How Music Works

How Music Works - LibraryThing Book Review

How Music Works is a fantastic introductory book for the musically interested but otherwise musically uneducated reader. John Powell writes in a breezy conversational style, never talking down to his reader. He discusses the very basics of acoustics, melody, harmony, rhythm, and instrumentation. I think he does a marvelous job tying everything up into a complete package that an interested lay reader should appreciate. As a trained musician, I found myself wanting more from the book, but I cannot fault it for that. Music - and more specifically music theory and acoustics - can seem an arcane field to those who are interested but have had no training. I will certainly recommend this book to people I know who tell me that they'll never be able to understand music. How Music Works should be able to set the initiated reader on to the path of learning, well, how music works.