This paper argues that the processes involved in making, listening to and creating music can teach us about the processes of research. These processes include form, rhythm, harmony, timbre, melody and polyphony. A second set of ideas addresses ways of doing (which, following Dewey, are inevitably ways of becoming) in interviews, observations and the communication of research. Ways of doing/becoming include improvisation, empathy, embodiment, three-pronged connection and collaborative research.