Why Music Works: The Science Behind Musical Emotion
You know that feeling when a song hits you just right? When Radiohead's "Pyramid Song" makes you feel like you're floating, or when a simple major chord suddenly sounds happy while a minor one breaks your heart?
Why Music Works is my attempt to answer these questions. I'm trying to connect physics, neuroscience, and music theory in a way that actually makes sense, with some AI help to explain the complicated stuff.
The Problem
Most musicians learn what music theory is, but not why it works that way. We're told that a major seventh chord creates "tension," but nobody explains why our brains hear specific frequency ratios as tension.
Music lovers feel the emotional power in their favorite songs but don't have the tools to understand what's happening behind the scenes.
What I'm Building
Why Music Works tries to bridge this gap with:
Interactive Tools
- • Real-time audio analysis that shows you the math hiding in your favorite songs
- • Visual frequency displays that make abstract concepts actually visible
- • Hands-on experiments for playing with harmonies, rhythms, and sounds
Scientific Background
- • Physics explanations: How sound waves become the building blocks of music
- • Brain science: Why we respond to certain patterns and frequencies
- • AI assistance: Personalized explanations that adjust to what you already know
Practical Music Theory
- • Real examples that connect theory to actual songs and artists
- • Progressive learning from basic concepts to advanced harmonic analysis
- • Creative applications showing how to use this knowledge in your own music
Where Things Stand
What's Working
- • Basic math for frequency analysis
- • Chord recognition and classification
- • Visual timeline for harmonic progressions
- • Initial AI integration for explanations
What I'm Working On
- • Better sound analysis for instrument recognition
- • System to map theory concepts to emotional responses
- • Community features for sharing analyses
- • Mobile interface that actually works well
Why Music Works combines the stuff I care most about: audio programming, AI, and making knowledge accessible to everyone. It's not just another tool, it's a different way to experience and understand one of the most powerful things humans create.
Still working on it. Hoping to have a beta version ready sometime in fall 2025.