Improvisation By Degrees - Version 1.1 'Improvisation By Degrees' (IBD) is an interactive course to develop improvisation skills, for all instruments. IBD contains explanations, demonstrations, and examples, but most importantly, it contains a progression of interactive drills and play-along multimedia exercises that gradually develop a musician's improvisation ability. With IBD one learns practically how to use scales and chord notes when improvising on all kinds of chord progressions.The training strategy has two main objectives: The first objective is to train the musician in mastering the use of pure chord notes ('pillar notes' in IBD terminology) when improvising on chords, and develop a strong sense of harmonic and melodic direction. The second objective is to train the musician in mastering the use of scales and modes. The importance of