One of the free courses I signed up for at Coursera was a beginner’s course on the programming language Python. The reason I did this is because the two other courses I was specifically interested in had sections where they used Python to manipulate audio data.

Once I had signed up, I realized that I really WOULD like to learn some Python. I would like to write a program that generates random chords and notes that I could then use as “noodles” to base music compositions on. I already do this with my Korg Karma, which has different kinds of arpeggiators and randomizers. It would be fun to “get under the hood” and write some noodling software from scratch. It would be an opportunity to put my music theory to use. What kinds of parameters would generate music that sounded normal (ex. 3-chord rock and roll)? What parameters would expand the sound palette? What would generate musical gibberish?

I know that many other people have worked with randomly generated music and procedurally generated music, but it would be cool to try it myself.