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

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This book was a godsend for me in my efforts to learn music theory as an older beginner. John Powell combines his credentials as a physicist with his deep understanding of music theory in a way perfect for me. I have several books that tell me the “what” about music theory, but this book goes on to explain the “why” music is the way it is, and how it evolved down through history. I believe it is essential for learning to understand the overall concepts holistically, and then work back to the details of how something works. Mr. Powell does an outstanding job of this, and with wit and humor all along the way. I first read this book in its entirety to learn the musical concepts presented, and then as a reference in going back over the chapters in closer reading (keyboard in hand), and my understanding growing by epiphany to epiphany. Mr. Powell took the mystery out of music theory and provided me with the knowledge to understand other authors’ music theory books. I’m still learning, and this book has taken me much farther down the road than I have ever been, and in a relatively short amount of time. I am eternally grateful to you Mr. Powell.

Like many kids growing up, I had piano lessons here and there, but my overall knowledge of music was still pretty basic."How Music Works" takes a lot of musical concepts and makes it palatable even for people with limited knowledge of music theory but has an interest in better understanding why music works the way it does.From what is perfect pitch to the difference between notes and noise to how exactly instruments like organs and guitars work to scales and more, I learned a lot of fundamentals as well as interesting tidbits along the way.For instance, did you know that music notes weren't standardized until 1939? Meaning that a French flute once sounded different than a German one? Or that Mozart's compositions are now played a pitch or two higher than they were originally composed tuned to his tuning fork?I like too that Powell uses easy to understand examples about music accompanied by photos and diagrams using non-music every day reference points (explaining the concept of resonance with the idea of pushing a swing in a park -- pushing at the right time when the swing is just coming down from the top is simple and far less taxing than trying to push at any other point, or that you can visualize an oboe and its function by creating your own simplified version using a straw).Throughout the book there were plenty of music examples too so you can look up the songs on Youtube to understand references like arpeggio.Overall, I found the book to be a good comprehensive intro to music and well worth my time to read.

As the title says, this is a book about how music works -- but about how it works in physical sense, not in an artistic or emotional sense. This took me aback, since I'd expected (having foolishly failed toread the write up or the reviews) something about sense and sensibility.But I am very glad I got the book, and read it. The author sets out to make the mechanics of music clear even to readers with no musical education. I am just such a one, and the book does indeed make a lot of things very clear, starting with what makes a sound musical. It proceeds through pitch and frequency, tonality, intervals and scales, keys, modes, and on and on.I learned a lot from the book, and enjoyed doing so. The style is very clear and simple, the organization is excellent, and the examples are well chosen. Only time will tell whether or not having read the book enhances my appreciation of music, Meanwhile, I've learned a lot of stuff that is fun to know.My only question about this book is whether it might be TOO clear and simple for readers who already know a lot about music. I can"t judge that, but such readers might want to read reviews by their peers.

This book explains everything you might ever have wondered about music and what makes it music as opposed to mere sounds. The book requires no prior knowledge of music or music theory, or even how to read music, but it is probably only for those seriously interested in "how music works." Mr. Powell presents in a clear and humorous book an explanation of just about everything you could imagine concerning the topic of music and music perception. For example, he gives a brief history of the difficulty in designing musical instruments so that not only do they sound good but allow a transposition from key to key known as "well tempered." (think of Bach's "Well Tempered Clavier.") Powell also delves into the psychology of music and sound perception showing us for example, that humans don't perceive loudness linearly - the old Weber-Fechner Law from psycho-physics. Powell explains why some music sounds sad and some happy and always throughout the books he gives examples from popular to classical works. I loved this book and plan on using it as a supplement in one of my psychology courses on motivation but as I said at the beginning, I think you really should have a burning curiosity about the working of music to stick with the book even as well written as it is. But if you do love music and want to really learn more about it, this is a 5-star place to learn.

John Powell's book is a model of clarity.If you want to understand the fundamentals of music without having the vocabulary of a professional musician, you should enjoy this book.He's refreshingly precise and clear about what we do know and equally clear about what we don't really understand about how music works, too.A great example- lots of music theory books flail around on the subject of "do particular musical keys have a particular feeling to them"? John Powell explains why there is a difference between the major and minor keys. Then he wondered if the people who say "oh yes, the key of A is mysterious and dark" (or whatever) are correct. So he did the scientific thing - devised an experiment and tested the hypothesis. This is all described at a really good pace whilst still covering everything you need to know: like making his test listeners listen to non-Western Indian raga music between keys to cancel out the "key change" effect. There's more information in a few pages than in several waffly chapters of other similar books on the subject. The answer from the experiment? You'll have to read the book to find out.Oh, and his witty asides had me snorting with laughter so often I ended up having to read sections of the book aloud to my friends on holiday.I wish all authors covering specialist subjects for non-specialist readers wrote as well as this.

