C Major Practice Track

Here is a practice track for guitarists to practice soloing in C major. The chords are

||:C           |             |F         |             :||

As well as using C major, you could also experiment with the C minor pentatonic scale.

Have fun!

If you would like to hear some of my guitar work over this rhythm track, I have released it as a single called “Cat Cuddle Cafe” by Rob Reeves. Access it on Apple Music or Spotify from this link….

You can also purchase from iTunes or Amazon if you want the 1’s and 0’s on your device!

Practice Track: A minor blues

The Blues form is one of the basic forms for jamming in rock, jazz, and of course blues. Here is a practice track to help get your chops up to speed on the A minor blues. The chord progression is a typical blues variant, with minor I and IV chords. Often a V chord appears in the last bar of a blues, however this final V chord is often omitted as in this case!

There are many possibilities for soloing over such a progression, a good starting point is the notes of the C major scale, which may also be referred to as the A natural minor scale, or the Aeolian mode of C. This gives us both a flat 9 (F) and a sharp 9 (G) to play over the E7 chord. Alternately, we can use the A minor pentatonic scale, which is in realty a subset of the C major notes, omitting the F and the B. Using the A minor pentatonic, be sure to try bending your G up a semitone  on the E7, and try bending your D up a tone on the Am.

An alternative approach is to bass your playing around the chord arpeggios. We can use the Am7 arpeggio over the Am, the Dm7 arpeggio over the Dm, and the E7 arpeggio over the E7 chord.

We can drop in some colour notes to our arpeggios, seconds work over all three chords, while a major sixth sounds good over the Dm (creating a minor sixth sound). We can drop a #5 (C) in on the E7 (creating an E7#5 sound).

Another possibility is to play with the A harmonic minor scale over the E7, where it has the necessary G# to match with the G# in the E7 chord. This give a  little bit of a gypsy jazz flavour over the straight ahead rock backing. Harmonically, the harmonic minor can work over all the chords – try it out and see it you like it!

Here is the practice track. There are four repetitions of the progression. Play the tune over the first, then take two choruses for a solo, then play the tune again. You will hear the rhythm in the organ count you back to the top in each bar 12, which will help you know where you are in the progression, so you can pick up the tune in the right place again!

 

Rob’s Minor Blues

Practice Track – E minor Pentatonic

Here is another practice track for beginning guitarists wanting to sharpen up their E minor pentatonic scale! It is a 16 bar pattern:

|Em        |           |           |           |

|Am        |           |           |           |

|Em         |           |          |            |

|B             |           |         |          : ||

It is at a pretty slow pace, around 55bpm, so you can relax and concentrate on getting the right notes sounding good. In case you need a reminder, here is the E minor pentatonic scale in open position:

 

And here is the practice track – have fun!

E16bar

Rock Practice Track – A

Here is a rock practice track in the key of A. The chords are A, C, D and E – all power chords comprising the root and fifth.  It is done at a slowish 100bpm, so you should have plenty of time to pick up what’s happening. See if you can work out which chords are where using your ear! The note G on the bottom string is used as a bend in between A  chords and E chords – a standard rock and roll move!

Am Pentatonic Rock Practice Track

Practice your improvising using the A minor pentatonic scale, with the addition of a B on the E chords!

Enjoy,

Rob

Practice Track for Bassists: D Dorian.

This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate bassists. It is a simple slow rock rhythm track, with drums and two rhythm guitars. The chords are D minor and G:

||: Dm       |           |G           |             : ||

Start by using the root notes of each chord, and play on beat one of each bar. See if you can add to the groove with where you put your notes – listen in particular to the bass drum, and see if you can synchronize with it.

When you are comfortable with this, add the fifths of each chord (A for the D minor, and D for the G).

Then see if you can incorporate the thirds of each chord ( F for D minor and B for G).

For walking bass lines and riffs, experiment with the D minor pentatonic scale, and the Dorian mode of the C major scale.

Dm_G_slow_rock

Enjoy!

Practice Track: E minor Pentatonic

One of the most important scales to learn for guitarists interested in rock and blues is the minor pentatonic scale. To help you polish up your licks using the E minor pentatonic scale, here is a practice track in a rock style to help you out. Here is the scale in first position: numbers indicate the fingers to use, and the squares show where the “E’s” are.

When you have memorised the scale, fire up the following practice track and see if you can play along!

Em pentatonic practice track

Practice Track: G major – Folk Rock

Here is a practice track in a folk rock style, based on the chords to “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, a perennial guitar favorite – mainly because the chords are very easy:

||:G      | D       |C        |         |G      |D       |Am       |Am       : ||

To solo over these chords the best place to start is in the key of G major, as all the chords  contain only notes from that key.  So get the G major scale under your fingers, and make use of the following track to hone your improvising skills!

G major practice track

Practice Track for Bassists: F major

This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate bassists in a light rock style, based on a simple two chord progression in the key of F major:

||: F              |F                |Gm          |Gm           : ||

There are two rhythm guitar parts, with the guitar in the lower register playing simply on the chords F and Gm. The guitar in the upper register plays a funkier rhythm part, using the chords F6/9 and Gm9.

In the second half of the tune, a lead guitar plays a melody line based on the F major and G minor arpeggios.

To practice your bass playing, try the following approaches:

Beginners:

(1) Play the tonic (F or G) on beat one of each bar

(2) Add the fifths (C and D) to (1) above, playing special attention to the drums, trying to mirror the drum rhythms (especially the bass or kick drum) on the bass.

Intermediate :

(3) It doesn’t hurt to play through once using approaches (1) and (2) above. Then see if you can play through the F major and G minor arpeggios for each chord, for example:

(4) If you need more challenge, play through the arpeggios using 1 beat notes, for example:

(5) Once you have the arpeggios under your fingers, try a walking bass line. Start at an arpeggio note, and walk up or down the F major scale until you reach the arpeggio note of the next chord. You may have to skip a scale tone to always start beat one on an arpeggio note, as in the following:

(6) Play what you think sounds good – using combinations of the ideas above, or using your own creativity.

Here is the track – enjoy!

F & Gm: Light rock practice track for bassists.

C major Practice Track: C & G7

This is a simple practice track for beginning guitarists. The drums provide a basic rock beat behind a simple bass line and open position chords. The chords are C and G7:

||: C                  |                       |G7                 |                       : ||

Use it to practice making up a melody (improvising!) using the notes of the C major scale. Listen carefully for which notes go better with each chord.

Practice Track: C & G7

Have Fun!

 

C major practice track

Here is a simple practice track for practicing improvising in a C major scale. The chords are

|G               |Am               |Bm7b5              |C                 : ||

It is suitable for any player who can play the C major scale! When you are playing, see if you can listen to each note, and pick out notes which go with the chords.

C major practice track: V-vi-vii-I

Playing the guitar is about making the most of what skills and techniques you have, being musical with the things that you CAN do. Don’t worry about things you can’t do – just focus on what you can do, and be as musical as you can. The more you play, the range of things you can do increases – especially if you have a good regular practice routine.

As an example, here is a melody part for the same progression played entirely in first position, using only one octave from the G string up to G on the top E string:

C major practice track with lead (melody):

So be as musical as you can with the skills and technique you have. It is a good habit that will strengthen your playing as you continue to improve your technique and skill level. And don’t forget to have fun!