Improvisation By Degrees is designed to teach the art of musical improvisation.

For many musicians, professional and amateur, improvisation becomes difficult, complicated, or even magic. This is because they do not have the adequate knowledge and skills to do a good improvisation. When we speak of improvisation, we refer to the ability to play a melody, with a musical instrument, without following any score or pre-established pattern. For example, a guitarist can be guided by the notes of the bass, the piano chords, and the rhythm of the drums to improvise a melody that he had never played before, and maybe it will never be played again.

Improvisation By Degrees is a course with various lessons; the objective is to teach improvisation, regardless of the instrument played or the style of music we practice. We may think improvisation can not be learned and should come from the inside without any theory or logic. This software provides learning-based musical theories and patterns, which, once dominated and internalized, may be expressed naturally without having to theorize or think about them. Therefore, we get a natural, smooth and harmonious improvisation, as the notes we play will be based on the principles taught in this course.

When we start using the software, we have to choose the instrument with which we want to play in the course. We can choose between the following:

• Piano
• String instruments: Guitar (classical, electrical, acoustic, and 12-string), Bass (4, 5, and 6-string), Mandolin, Banjo, Viola, Violin, and Cello.
• Wind instruments: Sax (baritone, tenor, alto, and soprano), Trumpet, Clarinet, Flute, Trombone, and Tuba.

We will see the instrument representation when we choose the desired musical instrument. In the case of the piano, we will see the white and black keys of the piano with a point located in the middle C. If we choose a stringed instrument, we will see the mast represented along with the number of strings corresponding to the instrument. In the case of wind instruments, we will see a representation of a piano, in which the range of notes that this instrument can play is highlighted.

We can click on the key or an instrument string to play the corresponding note at any time. String instruments, in addition, can select different tunings: baroque, drop D, etc. If the instrument with which we wish to practice doesn't exist, we can add and configure it in the program's menu.

Once we have selected the musical instrument, we can start the course. We will see on the left side a list of all the lessons that make up the course. It is convenient to go in order and not to skip any, as the course is designed to acquire certain skills that will be required as we move forward.

The course consists of explanatory text, demonstrations of the theory, and practices that must be done. In the first place, it's explained what improvisation is, and gradually we will be introduced to the learning method, which focuses on improvisation, taking into account the chords that sound in the musical base.

The program supports MIDI instrument connection via cable and audio recognition of notes through the microphone. This will be useful for certain exercises in which we will play our instrument, and the program will recognize the notes we are playing.

As we progress in the course, we will do different exercises, which we will be able to review and see our progress. At any point in the course, we can perform a backup, or if we prefer, you can activate the automatic backups, which will make backups of our progress when we schedule.

The program includes a tuner, which plays different notes to help us fine-tune our instruments. It also includes a library with different scales for different instruments, where we will see a graphical representation of the notes that make up the scale. Another tool included is a Tempo tutor. This tutor proposes several tests to improve the ability to recognize the Tempo of the songs.

Briefly, this software is highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn how to improvise. There is a Jazz saying: “Improvising is easy. Improvising well is difficult”.

Improvisation By Degrees is paid software and offers a demo in which we can take the first lessons of the course, which will be more than enough for us to get an idea of whether the software convinces us or not.