IFR blog > Practice tips > Developing your ear > Understanding any piece of music by ear
Do you see chords vertically or horizontally?

A new IFR student asks, "When you improvise over chord progressions, do you think of the chords vertically or horizontally?"

Composing with a looper pedal

Are you curious about looping? In this video I'll show you how the looper pedal works and how easy it is to create your own loops with what you already know from your IFR practice.

Piano for Non-Pianists 13: Chord inversions (the 1 chord)

In this lesson you will learn to create chord inversions and I'll show you three fantastic exercises that will train your hands to find these chord shapes quickly on the piano keyboard.

Learn to play without looking at the fretboard

Do you wish you could play the guitar without having to look at the fretboard? In this video I'll explain the benefits of learning to play the guitar without looking, and I'll give you some tips on how to learn this ability.

Why do you call it note 6?

I’m used to calling the root of a minor key “note 1” but I notice you often call it note 6. Why wouldn’t we just call it note 1?

What about minor sounds and blues sounds?

If the major scale is the origin of all Western music, then how should we think about songs that are in a minor key, or blues music that doesn't seem to be based on the major scale at all?

Which harmonic environments should an improviser learn first?

Should I study the most important harmonic environments first? Or is it better to study all seven harmonic environments in order?

Imagine

The haunting verse to John Lennon's "Imagine" is based on a simple alternation between the 1 chord and the 4 chord.

Chord melody practice in all chords

In this video I'll show you how to approach your daily chord melody practice so that you can develop the same creative freedom in chord melody style that you have when you are playing single-note melody lines.

Can IFR be applied to the ukulele?

Can the IFR method be applied to the ukulele? How can I visualize the map of notes on the fretboard, given that the strings are tuned out of order?