Virtual reality has undergone a major transformation as a learning tool over the past decade, as VR devices have become more accessible and powerful. VR opens up new dimensions of learning in several fields, including music. It presents a tremendous opportunity to upgrade classic teaching methods, such as real-time visual displays of notes and rhythm.
With the growth of the use of virtual tools, the number of existing applications for these devices is also growing, including applications designed to learn the piano. Most of such applications focus on learning the basics of music, mainly with classical and pop songs. Currently, there is no VR application whose main focus would be to teach jazz music, so within the framework of this diploma thesis we have developed an application in augmented reality, the main purpose of which is to learn blues and jazz songs and improvisation. This game (Improviano) is intended for musicians who already have some prior knowledge of music theory, especially knowledge of chords and scales, and musicians who have covered the basics of playing the piano. The game teaches the player how to improvise in jazz using blues scale. It also teaches him the "head-solo-head'' structure of jazz and encourages him to constantly improve with a scoring system.
After the implementation was completed, we evaluated the game with six students. During testing session, they first tried to learn jazz songs and improvisation independently, and then by using the game Improviano. The results of the research showed that learning improvisation for beginners with the help of a virtual environment is much easier than if they were to learn it on their own, because the game guides them through the improvisation and they have a clear idea of what they need to do. Additionally, the illuminated keys on the virtual keyboard set a clear framework within which they are not afraid to improvise.
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