REFLECTIONS ON LEARNING LIVE CODING AS A MUSICIAN

Live-coding music has become a large trend in recent years as programmers and digital artists alike have taken an interest in creating algorithmic music in live setings. Interestingly, a growing number of musicians are becoming live coders and they are becoming more aware of its potential to create live electronic music using a variety of coding languages. As a musician who live codes music, it became apparent to me that my process in creating musical structure, harmonic ideas and melodic ideas were different than live coders who came from a programming background. Using the live code environment Sonic Pi (based on the programming language Ruby, created by Dr. Sam Aaron) as a reference, we argue the parallels and differences between the experience of live coding music versus the experience of performing and playing music. In rare occasions, the dichotomy of the two worlds converge as we present the work of Anne Veinberg, a renown classically-trained pianist who uses a MIDI keyboard as an interface to code through a program created by composer-performer Felipe Ignacio Noriega.