Student’s question:
It feels like I need to add 144 new things to my poor brain. For example, the note A could be note 1 of the A scale, or it could be b2 of the Ab scale, or it could be note 2 of the G scale, etc. It feels a bit overwhelming to think of it this way. I’m trying to imagine how I could ever learn all of this. Am I just getting ahead of myself?
How we think about this in IFR:
None of this is necessary. Your analysis of the myriad combinations of note names and tonal numbers isn’t wrong. But we don’t have to memorize any of this. The tonal map is just like any other conceptual tool. The more you use it, the more skilled you become at using it. And so all of those relationships that you’re describing are not something we need to memorize. We simply picture the relationships in the moment as we need them.
You do this all the time in your daily life with addition and subtraction. How much is 723 + 1? Obviously it’s 724. But how did you know that? Did you ever study that precise situation of 723 + 1? Did you have to sit down and memorize every possible number combination in the world? No, of course not. We don’t memorize the infinite combinations of numbers that we might want to add. We simply master using the number system to picture these things ourselves.
This is exactly how we develop our mastery of harmony on our instrument as well. Through our IFR practice, we get to know all of the different keys on our instrument and we gain experience creating different harmonic environments, chords, melodies, etc. And to be sure, some of this information really will get stored in your long term memory. But there’s something much more important that happens through all of this creative exploration: you will become a better musician. You’ll simply have a much greater command of the musical landscape, and you’ll be able to instantly picture all of the relationships you’re asking me about.
It’s also helpful to remember that this command of musical relationships on our instrument is only one dimension of our musical growth. We also want to grow in our harmonic vocabulary. We want to produce a more beautiful sound. We want to develop our own creative voice as improvisers. So try not to get hung up on just this mental part of knowing all of the intervals or being able to picture everything instantly. What’s more important is learning all of the musical lessons along the way. If you just focus on the music itself, you’ll see that all of the other skills come very naturally in time.
