Coursera

Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists (Coursera)

Offered by California Institute of the Arts,
Introduction to Programming for Musicians and Digital Artists (Coursera)

This course provides a complete introduction to programming for digital musicians and artists, in the real-time multimedia language ChucK. Rich with practical examples and pointers to additional web resources, it can be understood by novices wishing to learn to program interactive arts systems.

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The course, lecture, and examples build on each other to teach the fundamentals of programming in general (logic, loops, functions, objects, classes) and also deals with advanced topics including multi-threading, events and signals. Throughout the course, students create meaningful and rewarding expressive digital “instruments” that make sound and music in direct response to program logic. The ChucK language provides precise high-level control over time, audio computation, and user interface elements (track pad, joysticks, etc.). ChucK is used (unknowingly in most cases, via SMule Apps) by millions of users throughout the world, and is the backbone of dozens of academic programs and laptop orchestras. Learning to program using ChucK, through the musical examples provided in this course, will prepare students to program in C++, Java, and other languages. There will be special guest lectures from creators of the ChucK language, Dr. Ge Wang (Stanford University) and Dr. Perry R. Cook (Princeton University).

Note: This course is currently not available.

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