IFR blog > Practice tips
IFR Exercise 1 Daily Meditation with whole steps for soprano sax

For IFR students practicing Exercise 1: Landscape, this is a demonstration of the Exercise 1 Daily Meditation. Marina Vallet demonstrates the exercise on the soprano saxophone using the interval of a whole step.

IFR video lesson: How to study the modes

In this video I teach you how you can study the modes creatively and learn to make your own music with these beautiful sounds.

Jeremy Chapman on musical creativity

This great Ted Talk by Jeremy Chapman offers many surprising insights about musical creativity. His talk includes improvisation with the audience and guest musicians, and he even mentions Improvise for Real about halfway through the talk.

How to build a strong sense of tonal orientation

"When I'm practicing Seven Worlds, sometimes I lose my orientation and I can't feel the tonal center anymore. So for example note 2 doesn't feel like home anymore. Instead my ear keeps wanting to resolve to note 1. Do you have any tips for this?"

IFR modal improvisation exercise demonstration 'Seven Worlds'

For IFR students practicing Exercise 2: Melody, this is a demonstration of the exercise Seven Worlds in the sixth harmonic environment. Miguel 'Pintxo' Villar explores the harmonic environment on tenor sax.

Finding the key of the music by ear

In this video demonstration with tenor sax and piano, we demonstrate how IFR students are able to instantly find the key of the music by ear.

Becoming a music philosopher

In this personal video, I explain why I believe that you should pursue your OWN musical ideas and fascinations just as seriously as you study anything you learn from your music teachers.

Harmonic and melodic minor scales in IFR

A student asks whether harmonic minor and melodic minor scales are included in IFR. The answer is an enthusiastic YES and in this video I show you how.

IFR video lesson: How to play what you hear - 5 great exercises

In this video lesson I show you five great exercises that all work together to help you learn to connect your ear with your instrument. 

IFR video lesson: Melody Paths

In this video I’ll show you how to use the IFR exercise ‘Melody Paths’ to understand the inner workings of any chord progression so that you can access all of these beautiful sounds in your improvisations.