IFR blog > Practice tips > Developing your ear > Understanding any piece of music by ear
Mobility exercise for bass

In this lesson, we learn to apply the IFR Cloud concept in a slightly more abstract way that allows us to move freely all over the fretboard by half steps.

Piano for Non-Pianists 3

In this lesson you'll learn to visualize and play the IFR Tonal Map anywhere on the piano keyboard. This will allow you to create all seven harmonic environments of the major scale and begin practicing the IFR exercise Seven Worlds.

Blue Monk

In this free video lesson we will break down the melody to this beautiful composition. We'll study each phrase in detail and notice many interesting things that we can learn about composition, harmony and the tonal map.

Ear training with Summertime

This is an ear training practice video for Improvise for Real students who are studying the song Summertime from IFR Standards Workout 2. In this video we will explore not only the chord notes to this song but also some very beautiful melodic notes outside the chords.

2-5-1 ear training workout

In this video we are going to train our ear together, singing the tonal numbers over the famous 2-5-1 chord progression. This is the most important chord progression in jazz music and it also appears in pop, rock, blues and other styles. Sing along and explore these beautiful sounds creatively with me!

Listening activity: Recognizing the chords in popular songs

This listening activity will help you learn to recognize chord progressions by ear. We have put together a list of beautiful popular songs that use the exact same chords that you're studying in IFR Jam Tracks Levels 2 and 3.

IFR video lesson: Demystifying chord extensions

In this video we will demystify 9th chords, 11th chords and 13th chords and you'll see how simple these chords really are. I'll also try to show you that you are actually already producing these sounds in your music all the time, even if you don't realize it.

IFR video lesson: Improvising with notes outside the key of the music

In this excerpt from the IFR video course "Introduction to Melodic Improvising", IFR coach Jelske offers ideas about how to begin experimenting with outside notes in your improvisations.

Exploring the 3rd harmonic environment

In this excerpt from the IFR video course "Introduction to Melodic Improvising", IFR coach Jelske demonstrates a series of creative activities that we use to study each harmonic environment of the major scale.

Improvise for Real in print

I'm excited to try the IFR method but I would prefer to have a hard copy of your book. Is Improvise for Real available in print?