While I do agree that practice is crucial in both respects, I think the tie is a bit deeper between music and programming. While music is commonly accepted as and referred to as an art from, it is a very structured art form. It has rhythm, meter, keys, harmony, melody, etc that all must be structured together perfectly to make great music. In fact, when they are structured together well, you typically don’t even notice they exist.

I would also argue programming is a structured art form. Just like in music, there are many moving parts that can be put together in many ways, but if you get them just right, everything falls into place and you have a great program. It is efficient, it flows well and is easy to use, it is easy to read by other programmers, in fact, almost so easy to read that you don’t even notice the code. You don’t have to spend hours hunting around, everything is organized perfectly and naturally.

So I would argue programming and music are tied together on a more mental ability/thought pattern level. I would also argue that in reality, the musicians make great designers/architects, not necessarily just programmers. They generally have the mindset required to see the whole picture and put all the pieces together just right.

I’m going to strongly agree, and yet disagree with your Idea. If your going to excel at anything to takes practice. It doesn’t how much “New Yankee Workshop” you watch, or how many issues of “American Woodworker” you read unless you make sawdust your never going to be a good woodworker, Same with cooking.

On the other side if you don’t have the knack, the gift, or what ever you want to call it, no amount of practice is going to help you. Case in point I can’t do music, I’m tone deaf, so it doesn’t mater how much I practice, I will never do well in a musical field. It’s like a Chef with out a sense of taste.

@Chris Brandsma
Maybe Tone Deaf is the wrong term, my ability to distinguish between different tones is limited, I had ear infection/ear fluid as a kid. It’s something akin to people who can distinguish between color shades (light red, red, dark red) but if you pick something half way between light red and red they can’t really tell the difference.

With practice I could become technically proficient at singing (volume control, etc), but I will always sound flat and have a mono tone.

One thing I do find interesting is the number of programmers do woodworking, automotive, welding, etc. I think music plays into this as well, our profession draws people with the talent and desire to create, construct, and build. We blend the science of structure with the art of design.

So to more appropriately say what @Carl said(or didn’t say) people who dedicate themselves to a constructive art form (Music, Woodworking, painting, etc.) tend to make the best programmers.

This isn’t saying that woodworkers make good programmers and that programmers make good woodworkers, but a lot of the underlying skills and practices are the same for example: mastering the basics before trying the expert:

if you can’t do a foreach loop, maybe you should wait to do singletons just like in woodworking, if you can’t do a half lap, maybe you should wait to try a dovetail.