Thanks for watching my video. If you have any questions about this technique or about learning to recognize melodies by ear, please post your questions and I'll be sure to answer you. Thank you! - David
@@pabloarmandoramirez8911 Please do that Pablo. Whatever questions you have, feel free to share them here and we'll make sure to address them in our next videos. Happy practicing! - David
This is the best music course I have ever been fully satisfied with! Only in my literal dreams, asleep and awake, did I ever imagine there could be such a great method. God bless you, David, for sharing your knowledge and intuition.
Wow, thank you SO much for your kind words Pablo. I'm really touched by your comment and I'm very thankful to be able to contribute to your own musical creativity. Your comment really made my day! - David
That's so great to hear! Thank you so much for the kind words. Yes, the tonal point of view and learning to hear the chord notes melodically is really exciting. For most of my life I had no idea how anyone could just listen to a song and recognize the chords by ear. But it's something we can all do. You just have to stop thinking about the letter names (A minor, D7, etc.) and notice instead the role of each chord in the key (1 chord, 2 chord, etc.). I wish you much continued success and enjoyment in your music!
Great video! Ear training away from my instrument and figuring out simple melodies has helped me tremendously. Try to figure out the melody using scale degrees and then I always use the same major scale pattern when checking my answer. Or minor scale pattern if it’s in a minor key.
That's excellent, Fargo! So many things in music begin to snap into focus when you start orienting yourself relative to the overall key of the music instead of treating each chord and melodic fragment like an isolated thing. Thanks for sharing your experience with that! - David
That's fantastic Rene! Thank you for following us and supporting our efforts! I hope you continue to like the videos and please feel free to post any questions you have. - David
This morning i got a notification about this video in Spanish, but when i woke up it was already removed. Hope you upload the video in Spanish too, because my english is not very good looking 😆. By the way thank you for the video amazing david.
Hola Kelvin! Perdona la confusión. Esa notificación fue por un error técnico por nuestro lado. El vídeo en castellano se publicará el lunes que viene. Mientras tanto puedes practicar tu inglés con este. :-)
Improvise For Real definitivamente lo entendí perfectamente, wow hasta me sacó una lagrima de la emoción, de verdad que usted es un grande por la forma que explica, lo amo david gracias usted me ha dado luz a mi oscuridad que tenía con la música.
I don't have to worry about memorizing those confusing letters and chords vocabulary from now on any more. This is it. Seven Worlds 1 2 34 5 6 71. Thank you so much David❤
Also David, do you recommend starting with children’s songs or nursery rhymes etc like you did here with happy birthday? I love what you’re saying here but a lot of songs are very complex - should we tackle those early on and just try to pick out a few notes, or should we start simpler?
@@willcouchman6842 GREAT question! Without a doubt, nursery rhymes are the very best place to start with ear training. Think about it. How can we expect to recognize the sounds in jazz standards if we can't recognize the sounds in children's songs? Here are some concrete ideas about exactly what you can do with these simple songs to turn them into amazing ear training material: improviseforreal.com/ifr-blog/practice-tips/developing-your-ear/why-nursery-rhymes-are-great-ear-training-for-improvisers Thanks for your comment. It's such a great point and I should have emphasized it more in the video. So thank you! - David
Will Couchman What may be helpful to you is to check out the excerpts of some melodies written out in the chapther 'seeing the matrix' of the IFR book. You can try finishing some of the melodies you particularly like. It's what I suggest to the students who follow my Jumpstart course 'Get started with IFR'. Happy practicing. - Jelske
David this is great. Very helpful, as is the statement of the key concept covered in the video, and the list of other resources available. Many thanks!
Thank you Helen! We publish new lessons every Monday so please let me know if there are any special topics you would find interesting. Thanks for watching! - David
Hi david, if the tonal center is "1" , 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1 would all have a different feeling compared to when the tonal center is "6" 6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6 for example 7 sounds a lot different when the tonal center is 1 compared to when its 6. How do I go about this when analyzing melodies? When I have the normal melody does it even matter whether I analyze it in the sixth or first enviroment or any other?
You actually don't have to come to any conclusions about the tonal center you are feeling in order to express both the melody and the chords in tonal numbers. The tonal numbers don't change just because you're feeling the tonal center in one chord or another. So the melody notes would still be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The next step is to identify the chords. If you're feeling note 1 as the tonal center, maybe the chord of the moment is the 1 chord? Or maybe it's a progression leading to the 1 chord? Whatever the case may be, there is definitely a reason why you are feeling note 1 as the tonal center. And usually just by identifying both the melody notes and the chords in tonal numbers, you can see at a glance why you're feeling note 1 as the tonal center. Likewise for note 6. Maybe the chord of the moment is the 6- chord, or maybe it's a progression that causes your ear to feel note 6 as the tonal center. But just by clarifying both the melody notes and the chords, you already have the song completely documented and analyzed. If you want to take the extra step of documenting which note you feel as the tonal center in each moment of the song, you could also include that in your analysis. But it doesn't change the tonal numbers that you would assign to the melody notes and chord roots. Make sense?
David, I'm really starting to understand the value of separating out the sounds of the scale tones apart from the chords they're wrapped around-thank you! In the example of the song Tenderly, what numbers would you assign to subsequent notes that aren't a part of the G major scale, such as the Bb in the second syllable of "Ten-der-ly" in the first line or the Eb in the same spot in the second line?
Bb is just b3. And Eb is b6. Even the notes outside the major scale have a precise relationship with the tonal center. And both of those notes (b3 and b6) appear in hundreds of standards. So once you start thinking of it this way, you begin hearing these sounds all around you and it really helps to bring harmony into focus!
Loved this video!!! I've been thinking about trying your method for a while but can't really afford the workshops.. which materials do you recommend should start with if I have limited budget? I've done a lot of work on ear training before and I'm told I have good ears (I'm a vocalist) but still can't say I truly understand what I'm hearing.
Hi Noa, thanks for your comment. To decide which materials would help you the most, I think it depends on whether you also play an instrument. In many ways our method is ideal for vocalists because we believe very much in learning to express the sounds we imagine. So the way we study harmony would also enable you to sing these sounds with your voice. But the method makes a lot of use of improvising with an instrument so that you can hear the pitches. You can be singing along with your voice the whole time, but I think it's important to have an instrument to produce the notes so that you can hear the sounds you're exploring. If you have a keyboard and you're open to using it in your improvisation practice, then I think you would love to learn the complete method. Here's a link to the ideal starter kit: improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-e-book-package If you don't play any instrument and you're just looking to sharpen your perception of the sounds with your voice, then please don't purchase the package above because you won't be able to use most of it. Instead I would just invite you to check out our ear training course "Sing the Numbers". Here's a link to the first level: improviseforreal.com/products/sing-numbers-1-ifr-tonal-map I hope this helps give you some ideas about how to get started. If you have any other questions, please feel free to write more and I'll be happy to help you. - David
@@ImproviseForReal Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I do have a keyboard and can play basic basic chords. I will check out these links! thanks again :)
Hello, good afternoon greetings from Colombia. I am new to the method, I really love it. I would like someone to help me with respect to the language since there are no subtitles in Spanish 😭 and I don't know if there is a way to translate them. I appreciate any help from you 👊 I translated these lines in the Google translator since my language is Spanish. I hope your help cracks.
