Learn Python through Music with Ableton Live (Udemy.com)
Explore the Ableton API, Create music from Data, Send CC data with your webcam, make a MIDI remote script, and much more
Created by: Jor van der Poel
Last updated March 2025
What you will learn
- How to control Ableton with Python
- The Python language and Syntax, and how to use it to make Music
- The Ableton API, how to explore and interact with it
- Create Python Remote Scripts for your own MIDI controller
- How to make an an 'algorithmic' drum machine, which creates an infinite amount of rhythms
- Sonification, and how to make music from Data
- How to use your Webcam to create melodies and automation for true expression
- Sockets, Servers and Clients
- The MIDI protocol
- Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Open Sound Control (OSC)
- Datasets & Pandas
- Lots of other Python Modules
- And much much more..
How it compares
Against the other 388 rated Udemy courses in Python on CourseDuck:
- Rating4.5 out of 5higher than 52% of them
- Reviews139#343 of 389 by number of reviews
- Length12.9 hourslonger than 60% of them
- Last updatedMarch 2025more recently than 64% of them
Course Description
Welcome to the 'Learning Python with Ableton' course!
In this course I will teach you how to develop in Python without the need of any prior programming knowledge.
We start with the absolute basics, but within the framework of a highly practical approach. What this means is that you'll start to work on useful musical projects right away! Because of this you get to explore and practice with the language syntax without having to go through boring exercises. At the end of the course you'll be very familiar with Python and you should be able to take on any projects, even when they're not related to making music or controlling Ableton! On top of that, you'll gain in-depth knowledge about the Ableton API, how MIDI works, and how you can create music and control musical parameters via code.
The course is divided into multiple sections, in the first part we will set up our development environment. Here you learn how to install an IDE, the basics of MIDI and some other important knowledge to get started.
In the next section we start writing our first Python program, which will already be useful and fun! You learn how functions work, how to send musical events to Ableton, we create a complete song by using Datasets and we'll even learn how to capture Webcam input to send Notes and CC data to Ableton or any other Application.
After that, we dive into the mighty Ableton API...
In this third section we will explore the LOM (Live Object Model) and we start to get an idea about OOP (Object Oriented Programming). Getting to know Ableton from a developers perspective will allow you to interact with all aspects of the program, the Mixer, the Clips, the Devices and pretty much everything which you can see in the Ableton UI (and even some features hidden to 'regular' users). We will write our first class and make some useful programs to speed up your workflow in Ableton and to come up with new creative ideas.
Lastly, we dive into MIDI Remote Scripts, this has been a highly requested section of the course, filled with information never before exposed or documented. This section of the course is the result of working with Remote Scripts and the Ableton Framework for more than 10 years and it will show you how to make a script for your MIDI controller, making it useful for the way you work in Ableton or for your specific Live Performance setup. After this section you don't have to rely anymore on Third party scripts, you can make your controller exactly fit your needs.
I guarantee you that after this course you will be very comfortable with Python and you are able to think about and develop your own (creative) projects. You will also become a true Ableton Live guru with in-depth knowledge about the program itself and how all its components interact. You will end up with a whole set of scripts & tools that are unique to the way you work!
On top of that you will be well on your way to getting hired as a Python developer, even if that's something you don't desire ;)
Please feel free to checkout some of the Free Lessons or ask my any questions!
Happy {coding with [Ableton]} !
Jor
Programming Topics
Loops
Math & Matplotlib
SciPy
Functions & Classes
Datasets
Multithreading
Numpy
Object Oriented Programming (OOP)
Plotting
Waveforms
Mediapipe
Open CV
Terminal
Servers
Clients
Sockets
Dictionaries & Other data types
OSC
Randomization
Context Managers
Error Handling
Graphs
Algorithms
And much more..
Instructor Details
- 4.5 Rating
139 Reviews
Jor van der Poel
Sound Designer (Loopmasters, Camel Audio, ADSR sounds, SoundFreqs), Music Production Instructor (Pyramind), Grade C certified music teacher
My name is Jor, I was born in the Netherlands and lived in Vancouver, BC for years. Currently I am living in Berlin, which proves to be a great playground for the experimental minded (i.e. Mad Scientists).
I am a music producer, composer, teacher and sound designer. I am certified in both music theory and sound design education. When I was younger I wanted to be a famous drummer, which resulted in me practicing for a ridiculous amount of hours per day, which eventually got me into music education and my first job as a music teacher. This introduced me to a whole new world of music, and I realised that if I knew how to record and arrange I could be my own band. So I started practicing piano and guitar, both classical and jazz and learned how to record this to use in my music.
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Reviews
By Alex Shulman on 1/6/2026
(review after class 4-A1... since Udemy wants it early on...) The course starts with a realistic expectation (you WON'T be a coder after this) The structure is very well thought-through. The pace is great and, once again, REALISTIC. The teacher speaks very clearly.
By Anthony Yaobama on 3/11/2025
This is probably one of the most well-thought course I've ever taken in my life. (I've subscribed to 100+). Good job Jor ! Hopefully if you read this comment you will make a follow-up !
By BlenderCage on 2/25/2025
This is a gem of a course. I found it by just stumbling upon it, and I'm glad I did. As a Windows user, it took some time to figure out setup, but after that, it was all golden. Very useful concepts explained.
By Maxime El kaim on 1/3/2024
First program, first problems .... packages doesn't work like the exemple of Jor. 2 first steps, 2 bug ... Really frustrating and this put motivation down. I was not expecting that for be honest and I'm a bit sad to be stucked like this so early... A discord community like others topic on udemy would be reeeeaaaalllllly useful.
By Raam Sanghani on 7/17/2023
Jor is a great teacher, and I love that he goes over concepts in such a way that it makes it easy to utilize them in use cases of my own. This is the type of course that I was always looking for but could never find!
By Schlapparazzi on 2/20/2023
good pace! I kind of knew almost everything until now, but I imagine for someone new to this whole world, everything made sense til now and the essential stuff was pointed out clearly!
By Sameer Uddin on 2/15/2023
Feels like a point blank tutorial , difficult to guess so early but i am hoping it will be worth it !
By Marcus Benavides on 2/14/2023
This is a great course, and a fun way to learn (or reinforce) a lot of the Python language and functionality.
By Ville Jokinen on 2/8/2023
Just few videos from the very beginning watched. It seems promising, but I'm afraid as a Windows 11 user I'm not sure how well I'm able to follow this course, yet.
By Frank Childress on 2/3/2023
I have expereience coding in a diffferent language. I like the general approach but reserve judgment after getting deeper involved.
Quality Score
No CourseDuck member has rated this course yet. Taken it? Give each part a thumbs up or down.
Overall Score : 90 / 100



