Comparing Notes: How We Make Sense of Music

How does music work? Indeed, what is (or isn’t) music? We are all instinctively musical, but why? Adam Ockelford has the answers.

A tap of the foot, a rush of emotion, the urge to hum a tune; without instruction or training we all respond intuitively to music. Comparing Notes explores what music is, why all of us are musical, and how abstract patterns of sound that might not appear to mean anything can, in fact, be so meaningful.

Taking the reader on a clear and compelling tour of major twe...