@mem Another aspect of Dodeka that felt odd to me was the choice to limit (in my eyes) each set of staff lines to a single octave, starting at root & ending at octave. A huge proportion of music drops below root and a lot goes above octave making ledger lines very likley. This ‘official’? video is presumably intended to highlight the advantages of Dodeka, but to me it’s just as good at showing one of the issues. YMMV…
The bit I probably most like about Dodeka is the note duration aspect. 
I guess this matches (almost) the conventional staff, only encompassing an octave without ledger lines.
I was most taken by the idea of showing all the chromatic pitches, without having to modify notes that are not “white keys”. I like seeing the twelve chromatic pitches, and also get a feel for the intervals in chords, like the seven half steps in a perfect fifth, and 3 or 4 half steps in a minor or major third.
And yes, I too like the duration indication.
@mem Which is why my Melody Path templates are carefully spaced (e.g. there is a line space between 2 & 3, but not between 3 & 4) . 
All I know about it so far is what I’ve seen on the webste, but on the subject of memory & brains I thought I’d mention this eBook I’m bumped into this afternoon. “The Brain-Friendly Method for Musical Excellence”.
I suspect that for people familiar with Brainjo, Musical Superlearning, Play In the Zone, & so on it’s “more ofteh same”, but who knows maybe there is something added, or some interestingly different angle. I’ve not yet decided if I’ll give it a go (there is so much already on my To Be Read pile. LOL!
I know that feeling! But I got the Brainjo book and I’ve just finished reading it. Lots of good and useful info in there. I like that he is neurologist, so lots of science based stuff, but also that he is learning traditional music. He talks about being able to play in jam sessions, and how best to memorise tunes.
Unlike a previous book I read which advocated using a piece of sheet music and taking a mental snapshot of it, starting in manageable chunks. The Brainjo guy says to first of all listen to the tune until you can sing/hum it all the way through, and only then look at the notation. Then identify a chunk and try to play it, and as soon as you can, get off the page and play it from memory.
He states that we want to build the neural maps that translate sonic chunks in our heads to producing sounds on our instrument. Much like the IFR notion of sound to map to instrument pathway.
He says if we rely on the notation in any way in the learning process, then we will forever need the notation to recreate the music.
Anyway, I got a lot from that book. I’ll have a wee look at the other one you mention though.
Time for a bit of a re-focus. Reading the Brainjo book, as I said before, has been very informative, so decided to take a bit of time to re-focus my practice time.
My priorities are the same with a focus on ear training and learning to play more by ear, but trying to approach this goal from multiple directions.
So, where better to go for guidance than the IFR method. So revisited the idea of the 5 exercises, I’ve only got as far as the first three, so starting here.
With Exercise 1: Landscape, after being reminded of it by watching the first piano videos, I’m going to use my silver flute to get to grips with the fingering with all the chromatic notes available. Going to also explore the sounds of all the intervals when I get to that level.
With Exercise 2: Melody, I be working through Ear Training for Creativity again. Been through it twice now, but there’s so much there to work on.
With Exercise 3: Pure Harmony, I’ve splashed out on the Recognising Chords by Ear course, in order to kick start my harmony practice. I’ll work though this slowly and use the Pure Harmony jam tracks as well.
So, will be spending a little time on each activity in every practice session, rest of the time will be on repertoire, playing tunes through (without sheet music) to get them internalised, and learning new tunes to list.
Spent a little time today review all the IFR materials I have, re-reading sections of the book and coming up with a Roadmap for myself.
Three areas of focus, covered by the 3 IFR Exercises, Landscape, Melody and Pure Harmony. Going to spend some time in each exercise in each practice session.
Ex 1 Landscape - Discovery, don’t think I’ve covered the whole range of my silver flute yet, and certainly am not familiar with all the chromatic note fingering. With Staircase and Daily Meditiation should get me on track.
Ex 2 Melody - Going back through Ear Training course which incorporates Sing the Numbers, plus the other activities. Supplemented with Seven Worlds Jam Tracks to focus on 1st and 4th Harmonic Environments with the relevant Sing the Numbers 2 modules.
Ex 3 Harmony - this may be an ‘area too far’ but I’d like to try to include it if can. So with Ear Training/Chords as a guide, going to start with chords 1 and 4, using Sing the Numbers 3 lessons for those chords and Jam Tracks 2.
Wish me luck ! 
Of course @mem
PS. you’ll have heard some of the various quotes about hard work & ‘luck’? I’m sure you’ll be doing that work.
Due to the US 4th July holiday this months ‘Campfire Challenge’, which is usully the first 2 full Monday-Friday weeks of a month is delayed by a week. Yesterday I tried a variation I’d had in mind for a little while - moving the general idea to a different harmonic environment. After doing my usual Campfire with 1 as home I did another with 6 as the home, keeping to the basic idea of the ‘1 & 3’ or in this case 6 & 1 as the core for the exercise. Interesting. I think it would probably benefit from getting a different ‘name’ & a different ‘back story’. I’ll ponder on the idea, and very likely try it again (& in die course other HE’s).
