Why Does Music Sound Like Music? Part I: Overtones and the Cycle of Fifths

Have you ever wondered why western music sounds the way it does?

It was a question that was on my mind in my early days as a conservatory student. And I will never forget a class that took place one day, when my theory instructor sat at a piano to demonstrate how overtones work.  It was my first step toward understanding the cycle of fifths, key signatures, tonality, atonality, the different timbres of different musical instruments, and so much more.

Since I founded this blog, I have been itching to write a series of blogs that would explain these concepts. However, I faced the problem of how to do so. The most effective solution, I decided, was to create a series of videos in which I sat at a piano and demonstrated them.

Fortunately, I discovered, there are already many videos on YouTube that explain the basics of musical theory, often more clearly than I could on my own.

So today, I am launching a series of posts that embed the best videos that I can find to explain why music sounds the way it does. Today, I would like to offer these two excellent videos, created by none other than Leonard Bernstein, which explain overtones and the cycle of fifths. Be sure to follow this blog, so you can enjoy this mini-seminar in the fundamentals of western musical theory.