Written By: Jeffries F. Epps, Staff Writer
Tarboro, NC – Walk into Monika Underhill’s Audio Engineering class at Tarboro High School, and you’ll find a room full of students eager to become the next big rappers, songwriters, and beat creators. But beneath the bass drops and lyrical flows, they’re unknowingly building skills that could lead them into a different career path—software engineering.
Underhill’s class teaches students how to produce, edit, and manipulate digital audio, but the deeper lesson lies in how music creation mirrors software development. Just as a rapper synchronizes lyrics with a beat to tell a compelling story, software engineers take a concept and translate it into code that computers understand. This parallel is especially evident in video game design, where music and coding come together to create immersive experiences.
“There’s a saying about ‘hiding the broccoli’—sneaking the healthy stuff into something enjoyable,” said Underhill. “That’s exactly what’s happening here. My students think they’re just making beats, but in reality, they’re learning sequencing, logic, and digital processing—the same problem-solving skills software engineers use every day.”
From Beats to Code: The Overlapping Skills of Audio and Software Engineering:
Sequencing & Logic
Arranging beats and lyrics in a structured way
Writing code that follows logical steps
Pattern Recognition
Identifying rhythm patterns in music
Detecting patterns in data and debugging code
Problem-Solving
Fixing offbeat timing or sound distortion
Troubleshooting software bugs
Creativity & Innovation
Designing unique soundscapes
Developing new software solutions
For students passionate about music, this realization opens up new possibilities. A love for creating beats could evolve into sound design for video games, coding AI-generated music, or even developing music production software.
By blending creativity with technical skills, Underhill’s class is proving that music isn’t just an art—it’s a gateway to technology careers. Whether her students go on to produce platinum records or write groundbreaking code, one thing is clear: the beats they create today are shaping their futures in ways they never imagined.