Teaching Kids to Code with Sonic Pi • Sam Aaron & James Lewis

GOTO - The Brightest Minds in Tech

This interview was recorded at GOTO Aarhus for GOTO Unscripted.
gotopia.tech

Read the full transcription of this interview here

Sam Aaron - Live Coding Musician & Creator of Sonic Pi
James Lewis - Principal Consultant & Technical Director at Thoughtworks
RESOURCES
sonic-pi.net
@sonic_pi
github.com/sonic-pi-net/sonic-pi
ableton.com/en/link
hydra.ojack.xyz

Sam
patreon.com/samaaron
@samaaron
github.com/samaaron
linkedin.com/in/samaaron

James
@boicy
linkedin.com/in/james-lewis-microservices

DESCRIPTION
Programming isn't just lines of code but a gateway to creating music and art and legends such as Ada Lovelace were proof of that. With the aim to reshape the perception of coding which has traditionally been complex and intimidating, Sam Aaron created Sonic Pi, an open-source, free-to-use platform that empowers users to create music through code. What began as a humble endeavor has grown exponentially with more than millions of downloads globally and a large number of schools integrating the tool as part of their computing curriculum to teach children how to program.
Tune in to this GOTO Unscripted where Sam spoke to James Lewis about how Sonic Pi is on a mission to democratize coding and break down barriers that have hindered people from engaging with both coding and music.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Hans Gruendel • Making Music with Sonic Pi
Hans Gruendel • Learn to Program with Sonic PI
Simon Monk • Raspberry Pi Cookbook
Matthew Skelton & Manuel Pais • Team Topologies
Forsgren, Humble & Kim • Accelerate: The Science of Lean Software and DevOps

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Chapter

1. Intro (00:00:00)

2. Another social perspective on programming (00:02:06)

3. What came first: music or code? (00:04:12)

4. What is Sonic Pi? (00:09:32)

5. Using Sonic PI for teaching programming (00:14:15)

6. Challenges of using Sonic Pi to teach coding (00:18:21)

7. Famous users of Sonic Pi (00:25:19)

8. A simple tool designed by solving hard software problems (00:29:39)

9. What’s next for Sonic Pi? (00:37:55)

10. Outro (00:44:24)