EarSketch

EarSketch

EarSketch is an online digital audio workstation and course that teaches computer science, coding, and music composition through the production of popular music remixes.
EarSketch image
music education coding composition digital-audio-workstation

EarSketch: Online Digital Audio Workstation & Computer Science Course

Discover EarSketch, an online platform combining digital audio workstation and computer science course to teach music composition through remixes.

What is EarSketch?

EarSketch is an online digital audio workstation and curriculum designed to teach computer science and coding concepts through music remixing. Students learn text-based coding using either JavaScript or Python to create their own music compositions by remixing popular songs.

The EarSketch platform provides a library of music stems, digital audio effects, and code samples that allow students to experiment with editing and customizing songs through coding music events, manipulating audio clips, and applying sound effects. As they create and refine their projects, students are able to hear their code changes take effect instantly within the browser-based DAW.

Beyond just serving as an introduction to coding, EarSketch also teaches key computational concepts like variables, conditional logic, loops, algorithms, debugging, etc. The appeal of remixing popular music helps maintain student engagement as they grasp these foundational computer science principles.

EarSketch curriculum has been implemented in both middle school and high school introductory coding courses. The platform is designed to make coding more accessible and appealing, especially for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Research has shown learning coding through EarSketch helps boost computing interest and confidence.

EarSketch Features

Features

  1. Browser-based digital audio workstation
  2. Python and JavaScript coding environment
  3. Lessons and curriculum for learning computer science and music
  4. Remix popular songs by adding your own code-generated beats
  5. Share and publish your mixes

Pricing

  • Freemium

Pros

Engaging way to learn coding through music

Free and easy to use in the browser

Large library of loops, samples, and stems to remix

Collaborative projects and sharing builds community

Cons

Limited compared to full-featured DAWs

Must use Python and JavaScript for music generation

Somewhat rigid structure due to lesson format

Limited export options for finished songs


The Best EarSketch Alternatives

Top Education & Reference and Music Education and other similar apps like EarSketch


Scratch icon

Scratch

Scratch is a free visual programming language and online community developed by the MIT Media Lab. It allows users to create interactive stories, games, animations, music, art, and more using a simple drag-and-drop interface.With Scratch, you snap together colorful programming blocks like puzzle pieces to build programs. There is no...
Scratch image
FreeCodeCamp icon

FreeCodeCamp

freeCodeCamp is a non-profit organization that consists of an interactive learning web platform, online community forums, chat rooms, online publications and local organizations that intend to make learning web development accessible to anyone.The freeCodeCamp curriculum has thousands of hours of coding lessons that help you learn software development through hands-on...
FreeCodeCamp image
Codecademy icon

Codecademy

Codecademy is an online education platform founded in 2011 that focuses on teaching coding skills interactively through its website. It offers free and paid coding courses across 12 programming languages including Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, SQL, C++, C#, Swift, Go, Sass, R, and Kotlin.The platform uses an innovative hands-on approach...
Codecademy image
Code.org icon

Code.org

Code.org is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to expanding access to computer science education in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. It was founded in 2013 by Hadi Partovi and his twin brother Ali Partovi.Code.org offers free online curriculum and lessons for students of all ages to learn...
Code.org image
Coderbyte icon

Coderbyte

Coderbyte is an online learning and assessment platform designed to help developers improve their programming skills and prepare for technical interviews. It was founded in 2011 with the goal of providing an interactive way for developers to practice coding outside of a classroom environment.The platform features over 200 coding challenges...
Coderbyte image
Encode: Learn to Code icon

Encode: Learn to Code

Encode: Learn to Code is an online learning platform focused on teaching kids and teens how to code. It was created by Encode Education, a San Francisco-based edtech startup, and offers a library of self-paced coding courses tailored for students ages 8-18.The courses on Encode cover popular programming languages like...
Encode: Learn to Code image
Progate icon

Progate

Progate is an interactive online learning platform focused on web and mobile app development. It offers beginner-friendly coding lessons and projects in languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Ruby, Python and more.The courses use visualization diagrams, short quizzes and an in-browser coding editor to help reinforce concepts and allow hands-on coding...
Progate image
Codelearn icon

Codelearn

Codelearn is an interactive online platform designed to teach programming and coding to beginners. It uses hands-on coding challenges and tutorials to allow users to learn at their own pace.Some key features of Codelearn include:Interactive coding window for writing and running codeChallenges and tutorials covering topics like variables, loops, functions...
Codelearn image
CodeAbbey icon

CodeAbbey

CodeAbbey is an online platform focused on providing programming problems and examples for learning coding and algorithms. It was created in 2010 by Valentin Fondaratov as an educational resource to improve programming skills.The website contains a collection of over 300 problems ranging from basic tasks to more advanced challenges. Problems...
CodeAbbey image
RubyMonk icon

RubyMonk

RubyMonk is a free, interactive Ruby programming tutorial website. It provides in-browser coding exercises and quizzes to help beginners learn Ruby programming from the basics.Some key features of RubyMonk:Step-by-step Ruby tutorials covering core language features like variables, loops, classes etc.Interactive coding exercises allow writing and executing Ruby code right in...
RubyMonk image
Duomly icon

Duomly

Duomly is an all-in-one online course creation and hosting platform designed to make it easy for coaches, consultants, educators and entrepreneurs to build, market and sell online courses and coaching programs.With an intuitive drag-and-drop course builder, Duomly allows anyone to create professional, media-rich online courses in minutes without any technical...
Duomly image
TheCodePlayer icon

TheCodePlayer

TheCodePlayer is a powerful yet easy-to-use online code editor that lets developers write, run and test code right in the browser. It supports major programming languages like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, C++ and many more.Some of the key features of TheCodePlayer include:Clean, intuitive browser-based interface with a smart code...
TheCodePlayer image