Student question:

Does the website track my progress to tell me which lessons I’ve already done? Or should I keep a journal and take my own notes? (I’m already thinking that this might be better.)

Answer:

I love the journal idea and I would definitely encourage you to keep a journal for your musical discoveries, ideas and breakthroughs. And you’re right to think of ways that you can take ownership of your own journey. Tracking your progress isn’t something we can do for you. A lot of websites work that way, but this only makes sense when the lesson content is very simple, essentially just doling out information or very defined techniques to be practiced sequentially.

Improvise for Real is also sequential and progressive, but your own relationship to the material is much more rich and complex. The result we’re working toward isn’t just an accumulation of knowledge or techniques, but rather an ABILITY that is rooted in deep understanding. It’s about your own personal relationship with the sounds, your familiarity with the sensations, your creative inspiration, your ability on your instrument, and many other things.

So IFR is much more like going to a gym. We have all of these different exercise machines for you, and they’re all designed to work together. But each person’s body is different, and each person’s goals are different. So really, you’re the only person who can decide where you want to focus your attention today. You’re never truly “done” with notes 1, 2 and 3, in the same way that you’re never “done” with jogging or doing push-ups. Notes 1, 2 and 3 are just a very simple and lovely part of this beautiful garden that we call Western harmony, and you’ll give your full attention to those notes whenever YOU want to. But there are also many other parts of the garden to explore and discover, and you’re the only one who can decide what part of the garden you want to experience today.

This is why we don’t provide a mechanism to keep track of which lessons you’ve already “done”. That whole paradigm is wrong for what we’re teaching, because it puts the learning outside of yourself like a box you need to check. And from my own life experience, I can tell you that it’s very easy to check a lot of boxes without actually developing any ability! So what you actually need isn’t to finish more lessons or check more boxes. What you need is a serene learning environment where you find your musical material every day, but you are primarily following your own curiosity and enjoyment of the sounds.

If you always do that, trusting in your own fascination for the sounds and studying whatever sounds YOU feel like enjoying today, this is the fastest and most effective learning because it’s REAL. You’ve probably experienced this in other areas of your life when you explored something deeply with a lot of passion. When you’re the one directing it and you’re genuinely fascinated by your surroundings, your learning and mastery become unstoppable. This is exactly how we want our music practice to be.