Book Review - How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition by Robert Greenberg

I've always loved music and thought I knew quite a bit from a decade of piano lessons and several music courses in school plus my time around music experts picking up tidbits from them. Then I read this book and realized I had a lot to learn.

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition by Robert Greenberg is a nonfiction book that covers the history of Western music from Greco-Roman days (what little we know about their music) to the early 20th Century and its structure and development. It is available as an Audible Exclusive Audiobook.

The Good

Information. This book has so much information from the history of music to the structure, the people, the cultural influences, and everything in between. There's a reason it's over 35 hours long, but every minute is filled with information.


Clarity of Explanation and Illustration. The author does an excellent job of explaining music theory and musical instruction and presenting several examples, again well explained, to illustrate the point. Even someone with next to no knowledge of music could follow the information, and yet even a music expert would not become bored or feel insulted.

Author's Excitement. The author is the reader, and he has so much enthusiasm for the material that is contagious and makes the reader equally as excited about the material.

The Bad

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What I Would Like to Have Seen

I wish the author had spent a little more time in the 20th Century and the development of music to the present day. The 20th Century produced an incredible amount and variety of music with as much development as the centuries that had come before combined.

Overall

How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition by Robert Greenberg is a nonfiction book that covers the history of Western music from Greco-Roman days (what little we know about their music) to the early 20th Century and its structure and development. This book has so much information from the history of music to the structure, the people, the cultural influences, and everything in between. There's a reason it's over 35 hours long, but every minute is filled with information. The author does an excellent job of explaining music theory and musical instruction and presenting several examples, again well explained, to illustrate the point. Even someone with next to no knowledge of music could follow the information, and yet even a music expert would not become bored or feel insulted. The author is the reader, and he has so much enthusiasm for the material that is contagious and makes the reader equally as excited about the material. I wish the author had spent a little more time in the 20th Century and the development of music to the present day. The 20th Century produced an incredible amount and variety of music with as much development as the centuries that had come before combined. I highly recommend this book and give it 5 out of 5 eReaders.