IFR blog > Practice tips > Mastering your instrument
Modal improvisation jam with tenor sax and upright bass

Enjoy this great jam in the 5th harmonic environment recorded at the iconic jazz club Robadors 23 in Barcelona, Spain.

Practice in all keys or master one at a time

Is it better to start each improvisation exercise from a random note on our instrument? Or is it better to stay in one key until we've mastered it?

Learning to see your entire musical range at once

In Exercise 1 you describe "...looking down on this musical terrain from above..." Does this mean visualizing fingerings on your horn, notes on a staff, letters on a page or something else?

The relationship between technique and creativity

Instrument technique and improvisation are two practices that feed one another: we need technical skills to be able to express ourselves creatively, and when we improvise we put into practice and consolidate our technical skills.

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?