Hi Utkarsh, those numbers just refer to the scale degrees of the major scale. Any song or melody can be played in any key. So really these melodies are just a sequence of notes from the major scale. These are the numbers I'm referencing in this video. I invite you to subscribe to our channel and check out our website if you want to learn more. Here's the link: improviseforreal.com. Thanks for your comment! - David
Hi Dwayne, I'm not sure which moment you're referring to specifically but I think I played all of the melodies in this video on the top two strings of the guitar, meaning the B string and the E string. But any of these melodies can be played in any key, anywhere on the fretboard. You just have to be able to picture the notes of any major scale, and just with that you can play the notes of almost every song you've ever heard. Some melodies make occasional use of notes outside the scale, but again if you're picturing the overall key of the music then it's just as easy to play the notes that fall in between the notes of the major scale. If you'd like to learn this method, I invite you to check out the IFR Video Course Package which is a complete introduction to the method for guitar: improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-video-course-package Thanks for your question. If I can help you with anything else, just let me know. - David
I'd like to do your workshop however i'm having trouble following this video - i'm very confused with the terminology. I do play guitar at a very beginner level and know some scales. Which of your courses would be beneficial to start with. I'm afraid going into a workshop without understanding the basics would be a challenge.
Hi Papie, the best workshop for you to take right now is Ear Training for Musical Creativity (improviseforreal.com/products/ear-training-musical-creativity). This is something you'll be able to understand right from the first day, and it's a great workshop to do while you're taking your first steps in the IFR method. I also encourage you to begin practicing the method itself with either the IFR E-book Package or the IFR Video Course Package. (Links are improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-e-book-package and improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-video-course-package). But you can sign up for Ear Training for Musical Creativity right now because it's open to complete beginners in the IFR method. I think you would also love our workshop "Introduction to Melodic Improvising" (improviseforreal.com/products/introduction-melodic-improvising) but I think you should learn the first few steps of the method for guitar before doing this workshop. So I would do the ear training workshop first, then also practice the first few steps of the IFR method for guitar, and then you can take our Intro to Melodic Improvising workshop in September. If you have any questions about any of this, you can write to me directly at david@improviseforreal.com and I'll help you make the best plan for you. Thanks Papie! - David
I really enjoyed your video but why did you not name the notes instead of numbering them. I am 79 and learned to play piano as child but my teacher would not allow to play by ear which in hind sight is restrictive I would be grateful for your opinion. I am now learning uklele
Hi Yvonne, it's great that you know the letter names of the notes and there are times when this is very useful. But whenever you want to talk about either creating your own music (improvising and composing) or recognizing music by ear, for both of these abilities we really need to switch to a language that matches the way these notes actually sound to our ear. The key point here is that music is relative. The absolute pitches of the notes in any song do not matter. What makes the song sound the way it does is the relationship between the notes. You could transpose the entire song up or down a half step and nobody would even notice, even though the name of every single note would change in the process. In fact any piece of music can be perfectly reproduced in any key you want, whether it be a simple blues or the entire Requiem Mass of Mozart. For this reason, the language we use to think and talk about music must also be relative. In every single key the seven notes of the major scale always sound exactly the same. So the first step to understanding music is to give these notes permanent names that do not constantly change depending on what key you’re in. That's why you see us always talking in tonal numbers in IFR. Thanks for the great question! If I can help you in any way in your music practice, don't hesitate to write. - David
So, basically we just need to know 1 2 34 5 6 71..... And just associate a part of song as reference with the interval so as to etch it in memory.. for eg twinkle twinkle.. as 11 55..here 1-5 can be practised and remembered... Still a long way to go though.. Its a looooooong journey..!!
Hi David, watching the video, I kept wondering about referring to this pattern of notes as 5-6-7-1. 1-2-3-4 is the same group of intervals. Without the harmony, isn’t it ambiguous without knowing where both half steps are?
Hi Darren, that's a great question. You're right that the intervals between notes 5-6-7-1 are the same as the intervals between notes 1-2-3-4. But what determines note 1 isn't just this mathematical observation about the half steps and whole steps. It's where YOU feel the tonal center. In the case of these song examples, if you've heard the entire song then your memory of the song will cause you to orient yourself in the key of the music after hearing just a few notes of the melody. So even though those first few notes could technically be other notes of the major scale as well, the way that YOU imagine them is to be the specific notes of the major scale that they are in that song. But if you've never heard these songs before, then you're right that without any chords in the background it would be possible to feel some of these melodies in more than one way. And actually that's always true in music. All harmonic analysis is subjective. But I think the most important point for you to focus on right now is that the way to determine the key of the music is to notice which note you're feeling as the tonal center, and which other notes you feel as the overall harmonic environment of the song. Just counting up the half steps and whole steps isn't reliable because songs can use notes outside the major scale as well. So harmonic analysis is really an exercise in noticing and recognizing what you actually feel when you listen to a piece of music. What makes this kind of analysis possible is for you to gain lots of experience improvising with all of these sounds yourself in your IFR practice. So the idea is for these two worlds to come together and ultimately be one. I hope that makes sense! If you have more questions about it, you could check out our blog section on Developing your Ear where you'll find lots more tutorial videos on this whole approach to understanding music. Here's the link: improviseforreal.com/ifr-blog/practice-tips/developing-your-ear
Improvise For Real will this help with singing? What’s your advice on trying to recognize the melody of a song and singing it, cause I sometimes get off pitch, not knowing what interval or pitch I’m hitting next
Hi CriticalDog88, great question! This is a huge part of how we study music in IFR. We believe that recognizing sounds by ear and playing the sounds you imagine is the very definition of music study, so ear training is integrated into everything we do. The most powerful way to do this is just to incorporate singing into your improvisation practice every day. Just improvising over the IFR Jam Tracks series and singing those sounds in tonal numbers is one of the best ear training practices I know. We also created an ear training course specifically for improvisers called "Sing the Numbers", which I think you would love! Here's the direct link: improviseforreal.com/products/sing-numbers-1-ifr-tonal-map These are the tools and practices that we use with our students and we're very excited about this path. Check it out and see if you agree! If you have any questions, please feel free to post more here. - David
Couldn't "Happy Birthday" just start on the root note? Why do we assume it on the 5th? Is it just because of the b7 at the end of the song? If yes, then we wouldn't have a way of knowing without first hearing the whole song, right?
Great question Vanessa! The answer is that the root note isn't something that you need to deduce with music theory. So you don't need to wait until the appearance of that note that you're calling b7 in order to realize that maybe your concept of the key is wrong. Every single member of the audience can feel the key perfectly!! Even your grandma who never studied music in her life knows EXACTLY where note 1 is. This is why she feels tension at the end of the first line ("Happy birthday to you"), and relaxation at the end of the second line ("Happy birthday to you"). And so it's also no surprise to her that the song ends on precisely note 1. Everyone in the audience was already expecting this, and the song fulfills their expectations perfectly. So think about this. If every single member of the audience can already feel the key of the music (which is why they're able to enjoy these feelings of tension and release along the way), then how come it's only the musicians in the audience who can't feel where note 1 is? The answer is because the musicians are the only ones who aren't paying any attention to what they feel. Instead they're trying to use music theory to figure out an intellectual solution to the "key of the music" question. So here's how this relates to your question. You asked why the song Happy Birthday couldn't start on note 1. This idea comes from music theory. You have to study music theory to even come up with this question. Nobody in the audience would ever think for a minute that the first note of Happy Birthday is the root of the music. It doesn't sound like the root, and it doesn't feel like the root. The only way you could possibly think that this is note 1 is because you studied these notes and you discovered that the intervals between the first few notes of this song match up with the intervals between the notes 1, 2, 3 and 4. That's true, but the sensations are all wrong. It's a mere coincidence that the intervals between these melody notes happen to be the same as the intervals between the notes 1, 2, 3, 4. That's not important. The important thing is where YOU FEEL the tonal center to be. And there's no way that you'll ever convince me that you FEEL the first note of Happy Birthday to be the tonal center. You don't feel that. In that moment you feel tension. You don't feel the tonal center until the end of the second line, and then again at the end of the entire song. You're asking such a great question (and you asked it in a particularly great way, with so much detail about that note b7 as you're describing it). I hope that my answer illustrates why we don't need to use interval calculations and music theory to deduce the key of the music. Every single member of the audience can already feel the key of the music, and THESE are the sensations that we need to acknowledge and study as musicians if we want to understand our art form. Thank you so much for asking exactly the right question. I hope that my answer adds something to your musical thinking. - David
@@ImproviseForReal Wow, thank you so much for your response, I actually TOTALLY understand now, I "felt" note 1 wrong!! The last note of Happy Birthday is the tonal center, and the first one is 5. Totally get it now. THANK YOU, I'm so glad I discovered your channel!
