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

John Powell, a scientist and musician, answers questions about harmony, timbre, keys, chords, loudness, musical composition, and many more in this intriguing and original guide to acoustics.;So, what is music, anyway? -- What is perfect pitch and do I have it? -- Notes and noises -- Xylophones and saxophones : same notes but different sounds -- Instrumental break -- How loud is loud? -- Harmony and cacophony -- Weighing up scales -- The self-confident major and the emotional minor -- I got rhythm -- Making music -- Listening to music -- Fiddly details. Naming and identifying intervals ; Using the Decibel system ; Tuning an instrument to the pentatonic scale ; Calculating equal temperament ; The notes of the major keys.;CD. How to get different sounds from a guitar string -- Can you guess what this instrument is? -- Why some notes clash and others get along together -- Different ways to accompany a tune -- Ancient and modern scales -- 3,000-year-old music : ancient harp tuning -- The horrible out-of-tune bamboo whistle -- Confident majors and emotional minors -- How to bring tears to the eyes of the audience -- The magnificent drinking-straw oboe. "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 do ten violins sound only twice as loud as one? Do your Bob Dylan albums sound better on CD vinyl? John Powell, a scientist and musician, answers these questions and many more in How Music Works , an intriguing and original guide to acoustics. In a clear and engaging voice, Powell leads you on a fascinating journey through the world of music, with lively discussions of the secrets behind harmony timbre, keys, chords, loudness, musical composition, and more. From how musical notes came to be (you can thank a group of stodgy men in 1939 London for that one), to how scales help you memorize songs, to how to make and oboe from a drinking straw, John Powell distills the science and psychology of music with wit and charm.