Engineering News

Human music seems to follow established patterns that usually evolve over time. The same appears to be true for song-birds and humpback whales. Sounds like the bats also follow rules.

Maybe this is not surprising at all. Small variations on an established theme seems to be at the heart of music. This seems to be true on both a micro and macro scale. On the short term, if you play the same sequence of sounds over and over it gets boring and unmusical. But if you change just one sound or note (like maybe on the fourth repetition) it becomes musical again. If a radio station plays the same song over and over again they loose the audience.

Music is about the balance between repetition and change. I would guess that 'quick brained' critters need more variation.