That's awesome Vanessa! Once you have that first discovery that you can literally HEAR the harmony in the music, it changes your whole concept about what it means to study music. And it puts music theory in a totally different place. Now you don't need to look to theory and formulas to understand music or to create music yourself. All you need from theory is a map to help you remember where things are, but your knowledge of those sounds comes from your own personal experience with them. This is the central idea of IFR and we're building a complete music learning program around this belief. It's all about having direct, personal experience with the sounds, and learning about them through your own creative exploration. We're happy you're with us! I really appreciate your comments and your enthusiasm for music. Please keep sharing your ideas and questions! - David
@@ImproviseForReal This is really amazing, because for me it's the missing link I've been looking for for years... I knew all about music theory, yet I couldn't understand the relationship between sounds, and how on earth did musicians knew how to improvise... I've been "feeling" all these things all along but never knew what they were. Thank you so much for enlightening me! It's an amazing method and I'm really looking forward to learning more!
Hi this is very interesting to me. I recognise melodies by ear by hearing the degrees of the notes. I do it for each individual note in a melody. Do you think it is practical to just memorize the degrees of all the 3 note melodies in a major scale ? There are only 8x8x8 = 512 possible 3 note melodies, considering only the range of an octave. Memorizing 512 melodies doesn't seem like a very huge task. We have probably heard all the possible 3 note melodies on the major scale in the songs that we have already listened to ! But we just don't know what the degrees of those 3 note melodies are. Doing this would mean that I would be able to break each melody into chunks of 3 notes and make my melody recognition much faster. Do you think it is a good idea to just memorize all 3 note melodies on the major scale ? What do you think ? What could be it's limitations ? Let's discuss I am very excited about this
Hi First JM, I think that the approach you're envisioning is a little too overly academic. Memorizing random 3-note sequences is going to be a very difficult and terribly boring way to learn music. That's like trying to learn a language by just opening a dictionary and memorizing words one by one in alphabetical order. Nobody learns that way, because it's impossible to remember these words if they have no meaning and context. Fortunately you don't need to do any of this. You just need a music practice that allows you to express yourself creatively with the sounds, while also being aware of the tonal numbers of each note you play. This is exactly what we do in IFR. And a natural extension of this practice is to also understand the tonal numbers in the songs and melodies you love. These melodies are really the best teachers, because it gives you that context and meaning that makes your learning real and memorable. That's our take on it, anyway. :-) Thanks for asking the question! - David
Thank you Piddlepond! Please let me know if there are any other topics we should cover. We'll be publishing new lesson videos every Monday, so please let me know what would be helpful. Thanks for watching! - David
David, I just found this video… I tried this technique some years back but had to give up on it because I couldn’t stop the chords colouring the sound of the notes, I can only hear the notes relative to the chord being played...So, how on earth do you STOP the chords colouring the sound of the note? Are you keeping the tonic in your head like some sort of drone in the background? Any advice greatly appreciated, I don’t read music and I’m totally fed up with trying to pick out melodies by trial and error… Many thanks
Hi Steven, that's a great point. You certainly don't have to keep the tonic in your mind the whole time as a drone, but I understand that it's hard for you to hear the notes relative to the overall key of the music because you're feeling the chords so strongly. But don't worry, it's not something that you need to master overnight. Don't think of this video as a "trick" or a technique to apply whenever you want to solve any song instantly. Think of it instead as a practice. It's something to integrate into your consciousness. So as you're studying any song, make a point to play the entire melody without chords, singing each note to yourself in tonal numbers. And then even when you bring the chords into your awareness, it's important to understand the tonal numbers that make up each chord. The goal is an integrated understanding of music that allows you to hear how all of the pieces fit together. The most important point is that BOTH the chords and the melodies come from the same pool of seven notes, and learning to see this connection is the first step to understanding music by ear. If you like this approach to studying harmony, the entire IFR method is based on this harmonic concept of understanding everything relative to the key of the music. So I invite you to check out what we're doing! Here is a good place to start: improviseforreal.com/about But the most important advice I can give you right now is to embrace this focus as a lifelong practice and a way of understanding music in general. If you have any other doubts, just let me know. Thanks Steven! - David
I think you just melted my brain.... nah’ I still feel like I am a little smarter for having watched it twice... cause I have ADHD LOLOL. By the way, are you playing a nylon Córdoba Classical guitar... it looks like one.... idk? Very nice playing by the way...
Thanks for the kind words! My guitar isn't a well known brand. It was made by a small luthier in Spain. It's not very expensive but I love it because it complements my playing perfectly. In the hands of a better classical guitarist, my guitar would probably be considered too bright. But since I tend to have a darker sound (and I really struggle to produce a bright sound sometimes), this guitar feels just right to me, like an old friend that understands you even when you don't explain yourself very well. :-)
David I’ve been working with a lot of your material for the last year or so and have a pretty solid ability to sing all around the tonal map because I have really worked to make the sounds my own (sing the numbers and putting melodies I love to numbers and getting to know them that way). One of my main goals is to be able to quickly recognize melodies by ear and just feel the notes and be able to play them like you described at the beginning of the video. While I’ve definitely made some progress I still can’t by any means just hear the notes during the song and know what they are (even didn’t have clarity on some of the examples in this video). I have to stop listening to the song and then think for a few seconds finding where I am then work out the melody (definitely not quick enough just to jump in and play along live with people) I often get discouraged because I feel like I should be further along with this skill than I am. Any advice or thoughts?
