Impro-Visor (Improvisation Advisor) is an educational, music notation program designed to help musicians compose and hear solos similar to ones that might be improvised. It helps to musicians improve their understanding of tunes based on chord changes and solo construction. The software is particularly oriented towards jazz solos.
Use Impro-Vistor to create improvised solos, tunes, transcriptions, or bass lines in the form of lead sheets (chord symbols with melody). The software also generates styled accompaniment automatically from chord progressions, and provides a database for storing and retrieving licks. It creates new licks and full solos based on a user-modifiable grammar that can be learned from transcriptions.
Music information is stored as open text files.
Key Features
- Lead sheets and solos can be constructed through either point-and-click or using a plain text editor (one is provided, but any editor can be used).
- Automatic note coloration shows whether notes are consonant or dissonant with chords and scales.
- Chords may also be entered quickly through a “roadmap” editor, which also analyzes chord changes for implied keys and idiomatic progressions (“bricks”).
- Harmonic note entry option guides the user to select notes that are consonant with harmony. Similarly, transposition options provide chromatic or harmonic transposition.
- Solos or solo fragments can be played back immediately with automatic rhythm section accompaniment.
- Database capability for creating, saving, and recalling licks.
- Lick generation capability based on a user-modifiable grammar.
- Auto-generated playback accompaniment in various styles.
- Style extraction (from MIDI) capability.
- Chord-voicing tool.
- Leadsheet notation.
- Export solos and heads to MusicXML and as MIDI files.
- Musical knowledge, including lick generation, database, lead sheets, styles, and other information, is represented as text files, permitting the tool to be customized.
Website: www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor
Support: FAQ
Developer: Bob Keller and other contributors
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Impro-Visor is written in Java. Learn Java with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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