Customer Reviews

How Music Really Works : The Essential Handbook for Songwriters, Performers, and Music Students ( Updated & Revised Second Edition )

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is brilliant, and I hope it becomes available on Amazon again (so I can associate-link to it from my website!). Unlike all the other music books in my library, this actually develops theory from first principles and then effectively builds layers of abstraction and complexity. This approach lets you figure things out if you have forgotten, and is much more effective than rote memorization. I'm finally getting a sense of WHY the circle of fifths exists, certain chord transitions carry a feeling of resolution, and modulation between some keys make more sense than others. Definitely a keeper, this one... and it's a fun read as well.

This book will be a classic for several reasons. In four parts, it wisely devotes Parts I and II (280 pages) to explaining the powerful effects of what most of us take for granted, and understand almost nothing. That is, why music moves us as human beings. This is not just filler before you get to the good stuff. Instead, it makes the technology of chord construction and melody crafting come to life. You then understand where the power comes from, and how to shape it. You learn to value the "woodshedding" aspect of crafting music, rather than dreading/enduring it. And the author presents both the grounding and the technology in clear, inviting lay language. Not for dummies, thankfully, but for the average thinking grown-up. The book is also innovative in its presentation of chord progressions, using a musician-proved system and many examples in legendary songs. Further, the analysis of "why lyrics work (or not)" is just as searching and broad-based. What is also impressive is the author's challenge to the music establishment to re-examine how they teach music, and his bold decision to "give away" the fruit of his labors on the internet before offering a paper version. The gamble worked. I'm not alone in wanting the book within reach as I try to make better music.

How Music Really Works is the most comprehensive and useful book that I have ever read on music and songwriting. Chapters 8 & 10, in particular, introduce elements of songwriting that have never been addressed before in any of the 30+ books I have read on songwriting. If anyone is truly serious about writing songs that will stand the test of time, then this book is a must read.

Bryan Fogelman
Director, REO Songwriters Retreat

Like the title says this book really is about how music really works. I especially liked the scientific side of it, how I can consciously add or remove certain elements to make the song better. It gives you the tools to make potential hit music, but it's up to you how you will use them. Although there's a lot of theory it's still extremely down to earth that anyone can understand the concepts. Of course it takes time and patience to really "get" everything, or then it's just because my mother tongue is not English (as you have probably noticed..). I'm sure this book shortened my learning curve by years and gave me so much better advice on songwriting than "write thousands of songs". That way you are just likely to repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Obviously I can speak only for myself when I say this book totally changed everything, and I'm not that new to songwriting. It really inspired me with the fact that I don't have to trust solely in my gut. I really recommend this book for every songwriter, even for professionals.

I honestly think this book is worth reading and studying, that's why I wrote this review (usually I don't write reviews).

And by the way you can read over 400 pages for free on the book's homepage.

I play and teach guitar and write songs. My experience with this remarkable book has been nothing but completely beneficial. I have about 40 books on applied music theory, note-reading, song writing and such, but none have enlightened me more than How Music Really Works. There are three main things I like about this book. First, it's very well-written. It's easy to read and the explanations are clear. There's no music notation, but lots of illustrations, especially in the chapters on chord progressions and rhythm/meter. Second, it's thorough and comprehensive. By this, I mean the book lives up to the title. The author, who obviously knows what he's talking about and provides an extensive bibliography and source notes, explains what makes music what it is, from scales and modes to harmony and melody, in ways that I have found to be not only understandable, but practical in everyday playing and song writing. Third, this book is funny. Without compromising on substance, the author has taken the time to find ways to lighten up what might otherwise be dreary stuff on music theory. All in all, rather than take my word for it, type the title into any search engine and go to the website. The publisher has posted several hundred pages online for free. You can read quite a bit of the book there and decide for yourself whether you think it's worth getting.

I know of no other book that can match this one on music and lyrics. As a keyboard player and songwriter, I feel like the fog has lifted.

"How Music Really Works" is easy to read, practical and humorous, yet profound and insightful about both music and lyrics. I think the title should have been "How Music and Lyrics Really Work." I found the section on lyrics (around 100 pages), an amazing revelation, especially with respect to semantic space and connotative meaning in choosing words. That chapter is worth the price of the book. Chapters 9 and 10 have detailed sections on how to use the principles in the book to craft music and lyrics that are emotionally accessible to listeners, yet bear the stamp of your originality and stand apart and above ordinary formula songs. It takes time and effort to write songs this way, but it works for me. I'd rather write quality songs that engage an audience, than formula songs where they keep on talking during a performance.

I highly recommend this revolutionary book to anyone with a serious interest in music or lyrics. At the web site, there is a "song test" which I have found to be most helpful. You can run your own songs through it to see how they measure up to what the author calls "gold standard" songs.

I bought an ebook copy of this about a year ago and it still amazes me how great this information is.