Hi Kevin, it's nice to hear from you! I remember our conversation about your progress with ear training, and how you noticed that you could improvise melodically with the sounds OR think about their tonal numbers, but that you struggled to merge these two worlds together. My response then was that these two worlds are already merged, and that any separation is imaginary. When you're improvising melodically, every single note you play or imagine has a tonal number, whether you're conscious of it or not. So our journey is one of personal discovery. There are two ways that this journey can go, and I suspect one of these directions will work much better than the other for you. For many people, their awareness of this connection goes in the direction of starting with beautiful melodic sounds and learning to recognize the tonal numbers of those sounds. I think you're saying that this is the activity that is difficult for you. You're making progress studying the sounds in isolation in the practice room, but your'e having trouble assigning tonal numbers to the sounds you hear in a more uncontrolled situation like listening to the music on the radio or at a jam session. So it's the other direction that I think you should concentrate on. (Both directions lead to the same result because we're just trying to build a bridge between two things.) The other direction is to start with the tonal numbers, so you're perfectly conscious of where you are in the octave at all times. And focus on searching for the music that you can create with these sounds. In other words, instead of trying to recognize the tonal numbers in the melodies you love, focus on trying to find melodies you love in the tonal numbers. The name for this practice is IMPROVISING. But we need to improvise with consciousness of the tonal numbers the whole time. And we also need to have our ear engaged and really listen to each note that we play. The "master exercise" of all would be to improvise on your instrument while you simultaneously sing the tonal numbers out loud with your voice. With this one activity we have everything : sound, map and instrument. I think that this is essentially what I wrote to you in our e-mail conversation about this, but I don't think I was able to describe these two directions of our ear training practice in such a concise way. So I think it will help you to keep this vision in the background of your mind at all times. You are currently experiencing these sounds in two separate ways that you're struggling to combine, so remember that you can bridge this divide in EITHER direction. My other advice to you is to persevere, redouble your efforts and focus on this even more. This isn't something that only some people can do, and it's not a moment to give up. (With some skills in life that's not true. Sometimes the best thing to do is to accept our limitations and focus our attention elsewhere. But I don't think that's true here. I think that you'll get much more enjoyment out of music in the long run if you make every possible investment and effort in forging this connection between your ear, your imagination and your visualization of where you are on the tonal map.) I think the ideal path for you right now would be to do our workshop Ear Training for Musical Creativity in April. This is a super intensive course which follows the same curriculum as Sing the Numbers 1 (which I know you already have), but it will take you much more deeply into these sounds with testing tracks and creative exercises every step of the way. But more than just taking this workshop, I would make it my obsession for those 10 weeks. I would clear my calendar so that I could spend 2 - 3 hours every day practicing and improvising, focusing all that time, concentration and energy on the exact path laid out in that workshop. My feeling is that you're close to making a breakthrough that will make a huge difference in the rest of your musical life. So if I were you, I would go all in and work exclusively on this goal for an intense period of time. I think that our workshop would give you the ideal framework for this intense period of study, but you could also do the same thing on your own. The most important point is that I'm trying to encourage you to set aside a definite period of time to focus on this goal you want to achieve, and multiply your efforts by 10 during that period. No matter what the results, I think you'll come away from that experience a much richer person. What do you think?
Thank you David. If anybody reads all of this and has any interest in gaining a deep understanding and fluency of music from the ground up I can’t recommend David’s method enough. Between the ifr method book/jam tracks and the song the numbers practice the value is just ridiculous It will really take you as far as you want to go. Thanks again David.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Kevin! You deserve all the credit for your sincere and passionate music explorations, but it's a pleasure to help you on your journey!
I just started discovering your work and lessons through an ad for your book. It is a very interesting and natural path to music. I knew that I needed to get familiar with the different tonality of the intervals and their key but hearing you singing and giving personality to each of the tones was mind opening. I am not sure if you will read this but I will definitely buy your book and immerse myself into this practice. I always wanted to understand and give a meaning to my solos in the chords that they are played. It's a beautiful thing to give a meaning to each of the notes and I guess that is what music is about in the end. My favorite artists are using advanced chord progression with a lot of tensions so I hope that in the end with the help of your book I will be able to identify what is happening and how to find my own path with the melodies that I have in my head. Also I can tell that you are genuinely passionated about sharing your knowledge so that is very motivating. :) All the best !
Hi David, thanks for your message! I did see this one, although sometimes I miss UA-cam comments because they get buried inside a comment thread and UA-cam doesn't make it easy for me to find them. But if you ever need to ask a question, you're always welcome to write to me at david@improviseforreal.com. I love the way you describe your musical goal as giving meaning to the notes. That's exactly it. So many musicians are so intimidated by harmony that they obsess about learning to play the "right notes". And since this is a completely empty pursuit, the only place they can go next is to play those notes faster. What we're trying to do is to create a place where musicians can study music as a creative art form, really taking the time to get to know the raw materials of our art and finding their own creative voice in the process. I'm happy that my teaching resonates with you! We actually have an upcoming program that is just $30/month and it occurs to me that you might really love it. It's a "jazz standards study group" that could be ideal for you because we're going to explore some of those advanced chord progressions that you're talking about, in the same patient and loving way that you see me talking about melody notes in this video. I don't know if the harmony of jazz standards is appealing to you, but here's a link to all of the information if you think you might be interested: improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-jazz-standards-study-group Thanks for reaching out and I hope you continue to enjoy our videos! Remember that you're always welcome to write and I'll be more than happy to help you. Thanks David!
Hi Manya, that's just the major scale! In this video I was playing in the key of G but you could do the exact same demonstration in any key. Thanks for the question. - David
Thanks for your comment, Jaime. We have tons of lesson videos on our blog in addition to all of our video courses and other learning materials at our website. So there are lots of other places where you can learn about our approach to studying chords and harmony. The message of this video was something very specific about noticing the relationship of each melody note to the overall key of the music, but I certainly appreciate your comment. Maybe I can try to do a follow up video where we do talk about the melody notes in the context of each individual chord, because those relationships are also very interesting and important. Thanks for letting me know that you would value that. I appreciate it! - David
@@ImproviseForReal I think I have a similar question--Is it necessary to know the chords of the songs first (to these songs or others we hear on the radio) before learning how to pull the melodies from the chords/chord structure. Very intriguing material--Thanks!!!
For me, everything I saw and heard is completely incomprehensible! I feel totally frustrated by this, especially when I see that everyone else seems to understand everything you have presented! I don't understand what knowledge I need to be able to understand this course?
Hi Dragoi, my apologies for the confusion. All of the videos you see on our UA-cam channel are for students of a music learning method called Improvise for Real. If you're not practicing the method, then some of the concepts we talk about might be unfamiliar to you. Here's a full description of the method if you'd like to join us: improviseforreal.com/about
Thanks for the great question. Melodies can come to rest on any note. The consonance you feel comes from the relaxed relationship that the melody note has with the chord of the moment. In the example you're mentioning, the consonance probably comes from the melody note 5 in the 1 chord. The 1 chord includes notes 1, 3, 5 and 7, so naturally note 5 will feel very relaxed in this chord. So in summary, it's a bit of an oversimplification to say that we should only feel relaxation in note 1. Western harmony is a constant interplay of tension and relaxation, so we feel relaxation in many notes all the time. Here's more about the method that we teach: improviseforreal.com/about
Thanks for watching my video. If you have any questions about this technique or about learning to recognize melodies by ear, please post your questions and I'll be sure to answer you. Thank you! - David
First, I have to pick up the e-book IFR along with my guitar; then, I could come up with one question or another. Thank you
@@pabloarmandoramirez8911 Please do that Pablo. Whatever questions you have, feel free to share them here and we'll make sure to address them in our next videos. Happy practicing! - David
This is the best music course I have ever been fully satisfied with! Only in my literal dreams, asleep and awake, did I ever imagine there could be such a great method. God bless you, David, for sharing your knowledge and intuition.
Wow, thank you SO much for your kind words Pablo. I'm really touched by your comment and I'm very thankful to be able to contribute to your own musical creativity. Your comment really made my day! - David
Fantastic. I feel this video has opened a door that I never knew existed. Thank you very much.
That's wonderful RH! I hope that going through that door leads to many more beautiful discoveries! - David
Amazing video 10/10. I have been searching UA-cam for so long looking for an explanation like this. Thank you so much.
Your method and book really help. In one weekend my ability to hear chords changes accurately dramatically improved.
