Learning Python through Coding MusicLaajuus (3 cr)

Course unit code: TX00FT53

General information

Credits: 3 cr

Objective

Students will learn to:
- understand the important Python programming concepts,
- apply programming skills to develop sound and music,
- understand and apply concepts that are important in music, and
- use development environments for coding music.

Content

Programming is increasingly an essential asset in many professional fields, but even more important, coding is also fun.

In this course you are working with programming concepts such as variables, if-selection, lists, loops, functions and more. These concepts will be put in practice when creating your own music.

Music in general is an important part of the daily lectures, as inspiration, but also to explain the similarities between programming and music.

No previous programming or music knowledge is needed, but even if you have extensive experience with coding you still can learn a lot if you challenge yourself to create complex musical tunes.

We use the online programming environment TunePad. More experienced student might also work with EarSketch. TunePad is well suited for the basics of Python. EarSketch is a tool similar to a Digital Audio Workstion (DAW) and is designed to use Python for manipulating music samples.

Qualifications

There are no specific prerequisites although affinity with music or coding adds greatly to the enjoyment of the course. Participants with a background in either programming or music can move quicker through the material and focus on the advanced exercises.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

Students have followed the basic requirements for both the design of the musical artefact and the use of the given programming concepts.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

Students have gone substantially above the given requirements for either the design of the musical artefact or regarding the required programming concepts.