IFR blog > Practice tips
Modal improvisation with tenor sax and upright bass

This is a demonstration of some of the sounds we can create with IFR Exercise 2: Melody. Throughout this entire modal improvisation, both musicians are using just seven notes.

How to recognize a song's tonal center

If I identify a particular note as the tonal center of a song, how can I tell which note of the major scale it is (e.g. note 4)?

Melody Paths with chords 1, 3-, 4, 5D

In this lesson we study the uplifting movement from the 1 chord to the 3- chord, which is very common in popular music. And we will sing Melody Paths over the chord progression 1, 3-, 4, 5D.

IFR video lesson : Adjacent chords

For IFR students practicing Exercise 3: Pure Harmony, this video lesson demonstrates a great way to accelerate your mastery of all seven chords. By studying these chords in adjacent pairs, we can learn to visualize all of these sounds in the tonal octave much faster.

Why nursery rhymes are great ear training for improvisers

I'm currently singing and playing short tunes like nursery rhymes, hymns, etc. The way I do it is that I will play a tune only once and try to make my best attempt at playing the correct notes the very first time. Is this approach a good one?

How to practice difficult movements in Exercise 1

I'm wondering about the trombone? The image you use of the notes being connected as one long chain doesn’t really fit with the trombone because the notes are not evenly spaced. Do you have any suggestions?

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