That's so great to hear! Thank you so much for the kind words. Yes, the tonal point of view and learning to hear the chord notes melodically is really exciting. For most of my life I had no idea how anyone could just listen to a song and recognize the chords by ear. But it's something we can all do. You just have to stop thinking about the letter names (A minor, D7, etc.) and notice instead the role of each chord in the key (1 chord, 2 chord, etc.). I wish you much continued success and enjoyment in your music!
Great video! Ear training away from my instrument and figuring out simple melodies has helped me tremendously. Try to figure out the melody using scale degrees and then I always use the same major scale pattern when checking my answer. Or minor scale pattern if it’s in a minor key.
That's excellent, Fargo! So many things in music begin to snap into focus when you start orienting yourself relative to the overall key of the music instead of treating each chord and melodic fragment like an isolated thing. Thanks for sharing your experience with that! - David
I love your teaching Technic. The relationship to common songs and these patterns is excellent. Thank you.
Thank you Tom!
I follow you almost two year.. it so simple.. thank you so much...
That's fantastic Rene! Thank you for following us and supporting our efforts! I hope you continue to like the videos and please feel free to post any questions you have. - David
bravo!
This morning i got a notification about this video in Spanish, but when i woke up it was already removed. Hope you upload the video in Spanish too, because my english is not very good looking 😆. By the way thank you for the video amazing david.
Hola Kelvin! Perdona la confusión. Esa notificación fue por un error técnico por nuestro lado. El vídeo en castellano se publicará el lunes que viene. Mientras tanto puedes practicar tu inglés con este. :-)
Improvise For Real definitivamente lo entendí perfectamente, wow hasta me sacó una lagrima de la emoción, de verdad que usted es un grande por la forma que explica, lo amo david gracias usted me ha dado luz a mi oscuridad que tenía con la música.
I mean I reallyyy love this. Thank you, Sir.
I don't have to worry about memorizing those confusing letters and chords vocabulary from now on any more. This is it. Seven Worlds 1 2 34 5 6 71. Thank you so much David❤
Best lesson ever!
Fabulous. I don’t think you mentioned an actual note, chord or key by letter once !
I Love this.
Thank you, Amy
This is fantastic
Another fantastic video! Thanks David!
Thank you so much Will!
Also David, do you recommend starting with children’s songs or nursery rhymes etc like you did here with happy birthday? I love what you’re saying here but a lot of songs are very complex - should we tackle those early on and just try to pick out a few notes, or should we start simpler?
@@willcouchman6842 GREAT question! Without a doubt, nursery rhymes are the very best place to start with ear training. Think about it. How can we expect to recognize the sounds in jazz standards if we can't recognize the sounds in children's songs? Here are some concrete ideas about exactly what you can do with these simple songs to turn them into amazing ear training material: improviseforreal.com/ifr-blog/practice-tips/developing-your-ear/why-nursery-rhymes-are-great-ear-training-for-improvisers
Thanks for your comment. It's such a great point and I should have emphasized it more in the video. So thank you! - David
Will Couchman What may be helpful to you is to check out the excerpts of some melodies written out in the chapther 'seeing the matrix' of the IFR book. You can try finishing some of the melodies you particularly like. It's what I suggest to the students who follow my Jumpstart course 'Get started with IFR'. Happy practicing. - Jelske
Echt Improviseren Thanks Jelske! I’ll give that a try today :)
David this is great. Very helpful, as is the statement of the key concept covered in the video, and the list of other resources available. Many thanks!
Thank you Helen! We publish new lessons every Monday so please let me know if there are any special topics you would find interesting. Thanks for watching! - David
Hi david,
if the tonal center is "1" , 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1 would all have a different feeling compared to when the tonal center is "6" 6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6 for example 7 sounds a lot different when the tonal center is 1 compared to when its 6. How do I go about this when analyzing melodies? When I have the normal melody does it even matter whether I analyze it in the sixth or first enviroment or any other?
You actually don't have to come to any conclusions about the tonal center you are feeling in order to express both the melody and the chords in tonal numbers. The tonal numbers don't change just because you're feeling the tonal center in one chord or another. So the melody notes would still be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. The next step is to identify the chords. If you're feeling note 1 as the tonal center, maybe the chord of the moment is the 1 chord? Or maybe it's a progression leading to the 1 chord? Whatever the case may be, there is definitely a reason why you are feeling note 1 as the tonal center. And usually just by identifying both the melody notes and the chords in tonal numbers, you can see at a glance why you're feeling note 1 as the tonal center. Likewise for note 6. Maybe the chord of the moment is the 6- chord, or maybe it's a progression that causes your ear to feel note 6 as the tonal center. But just by clarifying both the melody notes and the chords, you already have the song completely documented and analyzed. If you want to take the extra step of documenting which note you feel as the tonal center in each moment of the song, you could also include that in your analysis. But it doesn't change the tonal numbers that you would assign to the melody notes and chord roots. Make sense?
Thanks!
My pleasure Atto! Thanks for watching! - David
David, I'm really starting to understand the value of separating out the sounds of the scale tones apart from the chords they're wrapped around-thank you! In the example of the song Tenderly, what numbers would you assign to subsequent notes that aren't a part of the G major scale, such as the Bb in the second syllable of "Ten-der-ly" in the first line or the Eb in the same spot in the second line?
Bb is just b3. And Eb is b6. Even the notes outside the major scale have a precise relationship with the tonal center. And both of those notes (b3 and b6) appear in hundreds of standards. So once you start thinking of it this way, you begin hearing these sounds all around you and it really helps to bring harmony into focus!
Thank you!
you can do this by ear ! I. do it all the time !
Blessed to watch this hahah thanks!
Thank you Nina! We're happy to have you with us!
Loved this video!!! I've been thinking about trying your method for a while but can't really afford the workshops.. which materials do you recommend should start with if I have limited budget? I've done a lot of work on ear training before and I'm told I have good ears (I'm a vocalist) but still can't say I truly understand what I'm hearing.
Hi Noa, thanks for your comment. To decide which materials would help you the most, I think it depends on whether you also play an instrument. In many ways our method is ideal for vocalists because we believe very much in learning to express the sounds we imagine. So the way we study harmony would also enable you to sing these sounds with your voice. But the method makes a lot of use of improvising with an instrument so that you can hear the pitches. You can be singing along with your voice the whole time, but I think it's important to have an instrument to produce the notes so that you can hear the sounds you're exploring. If you have a keyboard and you're open to using it in your improvisation practice, then I think you would love to learn the complete method. Here's a link to the ideal starter kit: improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-e-book-package
If you don't play any instrument and you're just looking to sharpen your perception of the sounds with your voice, then please don't purchase the package above because you won't be able to use most of it. Instead I would just invite you to check out our ear training course "Sing the Numbers". Here's a link to the first level: improviseforreal.com/products/sing-numbers-1-ifr-tonal-map
I hope this helps give you some ideas about how to get started. If you have any other questions, please feel free to write more and I'll be happy to help you. - David
@@ImproviseForReal Thank you for the thoughtful reply! I do have a keyboard and can play basic basic chords. I will check out these links! thanks again :)
Please can do slow and show more in details what you want to pass to us. You have it in your mind but not us.
I'll definitely try to do that. Lots more videos coming!
Hello, good afternoon greetings from Colombia. I am new to the method, I really love it. I would like someone to help me with respect to the language since there are no subtitles in Spanish 😭 and I don't know if there is a way to translate them. I appreciate any help from you 👊
I translated these lines in the Google translator since my language is Spanish. I hope your help cracks.
