Programming and Music - Chapter 5 - Problem solving

Unlike focus, previous topic discussed in chapter 4 of this series of articles, I consider problem solving not strictly as a habit but a skill instead, you may get used to apply when needed. This is definitively something that you learn and then you train in a lifetime.

This is something that basically everyone needs no matter what your occupation is and more in general in the personal life.

Needless to say, among the best possible training routines in problem solving there are the lifetime companions we’ve been talking about in this series of articles: music and coding.

Coding. Whatever it is the program you’re coding, the blind spot is just around the corner. Problem solving skills are crucial in this case, otherwise no piece of code will ever be completed. There’s literally have no room for discourage. I would at some point say that problem solving is kind of the point. It’s so common that it is part of the coding process itself. You run the code, catch the error (yes, because it will return an error), you check the code, find the problem > Repeat process.

There some very rare occasion in which you write a piece of code, run it and it just work; well that’s the exception … Sometime it is so an exception and you could be so surprised to be disappointed :-D

So, after a lot of coding, problem solving becomes so natural that you find yourself applying it in every aspect of daily life. When you run into a problem, even the slightest, most irrelevant one like when you’re driving, or you’re at the market, or doing a job or your hobby, you just don’t wait for help, ever. You start elaborating one or more solutions; you disassemble the issue in smaller parts and try to figure out a solution; possibly a “quick and dirty” one, or a more complex / definitive one. 

Music. Similarly to coding … whatever it is the music you’re playing or the instrument you’re studying, the blind spot is just around the corner.

As soon as you start studying music will be stuck with something; could be that scale that you can figure out on guitar, or you’re struggling with the correct posture of hands on the keyboard, or you can’t find the proper way to stay perfectly in tune with those notes on the trombone.

You may find other problems, maybe this time not in the practical sphere or strictly related to instrument technique, but more on music theory. Maybe you could find yourself stuck with modal scales, or not fully comprehending the tempered system, or the circle of fifths, or the difference between a B and a Cb.

There’s thousands of things that may puzzle your brain studying music, but the inner strength of the matter itself and the strong will to override the problem and finally reach your goal to hear that tune you expected straight our oh your hands … well that’s the thing that will spontaneously improve your problem solving skills and, even if you may not notice that, will influence your overall approach to all the problems you may encounter in any other aspects of your life.

Everyone, sooner or later, in a lifetime, needs to solve problems and face challenging situation

so my point here is: if music and / or coding are something that you’re trained to, well maybe you will be able to approach any kind on issue with life from an unexpected/alternative point of view that may help you to solve the situation quickly.

Problems, all of them, at any level imply an important inner concept: a challenge for who’s in charge to solve them.

Coding, or playing/studying music are basically a continuous challenge, against your toughest opponent: yourself. So the more you’re trained to challenge yourself, the more you will be good to challenge life issues.

This, and way more than this, is part of my “Live coding for Data Sonification” Masterclass