Son and father, laying down in front of a computer. A Music Blocks sticker is visible on the computer, an electronic keyboard is visible in the background.

Welcome

Welcome to the Music Blocks website hosted by musician and educator, Devin Ulibarri!

What is Music Blocks?

Music Blocks is a great way to learn coding through music (as well as learn music through coding). Move colorful blocks around the screen to design dynamic musical creations. Test your code at the click of a button. Create everything from simple songs to puzzles and games.

Plus, Music Blocks software is Free/Libre Software, which means you have the license to use, share, remix, and redistribute the Music Blocks itself! Students as young as their early teens have used this freedom to modify and improve Music Blocks, learning very much in the process (read an article by one such student here).

Lastly, Music Blocks is designed for teachers and learners, by teachers and learners, to explore the fundamental concepts of music in a fun, scalable, and open-ended visual-coding environment.

Kid smiling while using Music Blocks

Learn Coding through Music

Music is Fun! Learn Coding and Math through Music!

Try Music Blocks Now

Curious what Music Blocks is about?

You are invited to watch the following video to check out what Music Blocks is and why we think that Music Blocks software is cool.

(This video is kind of old, but gives you a sense of what we are doing.)

Learn Music+Code with Music Blocks
play-rounded-fill

Learn Music+Code with Music Blocks

02:59

Want to try Music Blocks software?

Music Blocks is in active development. You can try a couple different versions of the software.

  1. (Recommended!) A stable and up-to-date branch of Music Blocks on the official SugarLabs server https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/
  2. Play Music Blocks version 3.4.1+ right here on musicblocks.net at https://play.musicblocks.net (Updated 03-14-2022 – Code available at https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks – on  git commit ca8107a9).
  3. Try the Master Branch at https://sugarlabs.github.io/musicblocks/
  4. Try other sandbox versions and experiments at http://sandbox.musicblocks.net/

Interested in reading the Music Blocks guide?

https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/guide/ has a detailed guide with links to example “run live” programs.

Need some Inspiration?

Try Lesson Plans developed by the instructors of MAP Family Learning Center, published at https://mapflc.com/lesson-plans/

Shared concepts between music and programming

Lesson Plans for Music Blocks

There are dozens of lesson plans for different age groups and experience levels. Great resource for teachers, homeschool parents, and self-study.

Find a Lesson Plan

Music Blocks 4.0: The Future of Music Blocks

2022-02-12 Announcement: Today, a release of v4 has been made available to the public. Please try the newest version of Music Blocks for yourself at https://sugarlabs.github.io/musicblocks-v4/ and read more at https://musicblocks.net/2022/02/12/public-release-of-music-blocks-v4-0-for-testing/

Music Blocks 4.0 is still under development and does not yet have an easy way to try it out. For those interested in joining our development, however, the instructions for setting up a testing environment are at https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks-v4 and https://github.com/sugarlabs/musicblocks-v4-builder-framework