Hola Manuel! Te invito a suscribirte a nuestro canal en castellano!! Aquí tienes el enlace: ua-cam.com/users/ImprovisadeVerdad
¡Saludos!
David
Felt like I must know more of music what is 1 or 2..it felt like I have to learn something more then I may understand what u want to tell.
Hi Utkarsh, those numbers just refer to the scale degrees of the major scale. Any song or melody can be played in any key. So really these melodies are just a sequence of notes from the major scale. These are the numbers I'm referencing in this video. I invite you to subscribe to our channel and check out our website if you want to learn more. Here's the link: improviseforreal.com. Thanks for your comment! - David
Fantastic video!
Thank you from Amsterdam!
Thanks for your comment. We spent 6 months in Amsterdam and loved it. I miss biking everywhere! Thanks for watching!
can you show what strings you are playing when you say 5 &1?
Hi Dwayne, I'm not sure which moment you're referring to specifically but I think I played all of the melodies in this video on the top two strings of the guitar, meaning the B string and the E string. But any of these melodies can be played in any key, anywhere on the fretboard. You just have to be able to picture the notes of any major scale, and just with that you can play the notes of almost every song you've ever heard. Some melodies make occasional use of notes outside the scale, but again if you're picturing the overall key of the music then it's just as easy to play the notes that fall in between the notes of the major scale. If you'd like to learn this method, I invite you to check out the IFR Video Course Package which is a complete introduction to the method for guitar: improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-video-course-package
Thanks for your question. If I can help you with anything else, just let me know. - David
I'd like to do your workshop however i'm having trouble following this video - i'm very confused with the terminology. I do play guitar at a very beginner level and know some scales. Which of your courses would be beneficial to start with. I'm afraid going into a workshop without understanding the basics would be a challenge.
Hi Papie, the best workshop for you to take right now is Ear Training for Musical Creativity (improviseforreal.com/products/ear-training-musical-creativity). This is something you'll be able to understand right from the first day, and it's a great workshop to do while you're taking your first steps in the IFR method. I also encourage you to begin practicing the method itself with either the IFR E-book Package or the IFR Video Course Package. (Links are improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-e-book-package and improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-video-course-package). But you can sign up for Ear Training for Musical Creativity right now because it's open to complete beginners in the IFR method. I think you would also love our workshop "Introduction to Melodic Improvising" (improviseforreal.com/products/introduction-melodic-improvising) but I think you should learn the first few steps of the method for guitar before doing this workshop. So I would do the ear training workshop first, then also practice the first few steps of the IFR method for guitar, and then you can take our Intro to Melodic Improvising workshop in September. If you have any questions about any of this, you can write to me directly at david@improviseforreal.com and I'll help you make the best plan for you. Thanks Papie! - David
I really enjoyed your video but why did you not name the notes instead of numbering them. I am 79 and learned to play piano as child but my teacher would not allow to play by ear which in hind sight is restrictive I would be grateful for your opinion. I am now learning uklele
Hi Yvonne, it's great that you know the letter names of the notes and there are times when this is very useful. But whenever you want to talk about either creating your own music (improvising and composing) or recognizing music by ear, for both of these abilities we really need to switch to a language that matches the way these notes actually sound to our ear.
The key point here is that music is relative. The absolute pitches of the notes in any song do not matter. What makes the song sound the way it does is the relationship between the notes. You could transpose the entire song up or down a half step and nobody would even notice, even though the name of every single note would change in the process. In fact any piece of music can be perfectly reproduced in any key you want, whether it be a simple blues or the entire Requiem Mass of Mozart.
For this reason, the language we use to think and talk about music must also be relative. In every single key the seven notes of the major scale always sound exactly the same. So the first step to understanding music is to give these notes permanent names that do not constantly change depending on what key you’re in. That's why you see us always talking in tonal numbers in IFR.
Thanks for the great question! If I can help you in any way in your music practice, don't hesitate to write. - David
So, basically we just need to know 1 2 34 5 6 71.....
And just associate a part of song as reference with the interval so as to etch it in memory.. for eg twinkle twinkle.. as 11 55..here 1-5 can be practised and remembered... Still a long way to go though.. Its a looooooong journey..!!
Hi David, watching the video, I kept wondering about referring to this pattern of notes as 5-6-7-1. 1-2-3-4 is the same group of intervals. Without the harmony, isn’t it ambiguous without knowing where both half steps are?
Hi Darren, that's a great question. You're right that the intervals between notes 5-6-7-1 are the same as the intervals between notes 1-2-3-4. But what determines note 1 isn't just this mathematical observation about the half steps and whole steps. It's where YOU feel the tonal center. In the case of these song examples, if you've heard the entire song then your memory of the song will cause you to orient yourself in the key of the music after hearing just a few notes of the melody. So even though those first few notes could technically be other notes of the major scale as well, the way that YOU imagine them is to be the specific notes of the major scale that they are in that song.
But if you've never heard these songs before, then you're right that without any chords in the background it would be possible to feel some of these melodies in more than one way. And actually that's always true in music. All harmonic analysis is subjective. But I think the most important point for you to focus on right now is that the way to determine the key of the music is to notice which note you're feeling as the tonal center, and which other notes you feel as the overall harmonic environment of the song. Just counting up the half steps and whole steps isn't reliable because songs can use notes outside the major scale as well. So harmonic analysis is really an exercise in noticing and recognizing what you actually feel when you listen to a piece of music. What makes this kind of analysis possible is for you to gain lots of experience improvising with all of these sounds yourself in your IFR practice. So the idea is for these two worlds to come together and ultimately be one. I hope that makes sense! If you have more questions about it, you could check out our blog section on Developing your Ear where you'll find lots more tutorial videos on this whole approach to understanding music. Here's the link: improviseforreal.com/ifr-blog/practice-tips/developing-your-ear
Improvise For Real will this help with singing? What’s your advice on trying to recognize the melody of a song and singing it, cause I sometimes get off pitch, not knowing what interval or pitch I’m hitting next
Hi CriticalDog88, great question! This is a huge part of how we study music in IFR. We believe that recognizing sounds by ear and playing the sounds you imagine is the very definition of music study, so ear training is integrated into everything we do. The most powerful way to do this is just to incorporate singing into your improvisation practice every day. Just improvising over the IFR Jam Tracks series and singing those sounds in tonal numbers is one of the best ear training practices I know. We also created an ear training course specifically for improvisers called "Sing the Numbers", which I think you would love! Here's the direct link: improviseforreal.com/products/sing-numbers-1-ifr-tonal-map
These are the tools and practices that we use with our students and we're very excited about this path. Check it out and see if you agree! If you have any questions, please feel free to post more here. - David
Couldn't "Happy Birthday" just start on the root note? Why do we assume it on the 5th? Is it just because of the b7 at the end of the song? If yes, then we wouldn't have a way of knowing without first hearing the whole song, right?
Great question Vanessa! The answer is that the root note isn't something that you need to deduce with music theory. So you don't need to wait until the appearance of that note that you're calling b7 in order to realize that maybe your concept of the key is wrong. Every single member of the audience can feel the key perfectly!! Even your grandma who never studied music in her life knows EXACTLY where note 1 is. This is why she feels tension at the end of the first line ("Happy birthday to you"), and relaxation at the end of the second line ("Happy birthday to you"). And so it's also no surprise to her that the song ends on precisely note 1. Everyone in the audience was already expecting this, and the song fulfills their expectations perfectly.
