Mixing music production with computing fosters an environment that is "enquiry rich", empowering youngsters to be more daring. This, in turn, develops the kind of creative skills that are needed within the music industry in the foreseeable future.

This is one of the main findings of a research project carried out by Cambridge University's Faculty of Education, which also reported that this technology-driven approach is encouraging teachers to be more inventive.

It is allowing, for example, professionals to "build innovative cross subject collaborations", transforming their understanding of teaching this subject in so many profound ways.

The authors of the report state that these new "learning pathways" have the capacity to "free future musicians from 'locked-in hardware' and fuel creative economy". Moreover, these skills extend outside of music, embedding in youngsters the kind of digital skills and disposition – a "willingness to experiment" – required for creative industries.

"Live coding blends and embraces diverse creativities involved in composing, improvising, and performing simultaneously - introducing a driving force of change in digital music learning pathways and practices crucial to transforming music education for 21st century schools," commented Dr Pam Burnard, lead author of the report and an expert in creativity and digital learning from Cambridge’s Faculty of Education.

"This mode of education encourages risk-taking in a safe space. In live-coding music, people improvise with themselves, listening and watching the code, pushing it to the point where at times it crashes in a collision of code. Watching how young people problem-solve to code their way out of a collision is very exciting to see."

The team behind the study – entitled Sonic Pi: Live & Coding – were inspired to carry out experiments to develop a model that could revolutionise music education through digital technology, especially relating to coding.

Sonic Pi is the software that has emerged out of this project. It is described as being a "free sound synthesiser for live coding", designed to enhance music and computing lessons within schools. Additionally, it enables "the ultra-cheap credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer" to be modified into "a fully customisable musical instrument".

In short, through the "power of code", music education is not only being brought into the 21st century, it is being completely reinvented with a greater focus on "imagination, performance and independent exploration".

"Digital learners do take more risks in the pursuit of making new music; they learn to think differently about how they can create new music, taking smart risks in order to learn from them," Dr Burnard added. "Code crashing and making mistakes became nothing to be ashamed of, and young people quickly became creative confidants in new ways of digital music making."

One of the key things Cambridge University is keen to cast attention on is the collaborative approach – multi-agency too – that underpins code-influenced music education. This is about making the most of experts in their respective fields and bringing that together.

As such, one of the key findings is the inherent advantages of "crossing boundaries" between subject disciplines. The more teachers do this, the research showed, the more likely they are to foster risk-taking in youngsters, helping prepare them for a very competitive world of work in adult life.