Practica: A Music Education Application for Learning Jazz Improvisation

Abstract

We present Practica, a music education application which combines the user experience of a play-along practice application, the functionality of a melody transcription program, and the soloing tips and harmonic analysis that a music student might receive from an instructor. The user can read soloing tips and introductions to harmonic analysis, record themselves soloing over a backing track, and view transcriptions of their solos with different analysis modes applied in the form of color-coded notes. We develop an audio processing and transcription pipeline to generate sheet music for solo recordings. We examine how to present the subjective teaching and evaluation of improvisation in a programmatic manner. Two user studies suggest that Practica successfully presents students with an educational platform that empowers them to improve their musical abilities and explore jazz improvisation in a interactive and beginner-friendly format.