One of the lasting images from the Facebook movie The Social Network is Mark Zuckerberg donning headphones and going into a deep zone every time he started coding. Many of us know the feeling. Music is a great tool for getting into one’s groove (no pun intended), after all. One developer is taking that a step further with an album specifically for coders. Phil Johnson of IT World examines this in a recent article titled “Music to get you into the coding groove.”
Johnson writes, “Carl Franklin, a professional musician and software developer, recently wrote, produced and released an album titled Music to Code By. He funded the album with a successful Kickstarter campaign that he ran last summer. Music to Code By consists of three tracks, each 25 minutes long so they fit in with the Pomodoro Technique that some developers (and others) use to manage their time. The album is currently available to download for $18, or you can order a CD version (and also have access to the download) for $20… I asked Franklin about the connection between making music and writing software, and whether one helps with the other. He felt the two have more in common than most people probably realize. ‘I can see how certain aspects of music – notation, practicing, expression, etc. – are all means of manipulating abstractions, much like language and very much like software development.’ The album, on which Franklin did all the performing, took him a little over 5 months to complete. What was the biggest challenge of writing music for people to code by, I asked? ‘The biggest challenge was dialing back my instinct to make real music. This had to fade into the background. It couldn’t distract the listener, but it couldn’t be boring either. That was a particular challenge that I think most musicians would have found maddening,’ Franklin told me.”
This looks like a great tool for youth to utilize when they’re practicing coding on their own. However, to get the most out of it, a student will need tutoring from an experienced coding teacher.
When it comes to coding education, no one does it better than CodeRev Kids. We offer a wide variety of after school programs, as well as spring and summer programs, that allow students to study robotics, web development, app making, and more.
Our programs focus on Computational Thinking, which encompasses a wide range of programming concepts and languages. Each lesson builds upon the last and we adjust starting points to each student’s level of expertise. By doing this, the entire curriculum is customized.
Whatever youth coding education needs you might have, you can’t go wrong with CodeRev Kids!