That's a great idea! And the way you explain it in terms of music makes it seem like that should be very obvious, but I never heard it stated that way before.

I've heard Harold Abelson say “Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally for machines to execute” [1], and Jeff Atwood say "Always code as if the person who ends up maintaining your code is a violent psychopath who knows where you live" [2], but how about: "Write code that you'd be proud for your mom to read".

[1] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9168-programs-must-be-writte...

[2] http://blog.codinghorror.com/coding-for-violent-psychopaths/