How coding is a lot like creating music

I have always loved music since I was a child. As I got older I began to realize I not only could express myself through song, but also the experiences others may have gone through. It’s like a therapy to share one’s emotions, struggles and inspiration with others.

When creating a song, I would listen to an instrumental and get a vibe as to how the music made me feel. From there, ideas like a melody that would sound great on the music would come to mind and then the words. I would then think about constructing the song. How many bars in the verse and hook? What words would rhyme better, better yet what should I write and what emotions do I want to convey? Throughout writing the song, I may make some changes, get frustrated from writer’s block or share it with others and get feedback.

You may ask, “What does creating music have to do with coding?” Well currently I am in an intensive Software Engineering Program @The Firehose Project, and looking forward to learning to become a software engineer. When it comes to coding, one must start with an idea one wants to make a reality. We started working on a quote generator app using a programming language called Ruby and its framework Ruby on Rails. These are new languages to me and as I was building this app I went through first knowing the idea I was going to create. Second, thinking of how I want the app to look and putting all of the pieces together to create the end product.

Just like in the beginning of writing a song, one must get a feel for the music and how they want to convey their message. As I was coding, I was getting a feel for setting up servers, coding the app and constantly testing the app for any errors. There were times of confusion in which I have learned to take a step back, think about it, research and nine times out of ten the answer would come to me as I would go back through my steps and realize a minor error I made. When the app was built, I shared it with family and friends and got feedback in which I went and made changes.

Interestingly enough, when creating music and coding, they are similar in nature as far as starting with an idea in the mind, writing down that idea by creatively thinking and brainstorming as to what the desired end result would be. There are times of coming across a block and troubleshooting.

For me, I love music and creating music just as I love learning to code. I love the idea of thinking of something I want to create and then making it a reality.

I’m only in my first week @The Firehose Project and creating my first web application was very exciting for me. I have always been able to learn computer languages, but never really got the grasp as to the full picture. This project has introduced to me an aspect of the full picture.

I have the music down, now its time to get the coding down!