Why read How Music Works?

Book cover of How Music Works: The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond

Book description

"Any readers whose love of music has somehow not led them to explore the technical side before will surely find the result a thoroughly accessible, and occasionally revelatory, primer."—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

What makes a musical note different from any other sound? How can you tell if you have perfect pitch? Why…

Explore

Topics

Genres

Coming soon!

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked How Music Works as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Paul Harris

Author

The great thing about this book is that it explains so many of music’s conundrums in a brilliantly informative and often witty way.

Why do we use the first seven letters of the alphabet to denote musical pitches? Where did the musical stave come from? What actually is composition? Where do scales come from? Why do we find certain pieces really exciting? Why do other pieces make us feel sad?

Although we may think we know the answers, these and other questions are explained by John Powell in a highly engaging manner. Being both a musician and a professor of…

From Paul's 3 favorite reads in 2023.