Improvise for Real
David Reed’s mission is to teach all people how to connect with their own musical creativity and enjoy improvising and composing their own music. While his own musical background is primarily in jazz music, his approach to teaching improvisation is universal and applies to all styles of music. During his early years of teaching musical improvisation for all instruments, David became increasingly frustrated with the clichés and formulas that are commonly taught in improvisation courses. He felt that these rules and formulas were forcing students into a very superficial relationship with improvising, and this often caused them more harm than good. He began to imagine a different kind of improvisation method that would enable students to explore and discover the beautiful world of modern harmony for themselves. For more than 10 years David worked to develop a complete method that would give musicians this direct, personal experience with each sound in our musical system, taking students directly to the same understanding of harmony that is enjoyed by every great improviser. The method is called Improvise for Real (IFR), and it is fast on its way to becoming the definitive system for learning to improvise. It is now being used by both students and teachers in more than 20 countries. David also provides jam tracks and other learning materials to support the entire IFR community. You can learn more at www.ImproviseForReal.com. David currently spends most of the year in Amsterdam, Netherlands. His primary instrument is the nylon string guitar. He also enjoys playing both the trumpet and the piano. A musician for more than 30 years, his unique perspective on music and creativity is based on his experiences playing and teaching music in Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Nicaragua and the United States.