The Jargon File's entry on music (http://catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/M/music.html) suggests that music is a "common extracurricular" among hackers. Is this still true?
Near the end of this interview [http://tex.loria.fr/historique/interviews/knuth-clb1993.html], Don Knuth says that one way CS graduate students have changed since the 70s is that they are less interested in music:
"What changes have you seen in the students coming into the computer science program over the years?"
"Knuth: There is a very profound change that I can't account for. In the 70s, the majority of our students were very interested in music. The first thing we'd ask them when they came in was 'What instrument do you play?' We had lots of chamber groups and so on. Now almost none of the students are interested in music. I don't know if it's because a different kind of people are enrolling in computer science, or because it's true of all today's students, or what. If you ask computer science students now what their hobby is, the chances are most of them will say 'Bicycling'. I recently had one who played a harmonica, but there were almost no musicians in the group."
Interesting. I play piano ( http://www.youtube.com/user/anohana ), but back in college I also loved traveling by bicycle (carrying a tent, camping).
Looking around my colleagues, I have a guitar player, another piano player, a bass player, a drummer,... but I'd say players are not majority.
I'd say you have that backwards. Mathematicians and Computer Scientists have always been interested in music; but Programmers haven't. These days if you look around a computer science department -- at least, if you look at the students -- you'll be looking mostly at programmers, not at computer scientists.
When I was in Oxford, I saw a mix of "people interested in computer science" and "people interested in programming" -- and as far as I could tell, every one of the CS people was interested in music, while not even one of the programmers was.
Also, hacking music is fun! When I was learning to program I wrote a little app to solve species counterpoint problems with a genetic algorithm. Although not always up to "human" results (especially fifth species counterpoint) the "solutions" were always fun to listen to. ;-)
As for me: I'm a tuba player - a graduate of the Royal College of Music with an academic (rather than performance based) undergraduate music degree. I also play organ and piano. I still play regularly and was recently a soloist with a local orchestra in a performance of the Vaughan William's concerto. Life without music would be unbearable... :-/
For anybody who doesn't know what that is, here's Bach's most famous:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/js-bach-invention-13-rendi...
(Originally written for the harpsichord I believe.)
We don't use guitars, but have good tuba and violin players. I also play keyboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7DgpSddLiU
I wrote the music and played the guitar and bass.
I'm absolutely terrible at reading music, but I can play anything by ear, I wonder if that's usual for hacker types.
I think it has more to do with how you learned the instrument. Most classically trained pianists I know couldn't sound out a Doors tune to save their life. On the other hand, once I started playing in bands, just about everybody I met could listen to a song and have it figured out within an hour.
I (a hacker type) was better than most classically trained types at sounding out music, but still had difficulties compared to most people in the band circuit. I usually couldn't really nail a part unless I found the music in a magazine somewhere. (this was pre-Internet, today this wouldn't be an issue)
From what she's said to me, those skills weren't that exceptional. Many good strings players have perfect pitch, and even those who don't or those who play other instruments have excellent relative pitch. I don't see how a classically trained pianist would have problems with a Doors tune, especially considering how few chord progressions pop songs use.
The unofficial rule is: if you're a Flash programmer, you also create electronic music.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=8umukDN_PVE
We've been a band for 5 years now, and this is definitely my top activity right after running our startup and right before autocrossing (oh, and my girlfriend fits somewhere in there too).
From your link: "music: n. A common extracurricular interest of hackers..."
This definition is not just limited to just playing an instrument, though. It also talks about music appreciation and genres of music.
To strictly follow that definition, try asking if we are significantly involved with music in some way.
When I told my piano teacher that I was going to school for engineering and got into the pre-med program (as opposed to music), she was in total shock and her immediate response was, "wait... are you smart?"
It's not my day job, but music is my main serious hobby outside of work, and particularly with the music recording I've recorded literally in the 100's of bands over the last decade or so.
Almost everyone in our band has a bachelor's degree, some have grad school, and there are a couple PhDs and an MBA. Some of the musicians are amazing.
When I'm not working 50 hours a week with several side projects on top of my responsibilities as a husband and father, I'd like to pick it back up.
I can play piano and violin.
I like playing around with sequencers, I have some very quickly made tracks up at http://last.fm/music/kaens , probably some stuff with more time put into it up in a few weeks.
i also played piano since like 6. stopped when i hit high school.
http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR00828/
so i guess i dabbled in electronic music for a bit too :)
I always keep my harmonica within the reach of my hands, so whenever I'm tired of coding I lean back and play a little.
This is my profile in a nice collaborative site.
http://www.kompoz.com/compose-collaborate/userName-elbicho/p...
I would agree that a disproportionate number of programmers I know are musically inclined.
I suck at everything.
I racked up ~5 years before quitting.
I also have a Bb r13 clarinet for sale.
I find it's a good release valve from spending too much time in front of the screen.
Love music though.
played in various national and all-state hs orchestras.
stopped playing in college though and haven't played since