I remember reading an articulation that it is odd that we are taught to program differently to how we are taught to play music.

With music, we are taught to read before we write.

With programming, we start out writing.

This seems like a great chance for your friend to try out the music learning approach. Send them books of excellently written programs, and allow them to read before they write.

[As a side note: What is their goal? To program to become a software engineer? To program to build web applications for fun? To program to learn how to build products to produce a profit for themselves? The goals will inform the process.]