IFR blog > Instrument blogs
Mobility exercise for guitar

In this free sample lesson from Deep Foundations for Guitar, you will learn to move freely all over the neck of your guitar by half steps.

Piano for Non-Pianists 4

In this lesson you'll learn to control the tonal center in your music, allowing you to create the seven harmonic environments of the major scale.

Improvisation exercise with whole steps on the soprano sax

In this video Marina Vallet demonstrates the IFR Staircase exercise on the soprano saxophone using the interval of the whole step.

How to compose bass riffs on the spot?

I play in a blues band and quite often I need to compose bass riffs spontaneously to support the guitarist. How can I get better at doing this?

Mobility, part 2 (whole steps)

In this free sample lesson from Deep Foundations for Guitar, you will learn a slight alteration to the Mobility technique that allows you to move freely around the entire fretboard by whole steps.

Piano for Non-Pianists 5

In this lesson you'll learn one of the keys to creating beautiful melodies, which is to notice the feelings of tension or relaxation produced by each note of the harmonic environment.

IFR video lesson: 'Follow your Voice' for horn players

The IFR exercise "Follow your Voice" is something we normally practice on a keyboard so that we can sing the notes as we play them. But in this video I'll show you a great variation on this exercise that you can practice with your saxophone.

How to think about chord shapes

I'm confused about how to understand chord shapes in relation to the major scale. For example, the 3 chord would be notes 3, 5, 7, 2. In learning to see this as a minor chord shape, should I be able to think of this as 3, 5, 7, 2 and 1, b3, 5, b7 at the same time?

The IFR Tonal Map

In this free sample lesson from Deep Foundations for Guitar, you will learn how to build the notes of any key across the entire fretboard.

Piano for Non-Pianists 6

In this lesson we explore the sensations of tension and release in the second harmonic environment of the major scale.