IFR blog > Consejos para estudiar
Q&A - Should I wait to get my chops back?

A trumpet student asks whether he can begin IFR right away, or whether he needs to first develop a certain level of technical proficiency on his instrument.

Recognizing Chords by Ear

Building on the skills you learned in Ear Training for Musical Creativity, in this course you will learn to how to recognize chords by ear so that you can play and improvise over songs without having to ask what the chords are.

How to recognize melodies by ear using the key of the music

In this video you'll learn the most important technique for recognizing songs and melodies by ear. The technique is to focus on the path that the melody traces through the overall key of the music.

Piano for Non-Pianists 11: Tonal triads (part 1)

Today we will transform our "tonal five finger drills" into a technique for playing triads, and we'll practice playing all seven chords of the major scale in every key.

Q&A - Are the IFR harmonic environments the modes?

Are the seven harmonic environments that we're studying in IFR Exercise 2 the same thing as the “modes”?

Is there a "method" for using the major scale in a melodic way?

I am wondering if there is a "method" for using the major scale in a melodic way rather than playing the scale notes randomly?

Thinking melodically vs. harmonically

When you're studying the notes of a chord, should you be thinking relative to the key (e.g. "note 1 in the 6 chord")? Or should you be thinking relative to the chord (e.g. "the flatted 3rd of the 6 chord")?

One of Us

The Joan Osborne song "One of Us" (written by Eric Bazilian) is one of countless songs made from just the four foundational chords that we study in IFR Jam Tracks Level 2: Pure Harmony Essentials.

Alison

The Elvis Costello song "Alison" contains just one chord from outside the key of the music. This is the beautiful b7 major chord that we study in IFR Jam Tracks Level 4: Mixed Harmony Essentials.

Ear training with All of Me

This is a practice video for Improvise for Real students who are studying the song ‘All of Me’ from IFR Standards Workout 1. In this video we will practice the IFR ear training exercise Melody Paths over the first two lines of the song.