[linux-audio-user] apps for practicing improvisation

[Hartmut Gehrke-Tschudi]

Burkhard Woelfel schrieb:

> On Sunday 19 June 2005 23:56, Jeremiah Benham wrote:
>
> >On Sun, Jun 19, 2005 at 07:27:26PM -0100, Gilles Degottex wrote:
>
> >>I'm looking for softwares to practice improvisation, chords grids,
> >>beat/mesures following, etc.
>
> >I praqctice improvising by recording myself comping. I usually do this
> >in audacity. Then I select sections I may want to work on. If I want a
> >slower version I just record it slower. This sounds like a pain in the
> >butt but it just gives me more practice at playing the chord changes. I
> >believe that this will ultimately help me to play around the changes
> >because I will know them better from playing them more often. Then I can
> >overdub my improvisation to later pick out things that I did that I
> >thought were cool. So many time I improvise but can't remeber what I
> >played after I finished.
>
>
> Singing your lines unisono can help you memorize stuff a little 
> better. I'm
> sure it will also add to your playing itself.
>
> I like your approach. Did you ever try it the other way round?


Did you ever try http://mypage.uniserve.com/~bvdp/mma/index.html
Its the free MMA (Musical MIDI Accompaniment) prog.  I use it to 
practice improvisation. I like it. It`s quite easy. You just edit a text 
file with your chords,   p.e.:
1     G
2     D
3     Em
4     C 
etc.
it reads even more sophisticated Jazzchords, like p.e. Bb-5#9, Gdim C+ 
chords.

The program is Perl as I understand. It produces a midi-file out of your 
text file.
This you can load into Rosegarden or noteedit -- or  just play  with "pmidi"
There comes a Tutorial for Quickstart. Plus a Reference Manual.
It doesn`t take more than 30 min to get it running.

Here is an example file
// =============== Start of File - Let it Be ===============
// ============== Author of this File: Ralf Koenig =========

Tempo 130

Groove Metronome2-4
    z * 2

Groove 8Beat

Repeat

1     G
2     D
3     Em
4     C

5    G
6    D
7    C / Bm Am7
8    G

9    G
10    D
11    Em
12    C

13    G
14    D
15    C / Bm Am7
16    G

Repeat

17    Em
18    D
19    C
20    G

21    G
22    D
23    C / Bm Am7
24    G

RepeatEnd

RepeatEnd 3

// End of File

Cheers
Hartmut