Humans seem to have a musical grammar, which allows them to distinguish between pleasing and unpleasing sequences of tones. There must be a set of standard intervals built into the human music processor. Evidence of this set includes the existence of musical chords that are universally accepted. The major triad the combination of a base note, a major third, and a perfect fifth is one example. Although music written with atonal scales exists, it sounds less natural to most audiences.
Humans also seem to have preferred ways of grouping music into phrases.
Not apparent in the way the music is written, humans appear to organize the music according to their internal representations of what they hear. Metrical Organization and Reduction Humans organize sequences of tones into strong and weak beats. Repeated tones, relatively higher dynamics, increased duration, and sudden shift of pitch characterize strong beats. Illustrating another parallel between language and music processing, humans exhibit the ability to reduce in both domains. In the process of reduction, humans remove all but the base node of the structure.