by Devin Ulibarri

You may have totally forgotten about it, but about 2 years back at the Mini Maker Faire, you and I connected and I showed you Music Blocks, my latest project which combines Music and Coding.

I apologize for not immediately following up, but I do want to say that Music Blocks is going strong.

Walter Bender and I collaborated with the Japanese government to make a version of Music Blocks to be used in the elementary schools throughout Japan. We worked for two years with a Japanese education company called Gakken. Together with them, we helped them design curriculum materials, translate everything into Japanese, make a beginner and advanced mode, as well as other nice improvements.

Most importantly, however, we connected with teachers and students in Japan!

Returning from one of our trips to Japan, Walter recommended that we start a business and apply for SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) funding from the National Science Foundation. Long story short, I lost much sleep but we did not receive funding. The proposal was for teaching artists (such as myself) to teach programming with Music Blocks. Our hope was that it would offer musicians a new way to make income while offering schools in the US a unique and fun new way to teach and learn programming.

Not letting the set back defeat us, Walter and I created "MAP Family Learning Center" with the hope that we could use the venture to bring Music+Code to families. "MAP" stands for "Music, Art, and Programming". We started our first physical location in Malden, MA last year (2019).

One of the fun things about Music Blocks is how it transforms a computer into a musical instrument. Now that formal education has gone almost entirely online, we have also brought what we do online as well. The good news, however, is that Music Blocks has always been available online. I encourage you to check out Music Blocks for yourself to see how much it has changed over the past 2 years.

For young students who would like an experience engaging with other students and creating projects together under the guidance of expert instructors, we have an upcoming "Music+Code Hackathon" in June.