How Music Works cover art

How Music Works

The Science and Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond

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How Music Works

By: John Powell
Narrated by: Walter Dixon
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About this listen

An enthralling investigation into the mysteries of music. Have you ever wondered how off-key you are while singing in the shower? Or if your Bob Dylan albums really sound better on vinyl? Or why certain songs make you cry?

Now, scientist and musician John Powell invites you on an entertaining journey through the world of music. Discover what distinguishes music from plain old noise, how scales help you memorize songs, what the humble recorder teaches you about timbre (assuming your suffering listeners don’t break it first), why anyone can learn to play a musical instrument, what the absurdly complicated names of classical music pieces actually mean, how musical notes came to be (hint: you can thank a group of stodgy men in 1939 London for that one), how to make an oboe from a drinking straw, and much more.

With wit and charm, and in the simplest terms, Powell explains the science and psychology of music. Clever, informative, and deeply engaging, How Music Works takes the secrets of music away from the world of badly dressed academics and gives every one of us—whether we love to sing or play air guitar—the means to enhance our listening pleasure.

©2010 John Powell (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp Creativity & Genius History & Criticism Instruction & Technique Music Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Piano Celebrity Musician Guitar

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Critic reviews

"Powell conveys the material with enough humor and cocktail party facts to keep the book light and fun." ( Publisher's Weekly)
All stars
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This book is an objective and analytical approach to understanding music. This style of analytical approach is my favourite way of understanding things, and the author is doing a fantastic job explaining music in this way.
The book is easy to understand, not to mention the good banter that pleases every reader/listener.

Good introduction to the science of music

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So THAT is why melody works! And why loudness is so hard to measure... If you are just mildly interested in how music works and why it by-passes the brain to reach directly to the soul, then this is a work that will keep you glued to your earphones. Its is well read but, and this is the best part, well illustrated in music by the author with his end-of-chapter appearances. So its a treat, whatever music you enjoy. And even though I've been a broadcaster and closely involved with music for over fifty years there was plenty to learn and marvel at in this book by John Powell. I'd love to do an interview with him!

Music is my business

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An enjoyable book - well written and the technical information is explained very well so that anyone can understand it. Parts will be boring for those with musical training, but there is enough other substance to ensure that everyone learns something. The audio 'illustrations' at the end of some of the chapters are useful too. I think it is a brilliant book for people who are perhaps learning an instrument and are wanting to understand where all the technical intricacies originated.

Enjoyable

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But there are some parts that could have been better. The narrator for example could have sung the examples mentioned instead of reciting them monotonously. Nonetheless, supplementary musical material by John Powell himself is inserted every now and then, taking advantage of the audiobook format. The appendix can't be appreciated completely in such format, so I skipped the boring part where the narrator is enumerating a lot of things (like having someone read a dictionary to you).

Generally good

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the necessarily technical bits are made very easy and enjoyable to understand, a swiss army knife.

I liked it.

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