Sing the Numbers 1: The Major Tonality
Sing the Numbers is IFR’s artistic ear training audio course designed just for improvisers. The course teaches you to recognize melody notes by ear and to play the sounds you imagine, using beautiful songs and melodies that were specifically designed to train your ear.
Sing the Numbers 1: The Major Tonality
Sing the Numbers 1 is our audio course that teaches you to recognize the seven notes of the major scale in the music all around you. The course takes you on a guided tour through the sounds of our musical system, using beautiful songs and melodies that were specifically designed to train your ear.
Artistic ear training for improvisers
In IFR we believe that your sensitivity and your love of music are your greatest gifts as an improviser. And so your ear training program should also be artistic and beautiful.
Sing the Numbers uses beautiful songs and melodies to teach you about music. Through this process you’ll learn to recognize the sounds in the music all around you, and you’ll learn to express the sounds you imagine on your instrument.
Five powerful benefits to your improvising:
- Play the music inside you. A huge benefit of understanding music by ear is that it allows you to play directly from your musical imagination, expressing the sounds you hear in your mind directly on your instrument.
- Understand songs by ear. Another benefit of learning to understand music by ear is that you can understand any song just by listening to it, and you can immediately play this song in any key on your instrument.
- Find the key of any song. If you can recognize the sounds of our musical system by ear, it's very easy to find the key of any song by ear and jam right along.
- Engage in musical dialogue. Understanding music by ear also allows you to engage in a true dialogue with other soloists. For example you can repeat what they just played, riffing on these ideas together.
- Recognize chord progressions by ear. Since chords are made up of notes, recognizing these notes by ear gives you a huge advantage in learning to recognize entire chord progressions by ear as well.
How it works
All you have to do is play the audio tracks and sing along. There are no exams, testing or drills. The course takes you on a guided tour of our musical system, letting you experience each beautiful sound for yourself. Each melody is presented in IFR tonal numbers. After listening to the melody, you’ll sing the same melody back in tonal numbers.
Here are some samples from the course:
Sample – Lesson 3
Sample – Lesson 12
Sample – Lesson 18
22 lessons in all
We have designed what we believe is the best possible ear training course for creative improvisers, using beautiful melodies that become progressively more complex as you advance through the course.
We encourage you to spend as much time as you need with each audio track. This isn’t the kind of work that you finish and check off your list. It’s more like a virtual world for you to explore. And the more time you spend in that world, the more you’ll come to understand it.
Learn from a professional musician and experienced teacher
Learn from a professional musician and experienced teacher
Mireia Clua is a professional violinist based in New York City and the co-founder of Improvise for Real. As the creator of the entire IFR ear training program, Mireia designed our acclaimed “Sing the Numbers” audio courses and personally performed all the vocal tracks that guide students through their ear training journey. With more than 20 years of teaching experience, she has personally guided hundreds of IFR students in live workshops. Mireia is especially focused on creating a safe learning environment where each student feels respected, nurtured and encouraged.
"I absolutely love Mireia's Sing the Numbers exercises—they’re a true gift to the world. They've enriched my life (and soul?) so much, and I feel incredibly grateful for them."
– review by Martha Munroe — Windsor, ON Canada
Get this course free with your membership!
When you join, you’ll have complete access to our entire library of video courses, audio courses, jam tracks, and ear training lessons. Everything works together as one unified method to help you master the art of musical improvisation.
Your membership is completely risk-free. Explore everything IFR has to offer, and if you don’t feel it’s the right fit within your first 30 days, just send us an email and we’ll refund your payment in full — no questions asked.