An advanced trumpet player asks if he should skip over the beginning IFR materials and go directly to the IFR Standards Workouts. But for any advanced player who struggles to play by ear, it's in the very first IFR activities that you will learn this ability.
This is a special lesson for beginners to musical improvisation. I'll show you how you can begin improvising right now as a creative and exciting part of your daily music practice.
I see the importance of knowing the sounds from the tonal map and being able to sing what you play. However, isn’t improvisation also a matter of transcribing other artists’ music to absorb the “feel” and “time” they have?
You may have heard that you need to understand a lot of music theory in order to improvise. But what if it's the other way around? That might sound confusing at first, but I believe that getting clear about this could potentially save you YEARS of frustration and wasted time.
Sometimes I have to listen to a chord progression between 5-10 times before I can recognize the chords. Is this normal? Or should I be able to do this instantly?
"In Exercise 2: Melody, I find it difficult to play a scale starting on note 2 or any other note besides note 1. I can sight read most things, but starting on anything other than note 1 is problematic. Please help."
For IFR students practicing Exercise 3: Pure Harmony, this is a demonstration of the exercise Seven Worlds Expanded on the flute. Anna Crusat demonstrates the exercise exploring the 7 chord in the modal range.
In the IFR exercise Sun and Moon we explore the two most important harmonic environments in Western music, commonly referred to as "major" and "minor". Cristina Pérez demonstrates the exercise on the clarinet.
I have bought your learning materials and I am reading your e-book right now. For Exercise 1, I notice that there are special versions for guitar and bass. How about for violin? Should I use the version for guitar?
Can you explain how I should finger the Cloud exercise on an upright bass? Thanks!
