From the classical violinist to the hip hop producer, creating music pays homage to principles of harmony. It is not just the sum of the musical parts that makes a song come alive, but how every part interacts with others to create more harmonies, enriched melodies, dynamic rhythms, and more interaction. Composers, engineers, producers and performing musicians constantly use the harmonic principles derived from basic acoustics every time they work through a piece.

This book offers a deep analytical dive into the theories of harmonics. It explores many nontraditional approaches such as extended and hyperextended chords and it includes an explanation for the consonance of the elusive minor triad. The book also covers voicing and arranging from a vertical or harmonic perspective, a system of classifying the sonority of each chord, how extended chords impact the listener, and how the composer applies these principles.