Continuous Improvisation and Trading with Impro-Visor
Robert Keller · 2012
Impro-Visor is a free open-source program designed to help musicians learn to improvise. Its main purpose is to help its user become a better improviser. It can exhibit creativity by improvising continuously on its own in a variety of soloist styles. We demonstrate that, in principle, Impro-Visor can continue creating indefinitely, without repeating the same sequence of musical ideas. We also demonstrate how Impro-Visor can alternate (“trade”) phrases with the soloist, again continuously, as well as recording what the soloist plays on a MIDI device. Related aspects that can be shown are learning an improvisational style through grammar acquisition and using “roadmaps” as a basis for trading. The figure shows a screen shot of Impro-Visor creating phrases in real-time and capturing the soloist’s input in real-time from a MIDI device.