How Coding is Completely Relevant

Lately I've been pondering how much I wished I had tagged along with my friends that used to build computers in my middle/high school years (back in the late 90's, early 2000's). I say this because those skills and the importance of knowing the nuts and bolts of technology and computing came to me WAY too late in life. If I knew then what I know now...

For example, designing my first website was an absolute nightmare. The only reason I have this website up and running as nicely as I do is thanks to www.weebly.com (if you're looking for an extremely easy to make a website, check it out!) Without this, I don't know that my website would be worth much of anything. The would of coding and HTML and CSS is just scary and looks quite foreign to me..

So here's the point of my post. I had NO idea that these skills would be necessary for me to be a composer. I spent my younger years on a piano, and trombone, and an old composing program called Noteworthy Composer (see image to the side!) I listened everything from Beethoven to the Beatles, learning and picking up as much as I could. I'd hear something I liked and head straight to the piano to figure it out. At no point did I sit down and learn anything about computers other than how to point and click. 

Finding this screen shot brought back a lot of good memories :)

I would benefit SO much from being a bit more savvy with building a website, creating online tools, and just coding in general. One of the hardest things these days is to get my music out there. The would is literally a click away, but there has to be something compelling enough to click (i.e. a cool video). I truly never knew that computing would be so important...I can't say this enough. 

Because I can't exclaim the importance enough, I go off on this in band class all the time. Kids should be learning coding. I can only imagine what the electronic world will look like in 10 years (just read Ready Player One, great but somewhat scary read). I tell my students that whatever profession they choose, mine clearly being educating and composing, having an intense knowledge of the language of computers is sure to give a significant advantage. 

Enter Code Academy. I've already started learning. My recommendation is for everybody to start learning. Where the "coders" are always going to make many user-friendly ways to interact with the web, I think it'd be better to go ahead and learn how to code for yourself. I remember having to edit some HTML once, it was awful. Based of that experience, everyone should go learn how to code. 

So, where coding has absolutely nothing to do with composing music...it actually has everything to do with being a successful composer. Kinda weird how that works.