I have read songwriting books, the ones I have read mostly introduce standard structures, e.g. verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge etc. (Like you wouldn't know about this if you'd heard enough songs to be interested in songwriting?)
Then they talk about coming up with a subject, which is supposed to automatically inspire you to write something great. Or at least something.
Some of them go as far to say it doesn't matter what you write, since lyrics of popular songs aren't great anyway!

I couldn't agree more, which is why popular music is generally very poor quality songwriting that needs so much marketing - and it ends up being forced down the throats of those who don't know any better, usually children.

Anyway, this book is an inspiration in itself; it takes away the need to depend on those brief moments of inspiration for your lyrics and music, you will have the precise tools to make your songs great.

And he is funny too! Enjoy.

This book nails it - it is as close to a comprehensive unlocking of the "secrets" of songwriting as I have seen in 20 years in and around the business. It expertly blends not only the logic behind music but is respectful of and responsive to the emotional connections and centres of the creative process. This is a book for the serious song craftsperson (writer OR player) and not for the yo-yo who plays for 20 minutes each day and hopes that the "muse" will strike... unless said yo-yo would like a career in music. Excellent work - I highly recommend it!

First of all, the author wrote an interesting book, that's for sure. It's more than a book on theory (more on that in a moment), it's a book about how our brain works. The more times you read it, the easier music and the book is to understand. As the book stresses from time to time, repetition is key (not just in making music)! I haven't written any songs to save my life, I'm a procrastinator and keep putting it off plus my fear of failure gets in the way, but listening to music is even more interesting now that I can pinpoint the intricacies of music and understand it's nuances better.

My only complaints are: terrible grammatical and spelling errors (I find a new one each time I read), and biggest of all - although the first chapter isn't all that necessary to read - what was the point? It doesn't help me create music at all. It goes over evolution and how it relates to music creation, and although it makes sense, I found it to be pointless. I really feel the author uses the first chapter as a soap box to stand on to make blatantly obvious political jabs at the right, painful to read even for a leftist like myself; backhanded jabs at religion (he never really trashes Christianity, but he uses a lot of quotes from so-it-seems experts in religion that undermine religions' place for people who find comfort in such things) and dumb stories about horses. I wish he would have just stuck with the theory.

Nevertheless, I made myself re-read chapter 1 a few times to get a firm grounding and maybe try to understand where the author was coming from - but a while after reading and pondering about it, I have yet to find a point to it and dispute chapter 1's relevance. And it's not just chapter 1 - jabs, quotes, and meaningless rants are scattered (yet sparingly) throughout the book. I can recall one section in chapter 1 that went on about diseases of the brain that cause affected people to experience music differently and it had absolutely nothing to do with the previous or next section or anything else in the book! Maybe he was just trying to get you to understand how to write a song around said affected people's hearing diseases to accommodate for them?

There were also a couple of times where he would state "More on this later..." and never got around to explaining anything else further.

I give Wayne Chase credit, though - judging by the number of sources he cites, the number of pages, the number of errors in grammar, punctuation and spelling, and the fact that it seems like he has quit writing the "sequels" to this book, which I was looking forward to greatly - it must have been rough writing this book and inconsistencies here and there do not hurt it one bit. I just wish he could have finished his thoughts.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks that they can make a mark on the world by creating emotionally powerful and meaningful music. But if you don't care about how music works, you'll still find some enjoyment out of it (who knows, maybe you're the one who finds chapter 1 the most interesting of all and never reads the rest of the book).

Without "How Music Really Works" I don't think I would ever have been able to get through a standard theory book. I found most theory books to be very boring and confusing. For example, they often "start" by explaining that certain notes are a whole or half step from other notes, but that just baffled me. What exactly defined a "step"? "How Music Really Works" really does start from the very beginning and explains everything in the simplest of terms. Finally it makes sense, and now other music theory books are becoming much more interesting to read. "How Music Really Works" gives the big picture, so that as I read other theory books, I now have a sense of why what I am reading is important and where it's headed. In my mind, this is the best way to start learning music theory.

Much of the book is available online, but after reading quite a bit online, I decided I wanted the book so I could make notes and have something for later reference. The book is honestly a little expensive, but I'm still glad that I bought it. It has been very interesting and informative, and I refer back to it often. I hope it will become available on Amazon again, but if not the book can be ordered online from the publisher's web site.

Others have commented on the filler material in the book. That is kind of a mixed bag. On one hand, it makes the book bigger than it needs to be to cover the material, but I found that it often provided a break from concentrating too long and hard on theory. Even if I skipped the filler material, which I usually did, it was just enough to relax my thinking a little so that it was easier to keep going. Again on the positive side, there were actually some interesting tidbits of information, such as a link to a site where you can "hear" the "sound" of the big bang. On the negative side though, some anecdotes could be misleading as they mix fact and fiction. On the whole, I would have preferred if most of the filler had been left out, but I didn't really see it as a serious flaw for the book either.

Bottom line, the book provides a thoroughly interesting introduction to music theory that I have not seen as clearly explained in any other book.