@DavidW could you explain some more the basic exercise you’re making a variation from. What are the exercise steps?
@hender99 It’s the exercise that builds up across popMATICs “10 Day Campfire Challenge”. Essentially it’s an improvisation exercise built around a gradually expanded (i.e. relaxed) set of constraints, all done against a camping/hiking ‘back story’. The starting point is the two notes ‘Camp’ (the 1 note) and ‘Fire’ (the 3). On the first day the exercise only uses those two, mainly in the home position, but with the occasion extra “log on the fire” (i.e. playing a low 1) or “spark” (i.e. playing a higher 3).
It’s presented on keyboard, but participants may choose to adapt the concept to other instruments (whcih is what I do). The “Challenge” element does not relate to the level of your playing within the constraints, or even how far through those constraints you get, it’s about getting making a 5 minute recorded improv part of your daily routine. There is no requirement to share the recordings; you don’t even need to listen to them yourself!
Entry to the course is free, and you may do it multiple times - the July cycle will be my 4th & @mem 's 5th. It is however presented by a commercial operation as a sort of taster for their offereing so I don’t think it’s reasonable for me to go into more detail here (aside from the time it would take!).
One of the organisers is @Angela . She might feel able to say more, but she is also very busy running popMATICs, so assuming she won’t have time here’s a 3m promotional video from popMATICs in the form of a piano improv that takes a whistlestop tour through the 10 days.
The concept fits nicely into the “playing to explore” part of my practice.
The recordings are typically around 6MB & so too big for the 4MB limit here. I tried dropping the bit rate and by doing that I can just manage to upload the HE 6 file. Sadly I can’t offer the ‘normal’ HE 1 file for comparison since it was still a few hundred bites too large.
N.B. I’m not posting this because I think it’s any good. It’s just an example of what can happen when a simple idea is taken for a walk. Producing something for others to listen to isn’t the aim of the exercise. It’s simply recorded for my interest & education, so don’t expect much (& I’m still learning to play the instrument too!).
Thanks for explaining all of this @DavidW ! popMATICS and IFR approach music from the same general philosophy.
I don’t think I need to add anything because you have done a thorough job, but if anyone has questions let me know. As @DavidW noted, our next series begins Monday, it is open to all levels, and is free to anyone. Designed for the piano but can be explored on other instruments. I’ve been curious about how it would apply to guitar (as have some of our students).
You will need to join our Discord server to participate. The sign-up sheet is at 10 Free Piano Lessons/Campfire Challenge • popMATICS.
I can certainly recommend the Campfire Challenge to anyone studying the IFR method, even if piano is not your instrument (it’s not really mine), there is lots to learn and explore following the guidelines laid out over at popMatics.
I had a bit of an “a-ha”/ 
moment today. It’s making the connection between the Seven Worlds exploration and moving on to looking at chord progressions. Up til now, when I’m using the Seven Worlds jam tracks I’ve been getting familiar with the tonal map with different tonal centres, but I haven’t mentally made the connection to chords/chord notes and chord progressions.
Now I’m starting the course Recognising Chords, I have realised the “Missing Link” between Seven Worlds and working with chord progression using Melody Paths. And that missing link is … chord notes.
I was using the Sing the Numbers 2 tracks for 4th Harmonic Environment, and the track that only uses chord notes. Then I went to the chords 1 and 4 progression and like magic the chord notes melodies were in my head over the 4 chord.
This might seem so obvious, and it probably is, but it made my day 
@mem if you were trained that music is “reading notes on the page” like me, then the idea that chord Melodies are the fundamental structures of tunes is eye opening (ear opening?). It seems to me that tunes like folk songs and Christmas songs are built from chord notes on strong beats of the measure, with variations enough to keep it from being too consonant and boring.
Adding to my previous post on melodies and chord tones. So you have chord tones for the chord of the moment, 4 of them that are each somewhat consonant to the chord and are places of relative rest. Then you have the other 3 tonal notes, which are passing notes, and are each somewhat dissonant and what drive the melody forward (along with the drive provided by the rhythm). A lot of the fascination of music is where the melody puts different consonant or dissonant tones in the measure… strong beat or weak beat. And the effects you can get by setting expectations that things will go one way, and then having them go another way.
Then there’s the non-tonal notes (5 of them), which create other effects with dissonance.
And the music makes other patterns ofentimes, with echoes of this sound turning up over there.
It’s endless fascination, isn’t it?
Sure is, and a joy to explore, experiment and discover all sorts of interesting things.
This connection I’ve just made has elluded me for a few years. The thread I started here explains my confusion. But I think I’m starting to see it and more importantly hear it now!
@mem I also think it’s great that David Reed has enough confidence in us all that he gives us exercises to discover things ourselves, and doesn’t just give us the “right answer.”
I have confidence that the IFR exercises and products work, if I can just spend enough time playing around with them and enjoying the journey.
Including the “Feel the Numbers” exercises from Ear Training for Musical Creativity. That must be close to the ultimate in self assessment? LOL!