Written in straight forward simple English, this book is a brilliant read. It gives the word 'sound' a proper meaning and explains in language easily understood.I have been playing the piano and listening to music in excess of 70 years and never really thought about how it worked. I knew that air waves brought the sound to my ears but the book goes into much more detail.I have a home studio, made quite a few audio recordings with local singers and have recently come across the word 'formant' in audio software. I could hear the results when I used it but this book explains what 'formant' actually is.Brilliant book in plain English - thank you.

My overall impression of this book was, ultimately, of being a little disappointed. Partly this is because the book fizzles out somewhat, and as the book enters the final couple of chapters it is obvious that the author has lost interest, or run out of time, as latter part of the book (particularly chapters 10, 11 and 12) does not have anywhere near the coherence of the earlier parts. Those chapters (10, 11 and 12) feel very much thrown together - my guess is that they were written in a day each and pretty much off the top of the author's head. This is a shame as these chapters could/should have been great, but they really lack the thought and detail of the earlies ones. To use an appropriate analogy, the book is a bit like a fairly decent song that ends on a long fade out, rather than a proper ending. But perhaps the main reason for feeling a little disappointed is that I was hoping for so much more out of its 255 pages. I have been interested in music for a long time, and there were certainly some things that I learned in the book (mostly in chapters 6 to 9) but I was hoping to learn a whole lot more, and I do think that there is still a better book to be written on this subject - perhaps the second edition of this book? (In the hugely unlikely event that Mr Powell reads this review, here are a few ideas for the second edition of this book: a complete re-write of chapters 10 and 11, which are especially hopeless; a whole chapter on just intonation, non-Western scales and microtonal music; replacing chapter 12 (which is also pretty hopeless) with two new chapters: i) a whole chapter on recording music (both live and in studios) and listening to pre-recorded music, including a proper discussion about digital sampling and psychoacoustics; ii) a whole chapter on listening to live music (of various genres) and how different environments affect sound.) Overall, I suspect that non-musicians will get a lot more out of this book than musicians (although how many non-musicians are really that interested in how music works?) but I also suspect that a lot of musicians will read this book and feel a bit let down by it, although they will undoubtedly learn one of two things too, but not in that much depth. Also, was it just me or is the blub on the front a bit misleading? I don't recall anything about broken chords, nor anything that I would count as explaining the secrets of a good tune (although surely there is no such secret!).

I was going to buy this book after I stumbled across it on Amazon, but after I'd read some of the reviews here, I hesitated. The one thing that seemed to come across in the reviews was that the author's jokes and attempts to be funny got in the way of the science and understanding of music. But eventually I went ahead and bought the book.I have to say, the jokes are actually funny. Some of them made me laugh out loud! OK, one or two are a bit lame, but the majority of them are genuinely witty, self-deprecating and very amusing. John Powell would make a good script-writer. His writing style keeps the book rolling along nicely, and makes it appear as if the author is talking to the reader on the reader's level, rather than from lofty heights of academia.So... does the writing style get in the way of the science? No. Not at all. If anything it helps. And it gave me some really good laughs along the way.Some of the stuff in this book I already knew, and some of it was new. But even for the stuff I already knew, it was great to get a new angle on it and cement or improve my understanding of it. As for the new things, they were explained clearly and in a very understandable way. And in certain circumstances, I was surprised at how easy the understanding of these things was! One thing I was fascinated about was how EASY the maths for equal-temperament tuning was - I'd always been led to believe that it was absolutely fearsome and took mathematicians and musicians YEARS to work out. Turns out that not only was it easy, someone else had done it decades before and simply been ignored! Well, as they say, "you learn something new every day"!This is a great book - real "people science" stuff. Easy to understand, effectively presented and a great read - with some very funny lines to make you laugh as you gather in the information. I'm really grateful to John Powell for writing this book, and I look forward to some more of John's writing on music in the future. Perhaps the next thing he'd like to tackle is the reading of music. I for one would be first in line to read that book if it ever got written!Highly recommended.

`How Music Works ` in an informative and informal look at how music has the power to move us as deeply as it does.It covers a wide range of topics around this theme and includes discussions on Perfect Pitch, the distinction between notes and noise, how instruments differ in sound from one another, how we measure loudness, harmony, scales, the effects of major and minor scales on mood, rhythm, making music and listening to music. As can be seen, pretty comprehensive stuff.The ideas are laid out very clearly and you are left marvelling at certain aspects of music you never fully appreciated and fascinated by the impact it has upon our moods and the reasons behind this.I initially enjoyed the authors relaxed, informal style of writing, but I have to admit by the end I wish he'd miss out the jokes and cut to the chase. There is being informal and then there is being just plain silly! This is only a minor niggle though and doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the book.There are plenty of diagrams and photos to illustrate the various points raised and you are never left guessing at the more complex issues explored. There is also a `fiddly details' section at the end where the more detailed parts are explained in greater depth.You don't have to play or read music to get something out of this book, in fact you will get plenty from this as just a music fan who enjoys listening to music. There is plenty here for musician and music listener alike.Overall this made for an interesting and informative read and if you enjoy this then I can also recommend `Musicophilia' by Oliver sacks. All in all, this is well worth a read.Feel free to check out my blog which can be found on my profile page.