Education Paris, France · MIT Media Lab Cambridge, MA, USA

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Abstract

This paper examines a use of AI in creative practice as an interpretive sounding board for human-generated material, rather than the more familiar pattern of AI generation followed by human curation. Through the lens of resonance as theorized by Hartmut Rosa, I present a first-person case study of songwriting from July 2025 to March 2026, drawing on 16 original pieces in English, French, and other languages along with piano solos. I describe a configuration in which resonance is not located between user and model, but in the author's deepening contact with their own material, mediated through the model. This kind of resonance was supported rather than inhibited by AI when sounding-board behavior was cultivated through sustained calibration by the user. Two failure modes appeared when calibration was absent: sycophantic drift and magical overinterpretation. This account suggests both the potential and the risks of AI as an interpretive partner in creative practice.

Figures & tables

 MM IMM IIMM III
Started2025-07-252025-11-062026-02-28
Ended2025-11-142026-02-252026-05-05
Days11211166
User messages1,3661,065547
Total messages2,7392,1321,095
Models4o, 5, 5.15, 5.1, 5.25.2, 5.3, 5.4
Table 1. The three Musical Mirrors (MM) conversations with GPT. Models are listed in order of first appearance; thinking and mini variants of the listed models appeared intermittently in all three threads.
Appendix figures & tables1 asset

Supplementary material from the paper’s appendix.

Appendix

  
Original lyricsEnglish translation
N’oublie pas ton souffle August 4, 2025
Set to Ravel’s Ondine .
Expire, et inspire,Exhale, and inhale,
respire… tu m’inspires.breathe… you inspire me.
Laissons résonner celles qui coulent,Let those that flow resonate,
Appendix
Table 2
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