Vibe
Coding

Vibe coding brings conversation with AI into the process of making software. For us, the interesting question is what we can learn by making, playing and revising a musical tool.

A working result is a beginning. Look inside the code, ask how it works, test your assumptions and change one thing at a time. A tool may run and still make unexpected musical choices or leave someone out.

Start from MusEDLab’s tools or a musical question of your own. Check the original code and asset licenses before reusing them, and credit your sources.

Learning by remixing has a history here.

MusEDLab’s Scratch projects let learners play with musical ideas, inspect the blocks and reshape how a tool behaves. These earlier projects used block-based programming. Today’s AI-assisted experiments offer another route into the same cycle of making, listening and revising.

William Payne and S. Alex Ruthmann examined the possibilities and limitations of music making in Scratch in Music Making in Scratch: High Floors, Low Ceilings, and Narrow Walls? (May 16, 2019).

Lab originals in Scratch

Independent AI-assisted experiment / Ethan Hein

Drum Pizza

Ethan Hein’s independent, vibe-coded Drum Pizza explores four drum layers, triplets and custom WAV or MP3 sounds. Its playful character recalls the early Groove Pizza prototypes before the formal 2016 Herbie Hancock Math Science Music launch.

Try a question: How does changing a subdivision or adding your own sound change the groove?

Try Ethan Hein’s Drum Pizza ↗

An independent prototype maintained by its creator. This feature shares existing work as inspiration; it does not announce a submission or participation in this initiative.

Earlier research / Access

Accessible Groove Pizza

A research prototype exploring keyboard control, built-in speech and sonification for rhythm making.

Try a question: What changes when a rhythm can be navigated through keys and sound?

Open the prototype ↗ · Research, credits & instructions

Earlier research / Rhythm

Groove Pizzeria

Tyler Bisson’s master’s project investigates circular sequencing for polyrhythm and polymeter.

Try a question: What happens when two patterns have different step counts or cycle lengths?

Open Groove Pizzeria ↗ · Read the thesis (PDF, 89 pages)

Accessible Groove Pizza and Groove Pizzeria are earlier research projects shown as design precedents; they are not presented as AI-generated tools. See the Groove Pizza family for the established instrument and more history.

We welcome musical and teaching questions from educators, musicians, students and creative coders. A future submission should include:

1. A working demo link. Give visitors something they can try, with any useful instructions.
2. An image for display. Show the interface or musical idea and include a clear image credit.
3. Your process and tools. Explain what you started from, how you built or remixed it, which tools—including any AI tools—you used, and what you tested.
4. The teaching and musical possibilities. Describe what the design lets someone explore, make, hear or learn, and what still needs work.
5. A title and creator credit. Include source acknowledgments and how you want the work credited.

Only share material you have permission to display. Leave out private recordings, student names and other personal data.

This initiative also supports MusEDLab’s developing NOHME chapter on vibe coding. Any future research participation or use of quotations would require a separate invitation and consent; display in a showcase does not provide research consent.