Using Music Notation for Teaching Computer Programming

Abstract

Despite the wealth of educational programming languages, many novice programmers face difficulties and give up in the early stages, just because they are not familiar with the programming syntax and semantics. In this paper, we propose a method for programming langauge education using music notation with an aim to entice novice programmers to write their own programs. There are two key aspects in our proposed approach: first, we use music notation as an analogy to programming, based on the observation that there are similar attributes between the two; second, we provide users with on-line auditory feedback to immediately notify potential errors in a pleasant way. We find several key concepts in programming language syntax and semantics, and translate them into music notation to help beginner programmers learn them with ease and intuition. In addition, we design examples and a learning support environment, allowing users to learn to program by themselves.