So think about this. If every single member of the audience can already feel the key of the music (which is why they're able to enjoy these feelings of tension and release along the way), then how come it's only the musicians in the audience who can't feel where note 1 is?
The answer is because the musicians are the only ones who aren't paying any attention to what they feel. Instead they're trying to use music theory to figure out an intellectual solution to the "key of the music" question.
So here's how this relates to your question. You asked why the song Happy Birthday couldn't start on note 1. This idea comes from music theory. You have to study music theory to even come up with this question. Nobody in the audience would ever think for a minute that the first note of Happy Birthday is the root of the music. It doesn't sound like the root, and it doesn't feel like the root. The only way you could possibly think that this is note 1 is because you studied these notes and you discovered that the intervals between the first few notes of this song match up with the intervals between the notes 1, 2, 3 and 4. That's true, but the sensations are all wrong. It's a mere coincidence that the intervals between these melody notes happen to be the same as the intervals between the notes 1, 2, 3, 4. That's not important. The important thing is where YOU FEEL the tonal center to be. And there's no way that you'll ever convince me that you FEEL the first note of Happy Birthday to be the tonal center. You don't feel that. In that moment you feel tension. You don't feel the tonal center until the end of the second line, and then again at the end of the entire song.
You're asking such a great question (and you asked it in a particularly great way, with so much detail about that note b7 as you're describing it). I hope that my answer illustrates why we don't need to use interval calculations and music theory to deduce the key of the music. Every single member of the audience can already feel the key of the music, and THESE are the sensations that we need to acknowledge and study as musicians if we want to understand our art form. Thank you so much for asking exactly the right question. I hope that my answer adds something to your musical thinking. - David
@@ImproviseForReal Wow, thank you so much for your response, I actually TOTALLY understand now, I "felt" note 1 wrong!! The last note of Happy Birthday is the tonal center, and the first one is 5. Totally get it now. THANK YOU, I'm so glad I discovered your channel!
That's awesome Vanessa! Once you have that first discovery that you can literally HEAR the harmony in the music, it changes your whole concept about what it means to study music. And it puts music theory in a totally different place. Now you don't need to look to theory and formulas to understand music or to create music yourself. All you need from theory is a map to help you remember where things are, but your knowledge of those sounds comes from your own personal experience with them. This is the central idea of IFR and we're building a complete music learning program around this belief. It's all about having direct, personal experience with the sounds, and learning about them through your own creative exploration. We're happy you're with us! I really appreciate your comments and your enthusiasm for music. Please keep sharing your ideas and questions! - David
@@ImproviseForReal This is really amazing, because for me it's the missing link I've been looking for for years... I knew all about music theory, yet I couldn't understand the relationship between sounds, and how on earth did musicians knew how to improvise... I've been "feeling" all these things all along but never knew what they were. Thank you so much for enlightening me! It's an amazing method and I'm really looking forward to learning more!
Hi this is very interesting to me. I recognise melodies by ear by hearing the degrees of the notes. I do it for each individual note in a melody.
Do you think it is practical to just memorize the degrees of all the 3 note melodies in a major scale ?
There are only 8x8x8 = 512 possible 3 note melodies, considering only the range of an octave. Memorizing 512 melodies doesn't seem like a very huge task. We have probably heard all the possible 3 note melodies on the major scale in the songs that we have already listened to ! But we just don't know what the degrees of those 3 note melodies are.
Doing this would mean that I would be able to break each melody into chunks of 3 notes and make my melody recognition much faster.
Do you think it is a good idea to just memorize all 3 note melodies on the major scale ?
What do you think ? What could be it's limitations ? Let's discuss I am very excited about this
Hi First JM, I think that the approach you're envisioning is a little too overly academic. Memorizing random 3-note sequences is going to be a very difficult and terribly boring way to learn music. That's like trying to learn a language by just opening a dictionary and memorizing words one by one in alphabetical order. Nobody learns that way, because it's impossible to remember these words if they have no meaning and context.
Fortunately you don't need to do any of this. You just need a music practice that allows you to express yourself creatively with the sounds, while also being aware of the tonal numbers of each note you play. This is exactly what we do in IFR. And a natural extension of this practice is to also understand the tonal numbers in the songs and melodies you love. These melodies are really the best teachers, because it gives you that context and meaning that makes your learning real and memorable.
That's our take on it, anyway. :-) Thanks for asking the question! - David
Love your content
Thank you Piddlepond! Please let me know if there are any other topics we should cover. We'll be publishing new lesson videos every Monday, so please let me know what would be helpful. Thanks for watching! - David
David, I just found this video… I tried this technique some years back but had to give up on it because I couldn’t stop the chords colouring the sound of the notes, I can only hear the notes relative to the chord being played...So, how on earth do you STOP the chords colouring the sound of the note? Are you keeping the tonic in your head like some sort of drone in the background? Any advice greatly appreciated, I don’t read music and I’m totally fed up with trying to pick out melodies by trial and error… Many thanks
Hi Steven, that's a great point. You certainly don't have to keep the tonic in your mind the whole time as a drone, but I understand that it's hard for you to hear the notes relative to the overall key of the music because you're feeling the chords so strongly. But don't worry, it's not something that you need to master overnight. Don't think of this video as a "trick" or a technique to apply whenever you want to solve any song instantly. Think of it instead as a practice. It's something to integrate into your consciousness. So as you're studying any song, make a point to play the entire melody without chords, singing each note to yourself in tonal numbers. And then even when you bring the chords into your awareness, it's important to understand the tonal numbers that make up each chord. The goal is an integrated understanding of music that allows you to hear how all of the pieces fit together. The most important point is that BOTH the chords and the melodies come from the same pool of seven notes, and learning to see this connection is the first step to understanding music by ear. If you like this approach to studying harmony, the entire IFR method is based on this harmonic concept of understanding everything relative to the key of the music. So I invite you to check out what we're doing! Here is a good place to start: improviseforreal.com/about
But the most important advice I can give you right now is to embrace this focus as a lifelong practice and a way of understanding music in general. If you have any other doubts, just let me know. Thanks Steven! - David
I think you just melted my brain.... nah’ I still feel like I am a little smarter for having watched it twice... cause I have ADHD LOLOL. By the way, are you playing a nylon Córdoba Classical guitar... it looks like one.... idk? Very nice playing by the way...
Thanks for the kind words! My guitar isn't a well known brand. It was made by a small luthier in Spain. It's not very expensive but I love it because it complements my playing perfectly. In the hands of a better classical guitarist, my guitar would probably be considered too bright. But since I tend to have a darker sound (and I really struggle to produce a bright sound sometimes), this guitar feels just right to me, like an old friend that understands you even when you don't explain yourself very well. :-)
David I’ve been working with a lot of your material for the last year or so and have a pretty solid ability to sing all around the tonal map because I have really worked to make the sounds my own (sing the numbers and putting melodies I love to numbers and getting to know them that way). One of my main goals is to be able to quickly recognize melodies by ear and just feel the notes and be able to play them like you described at the beginning of the video. While I’ve definitely made some progress I still can’t by any means just hear the notes during the song and know what they are (even didn’t have clarity on some of the examples in this video). I have to stop listening to the song and then think for a few seconds finding where I am then work out the melody (definitely not quick enough just to jump in and play along live with people) I often get discouraged because I feel like I should be further along with this skill than I am. Any advice or thoughts?
Hi Kevin, it's nice to hear from you! I remember our conversation about your progress with ear training, and how you noticed that you could improvise melodically with the sounds OR think about their tonal numbers, but that you struggled to merge these two worlds together. My response then was that these two worlds are already merged, and that any separation is imaginary. When you're improvising melodically, every single note you play or imagine has a tonal number, whether you're conscious of it or not. So our journey is one of personal discovery.
