One of the twentieth century\'s most important musical thinkers, James Tenney did pioneering work in multiple fields, including computer music, tuning theory, and algorithmic and computer-assisted composition. From Scratch is a collection of Tenney\'s hard-to-find writings arranged, edited, and revised by the self-described \"composer/theorist.\" Selections focus on his fundamental concerns--\"what the ear hears\"--and include thoughts and ideas on perception and form, tuning systems and especially just intonation, information theory, theories of harmonic space, and stochastic (chance) procedures of composition.