What are all those circles for?

Student’s question:

Hi David,

I’m intrigued by your harmonic analysis with circles around some numbers. I would like to kindly ask why are those numbers put in circles?

Paula

David’s response:

Hi Paula,

The IFR chord columns show you the entire musical landscape of a song so you can see how the chord notes flow through the song. The numbers represent the notes of the key and the circles indicate the chord tones in each moment.. This allows you to see the melodic connections between the chord tones, and it gives you a bird’s eye view of the entire harmonic landscape. This is what allows us to play the sounds and melodies that we imagine.

This solves one of the most common problems of improvisers, which is having to treat each new chord as a new “note 1” and then quickly cobble together a new scale based on each new chord. It’s impossible to express yourself melodically when your frame of reference is constantly shifting. It’s like having the rug pulled out from under your feet every time you start to express a melody!

The best way to appreciate the power of this tonal point of view is to try it for yourself. You can do this by singing along with our “Melody Paths” exercises, and you can also explore this vision of the chord tones in your own improvising.

The best part is that once you can see this clearly, it gives you tremendous confidence to deviate from these notes and play whatever melodies you like. Once you can see very clearly what’s going on around you harmonically, it’s easy to follow your own inspirations and still feel totally oriented in the harmony.

I hope this brief explanation helps to give you a flavor for how we use these exercises in IFR. But all of this won’t entirely make sense until you begin practicing the method. In our video courses, all of these concepts are built up from the very beginning. So if you go through that journey with us then all of this will make perfect sense to you!

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions about the method, please write more and I’ll be happy to answer you.

Thanks Paula,
David

"The IFR method is explained so clearly—it's logical, easy to understand, and taught in such a stimulating environment with great teachers and beautiful backing tracks to improvise with."

Annemarie PostSaxophone — Amsterdam, Netherlands

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"You can take the smallest bite out of this method and gain the nourishment to feed your musical quest for weeks at a time."

Michael SokolowskiPiano — Charlottesville, Virginia, USA

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"I was a frustrated sheet-music-playing piano student before IFR. Now, the world of music has opened up to me."

Karen YatesPiano — Austin, TX, USA

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“IFR has become my favorite method and the one I practice most. I recommend it enormously to all musicians who want to take their improvising farther.”