I just discovered your program and am quite excited! Also this is the 1st user
group I've
signed on to, so am a neophyte with this format.

I'm a guitarist currently writing a book on melodic jazz improvising using some
ideas very
similar to CFG notation. My ideas are "modular" in that all aspects concerning
music
production from mind/body/instrument are decomposed into unique "spaces" which
are
linked to form larger level patterns. I have thought all along that the book I
am writing
would be best implemented in an interactive program, such as yours.

I haven't had a lot of time to use impro-visor yet. And can't wait to get more
into it.
I've read your papers and am quite familiar with the literature on music making
programs
(David Cope, Wolfram Tones,...) as well as cognitive and math influenced
theorists
(Narmour, Shenker, Lerdahl, Morris, Mazzola...) and the large body of jazz
theory.

My question is concerning global melodic constraints.
I haven't seen anything in the program addressing this part of melody other then
the
contour feature which is cool and does imply some global constraining
properties.
I have many ideas concerning these types of constraints on local melodic
patterns,
which I think would enhance the current grammar of this already impressive
program.

I'm interested in dialoguing further about this.
Your program is the 1st one I've seen that is along the lines of what I've been
envisioning!
I see the ability to be customized for guitarists and potentially other
instrumentalist in
terms of the graphic interface. Implementing things such as a graphic
fingerboard that
could have pitches mapped to it in realtime, etc...

I always thought that a program such as Band in A Box wasn't open for the user
to gain
insight into the generating of melodic ideas. And therefore limited as a deeper
learning
experience.

Cheers, Budge Schachte