Building Generative Music Systems (Early Access)

Hi, my name is Alex Bainter. I've built over 50 unique generative music systems for Generative.fm over the last several years. Generative music plays forever but never repeats itself, and a generative music system is used to generate such music.

This course is the introduction I wish I'd had when I started. It starts by showing you how to make some sound, followed by creating a virtual instrument and scheduling notes. Next, we'll recreate a classic generative music system and make some improvements to its design. The final product will be very similar to "Eno Machine" from Generative.fm, but the process will provide a foundation for building all sorts of generative music systems.

We'll be coding these systems in JavaScript and using a library called Tone.js, and the systems will run in any major browser. Included is a downloadable "classroom" program which takes care of all the boring web development and user interface stuff, so you can focus on coding your generative systems. I'll also help you quickly set up Visual Studio Code so you can write code and run the classroom. All the systems in this course are contained in one file each, so you can easily copy them into the classroom to run. When you've finished the course, the classroom serves as a place to experiment and continue building your own generative music systems.

Building generative systems is a fun, creative exercise that's surprisingly similar to creating other kinds of art, while allowing the creator to shape and define a whole range of possible outputs instead of just one. Imagine composing music that never ends, with an infinite number of possible outcomes that you ultimately control, but is somehow still as new to you as to a first-time listener.

To follow the course, you will need access to a computer you can install programs on—specifically, Visual Studio Code and Node.js. Be prepared to write code, or at least copy and paste it! Musical experience is not required, though you may wish to familiarize yourself with terms like "note" and "chord."

Early access notice

This course is in "early access." Right now, it's written instructions and code examples to walk you through building and iterating a generative music system using JavaScript and Tone.js. Someday, it might include more lessons, video content, or an improved classroom environment that runs in your browser, so you wouldn't need to install anything. Any such improvements would be available to everyone who already purchased the course.

Currently, this course does not teach how build websites, code, or any music theory. These aren't necessarily out of scope for this course, but they can all be learned elsewhere.