At some point, the author describes a live coder as somebody “concurrently playing and composing.” The complexity of live coding is much more well delivered with this description, as it captures the essence of having to make decisions on the composition and arrangement AND the actual playing of the components at the same time. Based on this, the author goes to explain the importance of notation in live coding, and how these notations serve as a way live coders can manipulate different aspects of the music. Reading this, I finally understood why the concept of ‘live coding’ itself gave me a lot of pressure. I think it may be because there are tools readily available, opening up so many possibilities. However, such large number of options mean that it’s going to be hard to make a decision. But, in live coding, decisions have to be made quickly, on the spot, during the performance.

I also like how he wraps up saying that live coding “treads on uncommon path between oral and written culture, improvisation versus the composed, and the spontaneous versus the arranged.” This again holds the essence of having the minimum amount of plan done before the performance, and having to do both the arranging and the playing at the same time during the performance.