Sonic Pi
A lot of children may never have known that you can code anything other than Scratch, in a paid for platform or the ‘stuff’ websites and apps are made of. So to say we are going to code music is quite a unique concept and experience.
To introduce this I like to use Xavier Riley’s presentation at the Bath Ruby conference. I like to use the end portion because he has experience of using Sonic Pi in schools with children and draws directly from their initial experiences.
Read MoreTwo performances did seem to transcend the present, with artists sharing music that felt like open-source software to paths unknown. The first, Sam Aaron, played an early techno set to a small crowd, performing by coding live. His computer display, splayed naked on a giant screen, showcasedSonic Pi, the free software he invented. Before he let loose by revising lines of brackets, colons and commas, he typed:
#This is Sonic Pi…..
#I use it to teach people how to code
#everything i do tonight, i can teach a 10 year old child…..
His set – which sounded like Electric Café-era Kraftwerk, a little bit of Aphex Twin skitter and some Eighties electro – was constructed through typing and deleting lines of code. The shadowy DJ sets, knob-tweaking noise and fogbank ambient of many Moogfest performers was completely demystified and turned into simple numbers and letters that you could see in action. Dubbed "the live coding synth for everyone," it truly seemed less like a performance and more like an invitation to code your own adventure.
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Francis the LadybugScratch Day is in its third year this time round and had the largest turn out globally. As you are probably aware I'm a big fan of Scratch and all the far-reaching elements into the curriculum it can enhance via ICT. With 175 events in 42 countries we were the only school to post to the Scratch Day site in Taiwan. Last year we collaborated with the American School to share the learning on both campuses via Skype and Ustream. This year we decided to go it alone.
Read MoreHey there - There is a new set of programming in scratch resources for you all to use. Go here and see the resources.
Enjoy.