coJIVE: A System to Support Collaborative Jazz Improvisation

Jan Buchholz, Eric Lee, Jonathan Klein, and Jan Borchers

Jazz improvisation is a complex and demanding art of on-the-fly
composition and performance.  We present coJIVE, a system that allows
musically inexperienced people to improvise to jazz by substituting
for musical knowledge and experience.  Using well-established musical
theory, it aids users in creating a harmonic performance, and also
helps coordinate a collaborative session amongst the participants.
Remarks from users during evaluation showed an overall positive response
to the support provided by the system.