But I’ve created a page that you can play along with here.īut whatever tracks you choose, I’m sure you will find the concept of playing along with good tracks more satisfying than just sitting in a room practicing. Most of the tracks and links are not longer working. I never could find the backing tracks for it. You can go here if you want to learn about the new contest which is being called, Blues Masters Featuring Joe Bonamassa. They lost me on this one because they switched to “shred blues” ala Joe Bonamassa style which I’m not a fan of. Now Joe Bonamassa is involved and the backing tracks are coming directly from his songs. Here’s a couple of examples of some of my favorite tracks… Chicago Shuffle in E My Babe in G Talk To Your Daughter Shuffle in G Scratch My Back in F Guitar Center’s New Versionįor 20 Guitar Center has changed their contest. I sometimes bring them into my ProTools setup and slice and dice them into actual songs, or stretch them out a little longer. You can play along online or you can download the MP3 and save them. The tracks come from studio recordings he made especially for the contest for 20. Pete was long-time guitarist for Dwight Yoakam but he really knows the blues as well. These tracks were put together by great roots/blues/country guitarist Pete Anderson. You’ll find some very well-done, actual recording by some great musicians there sans any lead or vocal parts. One of the best free sets I’ve found are the ones on the Guitar Center’s “King of The Blues” contest site. I want some old blues grooves and some funk and some swing/jump tunes myself. The only problem is finding ones that are a bit more sophisticated or have grooves that are a little more interesting than the typical Chicago suffles or Stevie Ray Vaughan grooves. Here’s a video that explains the program…īut if you don’t want to go through all the work of building your own tracks, a better way to go may be to just find some good audio tracks that you can play along with. It’s worth a look at this website to see how it all works. Plus you will find a good supply of BIAB songs out there that you can get for free. And again it’s easy to change keys and tempos. You enter the chords to the song and pick a groove and it builds the song automatically. With BIAB you can build songs on the fly using their “spreadsheet” builder. If you have a good soundcard, or a good SYNTH, this might be a good way to go, especially of you like to have control or have some specific chord changes you’d like to play over. If you don’t know Band In A Box, you might want to take a look. If anyone, can help me I’m still open to giving that route a try. Maybe I’m just not technical enough to wrangle with the equipment. It’s up to you.Īnd I must confess, I’ve had mixed luck getting my MIDI setups to work well. Plus the benefit of a MIDI track is you can easily change the key and speed it up or slow it down.īut unless you have a pretty good sounding synth, these tracks can sound pretty lame.That may not be a deal breaker just for practicing but sometimes it makes them less inspiring. If you have a MIDI setup, then sometimes it’s easier to find MIDI tracks that are pretty good. I know because I’ve been looking for them for years.Īnd even today, with all the online resources out there, if you go to search for “blues backing tracks” you get a range of websites that are still pretty poor. But many tracks lack the subtlety and sound that gives you that inspiration to play well. It’s especially good when you’ve been working on some specific licks and want to work them into a real song, perhaps along with other licks you’ve learned or already know.īut if you’ve been out looking for backing tracks online, you know it’s a hit or miss proposition. For me, this comes closest to being able to actually build “real world” leads and to practice my scales and theory in a context that’s most realistic. My favorite way is to play along with some good backing tracks. After all, this learning blues guitar thing is a lifelong process. You should vary your practice and do all of the above to keep getting better. Playing along with backing tracks that don’t have a lead on themĪll of these techniques are important. Watching blues bands play (perhaps at a concert).Playing along with and copping licks off of recordings.Learning scales and theory like on my page about pentatonic scales. If you want to be a better blues guitarist you need to practice.
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