Our History

David Reed, creator of Improvise for RealThe first thing to know about our history is that we are music lovers just like you. And just like you, we always dreamed of truly understanding music and being able to enjoy creating it ourselves.

In my own case, this quest led me on a long personal journey that included playing jazz music in New York and Los Angeles, tango music in Buenos Aires, and African sacred music in Senegal and in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. But as strange as some of these experiences might sound, each one provided a critical missing piece of the puzzle about music, creativity and playing by ear.

The method

My name is David Reed. I am the author of "Improvise for Real" and the creator of the IFR method. The method itself was developed over the course of about seven years between 2004 and 2010. During this time I was teaching musical improvisation for all instruments in Barcelona, Spain. The IFR harmonic concept and all of the essential creative exercises are the result of this intense period of research and experimentation in Barcelona.

But a complete description of the method would only come later, in the fall of 2011 when I published the book "Improvise for Real". Since that moment the IFR project has never stopped growing. It now includes our website and social media, an active community of passionate, creative musicians, and a complete set of learning materials based on the IFR method.

Improvise for Real brings together musicians from all different backgrounds who want to study music as a creative art form. We don't care about learning other people's licks and formulas. We want to create our own music.

We believe that the musicians who follow their own imagination are the ones who change the world.

Our vision of studying music is rooted in the tradition of great art schools. We want to explore the sounds creatively and learn to tell our own musical stories with them. Improvise for Real gives us a path to learn music in this creative, personal way and truly express our own music.

We invite you to join us!