Constructing Music: Musical Explorations in Creative Coding

Why does music exert such a strong pull on us? How does it work? Traditional courses in music fundamentals give students a basic understanding of the building blocks of music and how to put them together to make a result that produces an intended effect. Constructing Music: Musical Explorations in Creative Coding takes students a step further: through a series of step-by-step tutorials and lessons, author Teresa M. Nakra presents a new method for teaching music fundamentals that foregrounds creative coding practices and builds upon the computing skills that today's students already possess. By encouraging experimentation with computer code, this book gives students tools to actively investigate, simulate, and engage with the structure of music, ultimately leading to greater understanding about the processes that underlie music's power over us. Designed to support computer-based learning in tonal harmony, musicianship, and music theory, Constructing Music avoids the lens of Western music notation and instead explains music content through analogies with toy bricks and references ideas from creative technology, engineering, and design. Students also engage directly with the components of musical structure using editable short code "patches" developed in Max, a visual coding environment for interactive music, audio, and media. Dozens of patches accompany the book and allow readers to play with the building blocks of sound, reinforcing each topic by tinkering, modifying, and creating their own versions of the material. Each chapter explains core music theory concepts in detail and supports every description through code simulations, progressing through the topics with increasing complexity. In the final chapter, Nakra explores the questions and theories that emerge from the lessons, considering the role of music as a proto-form of AI and its impacts on emotion, wellness, and creativity.

Table of Contents:
Dedication Foreword Preface Acknowledgements About the Companion Website Introduction 1 Tutorials 2 Building Blocks 3 Pitch-based Structures 4 Time-based Structures 5 Finer Granularities 6 Reflections Glossary Index

About the Author :
Teresa M. Nakra is Professor of Music, Design, and Creative Technology at The College of New Jersey, where she coordinates Music Technology activities. She is a recipient of the Doris Cohen Levi Prize, the David McCord Prize, the Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship, and research fellowships from IBM, Motorola, and Interval Research Corporation. Nakra has designed interactive music systems for museums, music festivals, and concert halls across the United States, Europe, and Japan.

Review :
Nakra presents a wonderful conception-that the building blocks of music theory and computational thinking can be (and should be!) learned in tandem. Using Max/MSP as the programming language, Nakra guides the reader through clear tutorials, grounded explanations, and easily digestible examples of musical structures, algorithms, and the mathematical reasoning that binds them together. Some of today's top conservatory students are also coders and competent programmers without any qualms about digital media, embracing science and technology with ease. As Youngmoo Kim states in the Foreword, we are overdue for such a book as Constructing Music, catching up to today's music making and beyond. In this book, Teresa M. Nakra ushers in the exciting new era of more technology-inclusive pedagogy. It is high time our music theory pedagogy was re-evaluated to be broader and more inclusive, and to better serve the needs of the next generation of talented young musicians. Teresa M. Nakra sets out an eye-opening new approach to teaching, learning, and understanding the human fundamentals of music, and it deserves to be on the desk of every music teacher and student Teresa M. Nakra's Constructing Music presents an innovative approach to music theory instruction by substituting traditional Western notation with principles of computer programming. Through illustrative examples, the book guides learners in studying and making music using Max, advancing from basic to complex structures. Nakra's fusion of music theory and programming offers a fresh perspective, encouraging lateral thinking and creative exploration. By bridging object-oriented programming in Max with music theory, the book provides an inclusive approach to music education, empowering students to engage deeply with music through technology.