A method and apparatus for producing a ringing tone in a communication device, such as a mobile phone, an electronic organizer or a personal digital assistant, to signal an event in the communication device. The method includes the steps of generating a sequence of musical notes in a random fashion within a range of pitch and duration for defining the musical notes, modifying the sequence of musical notes based on a set of modification rules in order to produce a modified sequence, and repeating the modified sequence for forming a motif. More than one motif can be produced and stored in a computer-readable medium at a user's initiation of the communication device to allow the user to choose one of the motives as a ringing tone for signaling a different event. The user can delete one or more motives stored in the computer-readable medium and generate new ones, if desired.