The Frailty of Formal Education: Visual Paradigms and Music Creation

Computer music technology strongly influenced artistic expression by opening new possibilities in the field of sound creation, music composition, interaction, and multimedia. Efficient and flexible use of technology unavoidably implies expressing various concepts through computer programming. Luckily, the visual programming paradigm provides a more intuitive and understandable, yet comprehensive approach for musicians, and seems more adaptable than textual programming. However, programming skills are still required, so the question arises whether music education appropriately prepares musicians for the digital world and visual programming in particular. In this study we explore relations between education and usage of digital tools in terms of language discovery, learning curves, purposes of using, and overall proficiency. We conducted a survey along 162 professional and amateur musicians who are also users of a visual programming tool. The results suggest that while formal education does not have a significant impact on programming skills, it plays an important role in discovery and selection of programming tools.