Generally good

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).

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7 people found this helpful

Most appropriate book to be an audio book

Brilliant once you start listening , it just flows .. more over you get expose to the sound samples right then an then... it feels like as proper lecture.

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5 people found this helpful

Interesting but doesn't make best use of format

Any additional comments?

This is a good book and explains the physics of musical instruments very clearly. The author seems to have a foot in the physicists’ camp and the musicians’ camp which he combines very well.

The only down-side is that the book seems to have been written as a printed book first and then simply read out for Audible.com, missing out on the benefits an audio book could give when describing music. When you describe notes, volume, pitch, harmonies or the moods which different styles of playing evoke, you really need to give audible examples. When the narrator tells us that a scale that goes tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone gives better musical punctuation than tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone-and-a-half, semitone, it’s hard to follow; but if someone played it you’d understand in an instant. To address this, the author inserts his own comments and examples at the end of each chapter, played on instruments, which does help a lot.

The book goes on to explain a little about musical notation but unfortunately, when teaching that, a printed book _IS_ what you need because it's difficult for an audio book to describe the notation - you need to see examples written down.

Despite these problems this book does a great job at making things as clear as it could. To do better you'd need to find some kind of multi-media presentation where the author has really used each format to its best and interleaved them well.

Btw there is a strange error in the book where the narrator tells us that musicians indicate a sharp note by writing a pound sign. The correct symbol is a ‘#’ which is often found on non-UK qwerty keyboards on the 3 key, where the ‘£’ is in the UK, and I can only imagine that there has been some technical slip-up here and the narrator has read it out unquestioningly.

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6 people found this helpful

Enjoyable

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.

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8 people found this helpful

Nice for layman

A concise overview of music basics, easy to follow and quite enjoyable. Covers basics of tuning and the principles of how instruments work. Very uswful for anyone completelt new to music theory.

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2 people found this helpful

Harmony, Scales, Keys and Rhythm chapters were pure gold

I appreciated the simple explanations of the technical chapters so much that I bought the paperback too. I also bought one for two friends. It’s the book I’ve been looking for, for years!

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Music is my business

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!

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12 people found this helpful

The American narrator sounds silly

The author is British and litters his prose with words like "some bloke". The American narrator sounds stupid and unconvincing reading British colloquialisms, he was a *very* poor choice.

It's as if you heard the Queen saying "darn tootin!" and "oh my god dude", but in a serious way, and for hours.

The general exposition here of the concepts is good and I feel like I've got a better handle on basics like keys, chords, scales etc. I don't think there's any substitute for really studying though, and there were places where, without a graph or diagram, it's just hard to follow.

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3 people found this helpful

Nice book about music

the book gives details on the history and making of music, in more senses than one.
anyone who hasn't studied history or the mathematics behind music will find this book rewarding. this will include most musicians.

hearing the discussions on strings and organ tubes organized ideas in my head that I might have had before, but not well stored.

the author's and narrator's pace are good, humor is mostly funny, and the narrator does a good job signing sometimes.

the additional excerpts by the author are very informative. I would suspect most people, including musicians, haven't heard notes from an instrument without the begining of the note, and most will not be able to identify the instrument the author plays in one of his examples . this excerpt, and others like it, really make you think, and understand, how music works.

I do wish there was more about the history of instruments and pitches and so on, and also more audio excerpts of actual music to really bring home some of the points.

I have also listened to The Great Courses lectures on music, and I think they complement each other well, even if overlapping by quite a bit.

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5 people found this helpful

Terrible Narration!

Very technical for an amateur like me, though with some interesting 'Aha!?' parts.
Spoiled by mind-numbing, robotic narrator.

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