There are two ways that this journey can go, and I suspect one of these directions will work much better than the other for you. For many people, their awareness of this connection goes in the direction of starting with beautiful melodic sounds and learning to recognize the tonal numbers of those sounds. I think you're saying that this is the activity that is difficult for you. You're making progress studying the sounds in isolation in the practice room, but your'e having trouble assigning tonal numbers to the sounds you hear in a more uncontrolled situation like listening to the music on the radio or at a jam session.
So it's the other direction that I think you should concentrate on. (Both directions lead to the same result because we're just trying to build a bridge between two things.) The other direction is to start with the tonal numbers, so you're perfectly conscious of where you are in the octave at all times. And focus on searching for the music that you can create with these sounds. In other words, instead of trying to recognize the tonal numbers in the melodies you love, focus on trying to find melodies you love in the tonal numbers. The name for this practice is IMPROVISING. But we need to improvise with consciousness of the tonal numbers the whole time. And we also need to have our ear engaged and really listen to each note that we play. The "master exercise" of all would be to improvise on your instrument while you simultaneously sing the tonal numbers out loud with your voice. With this one activity we have everything : sound, map and instrument.
I think that this is essentially what I wrote to you in our e-mail conversation about this, but I don't think I was able to describe these two directions of our ear training practice in such a concise way. So I think it will help you to keep this vision in the background of your mind at all times. You are currently experiencing these sounds in two separate ways that you're struggling to combine, so remember that you can bridge this divide in EITHER direction.
My other advice to you is to persevere, redouble your efforts and focus on this even more. This isn't something that only some people can do, and it's not a moment to give up. (With some skills in life that's not true. Sometimes the best thing to do is to accept our limitations and focus our attention elsewhere. But I don't think that's true here. I think that you'll get much more enjoyment out of music in the long run if you make every possible investment and effort in forging this connection between your ear, your imagination and your visualization of where you are on the tonal map.)
I think the ideal path for you right now would be to do our workshop Ear Training for Musical Creativity in April. This is a super intensive course which follows the same curriculum as Sing the Numbers 1 (which I know you already have), but it will take you much more deeply into these sounds with testing tracks and creative exercises every step of the way. But more than just taking this workshop, I would make it my obsession for those 10 weeks. I would clear my calendar so that I could spend 2 - 3 hours every day practicing and improvising, focusing all that time, concentration and energy on the exact path laid out in that workshop. My feeling is that you're close to making a breakthrough that will make a huge difference in the rest of your musical life. So if I were you, I would go all in and work exclusively on this goal for an intense period of time. I think that our workshop would give you the ideal framework for this intense period of study, but you could also do the same thing on your own. The most important point is that I'm trying to encourage you to set aside a definite period of time to focus on this goal you want to achieve, and multiply your efforts by 10 during that period. No matter what the results, I think you'll come away from that experience a much richer person. What do you think?
Thank you David. If anybody reads all of this and has any interest in gaining a deep understanding and fluency of music from the ground up I can’t recommend David’s method enough. Between the ifr method book/jam tracks and the song the numbers practice the value is just ridiculous It will really take you as far as you want to go. Thanks again David.
Thank you so much for the kind words, Kevin! You deserve all the credit for your sincere and passionate music explorations, but it's a pleasure to help you on your journey!
I just started discovering your work and lessons through an ad for your book. It is a very interesting and natural path to music. I knew that I needed to get familiar with the different tonality of the intervals and their key but hearing you singing and giving personality to each of the tones was mind opening. I am not sure if you will read this but I will definitely buy your book and immerse myself into this practice. I always wanted to understand and give a meaning to my solos in the chords that they are played. It's a beautiful thing to give a meaning to each of the notes and I guess that is what music is about in the end. My favorite artists are using advanced chord progression with a lot of tensions so I hope that in the end with the help of your book I will be able to identify what is happening and how to find my own path with the melodies that I have in my head. Also I can tell that you are genuinely passionated about sharing your knowledge so that is very motivating. :) All the best !
Hi David, thanks for your message! I did see this one, although sometimes I miss UA-cam comments because they get buried inside a comment thread and UA-cam doesn't make it easy for me to find them. But if you ever need to ask a question, you're always welcome to write to me at david@improviseforreal.com.
I love the way you describe your musical goal as giving meaning to the notes. That's exactly it. So many musicians are so intimidated by harmony that they obsess about learning to play the "right notes". And since this is a completely empty pursuit, the only place they can go next is to play those notes faster. What we're trying to do is to create a place where musicians can study music as a creative art form, really taking the time to get to know the raw materials of our art and finding their own creative voice in the process. I'm happy that my teaching resonates with you!
We actually have an upcoming program that is just $30/month and it occurs to me that you might really love it. It's a "jazz standards study group" that could be ideal for you because we're going to explore some of those advanced chord progressions that you're talking about, in the same patient and loving way that you see me talking about melody notes in this video. I don't know if the harmony of jazz standards is appealing to you, but here's a link to all of the information if you think you might be interested:
improviseforreal.com/products/ifr-jazz-standards-study-group
Thanks for reaching out and I hope you continue to enjoy our videos! Remember that you're always welcome to write and I'll be more than happy to help you. Thanks David!
Can someone explain to me what scale is he playing like what did he do around the 2:50 part?😭
Hi Manya, that's just the major scale! In this video I was playing in the key of G but you could do the exact same demonstration in any key. Thanks for the question. - David
its awesome content but I would have liked to see the chords. thanks.
Thanks for your comment, Jaime. We have tons of lesson videos on our blog in addition to all of our video courses and other learning materials at our website. So there are lots of other places where you can learn about our approach to studying chords and harmony. The message of this video was something very specific about noticing the relationship of each melody note to the overall key of the music, but I certainly appreciate your comment. Maybe I can try to do a follow up video where we do talk about the melody notes in the context of each individual chord, because those relationships are also very interesting and important. Thanks for letting me know that you would value that. I appreciate it! - David
@@ImproviseForReal I think I have a similar question--Is it necessary to know the chords of the songs first (to these songs or others we hear on the radio) before learning how to pull the melodies from the chords/chord structure. Very intriguing material--Thanks!!!
For me, everything I saw and heard is completely incomprehensible! I feel totally frustrated by this, especially when I see that everyone else seems to understand everything you have presented! I don't understand what knowledge I need to be able to understand this course?
Hi Dragoi, my apologies for the confusion. All of the videos you see on our UA-cam channel are for students of a music learning method called Improvise for Real. If you're not practicing the method, then some of the concepts we talk about might be unfamiliar to you. Here's a full description of the method if you'd like to join us: improviseforreal.com/about
I thought the 1 note is supposed to be the rest, but it feels like the 5 note is the rest
Thanks for the great question. Melodies can come to rest on any note. The consonance you feel comes from the relaxed relationship that the melody note has with the chord of the moment. In the example you're mentioning, the consonance probably comes from the melody note 5 in the 1 chord. The 1 chord includes notes 1, 3, 5 and 7, so naturally note 5 will feel very relaxed in this chord. So in summary, it's a bit of an oversimplification to say that we should only feel relaxation in note 1. Western harmony is a constant interplay of tension and relaxation, so we feel relaxation in many notes all the time. Here's more about the method that we teach: improviseforreal.com/about
@@ImproviseForReal thank you very much for the detailed answer!