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Practice Track: C major folk rock

This is a practice track for beginning and intermediate players to play along with. It is in a basic folk rock style, but can be used by people interested in country or rock as well. You can use the track in several ways.

The chords are

||: C              |                  |G                |                 : ||

Firstly, try and strum along to the rhythm guitar, and secondly, practice playing your own solos over the rhythm track. The rhythm guitar is panned a little to the left, with a second guitar strumming a chord every two bars panned just to the right. There are two basic rhythms, with occasional variations. For the first 16 bars, the strum used is predominantly:

The strum then changes to the following for 16 bars:

The two strums then alternate each 16 bars. Note that palm muting is used to stop the strings from ringing out excessively!

The second way you can use this practice track is to practice your soloing. Use the C major scale as your starting point. This will give a basic folk rock sound. Introducing a Bb over the C chord will generate a more bluesy sound (the b7). The blues sound can be further enhanced by introducing an Eb (the b3) which can be bent partly or all the way to an E. You may also like to experiment with the C and G major pentatonic scales, over the C and G chords respectively, which will give a more country sound. Then try the C minor pentatonic scale, which will give a harder rock or blues sound.

Free MP3 Download: C&G7 practice track

Have fun!

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Practice Track: Old Style Country

Here is a practice track with a simple folk strum and rock drum beat. There is a guitar line somewhat in the style of Johny Cash recordings  to give it a country feel – with major pentatonic scale runs. This is suitable for beginning to intermediate players to practice their melodic invention (lead breaks). Use a D major scale.

||:D           |             |G            |              |D           |              |A7           |             : ||

Free MP3 download: Country Style D major progression

Enjoy!

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Practice Track: C major ii-V-I

At the heart of very many jazz tunes is the ii-V-I progression, in the key of C major, that’s Dm7, G7, to Cmaj7. Learning to improvise over ii-V-I progressions is an important skill for jazz improvisation. This practice track allows you to start honing your improvisation skills over the ii-V-I progression in the key of C:

||:Dm7        |G7          |Cmaj7          |             : ||

Use notes from the C major scale to make up your melodies over the chord progression.

Free MP3 download: C major ii-V-I practice track.

Enjoy!

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Practice Track: E Minor Pentatonic

One of the songs I teach my beginning students is known affectionately as “Em Pentatonic on the First Two strings”. It uses only four notes, B, D, E and G, and three simple two finger chords, Em, G6 and Amin9 (really A5 add2). Here I have recorded the tune with the melody, and also without the melody so that you can (1) practice playing the melody yourself, and (2) practice making up your own tune (improvising) using the notes B,D, E and G from the E minor pentatonic scale. Of course if you know the entire E minor pentatonic scale, feel free to use it!

Here it is with the melody. Try and play along, reading the melody from your music (the music is printed in Rob’s Guitar Method, Book 1, on page 16).

Em pentatonic practice track – with melody.

When you have played along with the recorded melody above, try the next MP3, which has only the accompaniment. Try to play the melody along with the accompaniment. Then try making up your own tune using notes from the E minor pentatonic scale!

Em pentatonic practice track – no melody.

Have fun!

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Practice Track: Acoustic Blues in E

Here is a 12 bar blues in E which you can play along with. The accompaniment is just acoustic guitar playing basic open position chords. Use the E blues scale, or the E minor pentatonic scale as the basis for your improvisation. Try using bends on the b7 (D, 3rd fret 2nd string), the b3 (G, 3rd fret 1st string) and the 4th (A, 2nd fret 3rd string). Once you can play through confidently using the E minor pentatonic scale, try mixing in notes from the E7, A7 and B7 arpeggios when those chords come up.

Free MP3 download: 12 Bar in E – Acoustic

The chord progression is:

Enjoy!

 

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Improvising against IV and V chords

In some pop and rock songs, there are passages of music where there are major chords two frets (a tone) apart, such as D and E or F and G. To improvise over these passages, one approach is to recognize that these chords are the IV and V chords of a major scale. For example D and E are the IV and V chords of the A major scale, so an A major scale will work over this passage. Likewise, F and G are the IV and V chords of a C major scale, so use a C major scale to solo over a passage of F and G chords.

Here are some practice tracks to try over passages of IV and V chords:

Example 1: D and E chords (2 bars each): Free MP3 Download

Example 2: F and G chords (2 bars each): Free MP3 Download

If you listen to Pearl Jam’s Better Man, you will hear just such sections as these! Have fun!

 

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Practice Track: Country G major

Here is a practice track for practicing a basic country strumming pattern and basic country lead scale. It is just one chord, G major. The first track has a basic melody, running up and down the G major pentatonic scale, which is widely used in many forms of country music. See if you can play along. Once you have mastered the scale, use the second track with rhythm only to make up your own melodic lines using the scale. Try using some hammer ons and pull-offs to get that country picking sound. The track is quite slow, at 80 bpm, but you need to play slow before you can play fast! Enjoy!

With Lead

Rhythm Only

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Practice tracks: Metronome beats

It’s good to spend some practice time each day working with a metronome, to develop precision and consistency in your timing. Not everyone has access to a metronome, however, so here are some basic “metronome” tracks that you can use to help develop your sense of timing. Start with the slowest track, (50bpm) and try to play the piece you have selected, either strumming chords or playing a melody, or doing your finger exercises. When you can do that, go to the next fastest track (60bpm) and so on. I have done them as a basic drum beat, with kick (bass drum) on  beat 1 and snare on beat 3.

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 50bpm

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 60bpm

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 70bpm

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 80bpm

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 90bpm

Free MP3 download: metronome beat 100bpm

Stay tuned for other speeds – I will post soon!

Enjoy, Rob.

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Notes On Third String: 35 bpm backing track

Hi,This post is for students of mine working on “Notes on the Third String”. It is a backing track for the piece, recorded at 35 beats per minute. Download from the following link and try playing along! You will need the sheet music from your lessons!

NotesOn3rd_35bpm_chords

Here it is with me playing the melody as well. Use this to check that you are playing the right notes and have your timing correct!

NotesOn3rd_35bpm_melody

Enjoy!