| Abstract | The activity of “music performance livecoding” involves a human programmer writing or modifying a
computer program that is creating music, typically in front of an audience. Livecoding input has
typically employed computer keyboards. Sometimes, a MIDI keyboard has been used. Yet there are
potential contexts in which non-MIDI piano keyboards make sense. In such a context, the only signals
serving as input to the computer are acoustic. They mediate or mediate changes to a computer
program that is being controlled and edited by a musician/coder. Reasons to consider this include
performance venue constraints, musicians’ preferences, potentially greater input bandwidth, and
new music genres. This paper reviews some of the relevant literature and analyzes several problems
related to the facilitation of livecoding via non-electronic pianos. It then addresses the challenges of
designing and implementing a software toolkit in which to further study these problems. As a case
study in design, an experimental software configuration called Piano Python is described. The paper
touches on technical issues, human factors, aesthetic criteria, and artistic and educational possibilities
of livecoding via acoustic pianos.
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