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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!

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Practice track for Bass Players – C major

Here is a practice track for Bass Players in C major. The Chords are

||:C            |               |F            |               :||

Try playing a bass line with just the root notes first, and when you can hear the chord changes well, try putting in some runs with the C major scale. You can also try working off your chord tones… the 1,3 and 5 of each chord. It sounds good adding a 6th or a 2nd to the chord tones as well. Experiment and have some fun!

If you would like to hear my bass line for this 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!

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

 

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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!

 

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Practice Track: C major I-vi-II7-V7

This practice track is done in an Indie Rock style. The rhythm section is composed of drums, bass, and rhythm guitar, with a tenor guitar line that is similar to the bass part, but an octave higher, and playing on all the beats.

The progression replaces the diatonic D minor chord which fits with the C major scale, with a dominant seventh chord, the D7. This substitution is a common one in Jazz and swing tunes, and gives the progression a stronger blues flavour than would otherwise be the case.

(1) The simplest approach to soloing is to play in C major throughout, being careful to avoid F over the D7, which would clash with its F#.

(2) A more sophisticated approach  is to play in C major, changing to D mixolydian (G major) for the D7 chord. One can then outline the chromatic decent from F# in the D7 chord, to F in the G7 chord, then E in the C major chord, to effectively emphasise the changing harmony.

(3) Another approach is to play exclusively in the A minor pentatonic scale (C major pentatonic), using bends to reach chord tones. E.g. over the D7 chord bend from E (in the A minor pentatonic scale) up one tone to F# (chord tone in D7); also bend from G up a tone to A (chord tone in D7, and also in A minor pentatonic scale). Likewise over the G7 chord, bend from A (A minor pentatonic) up a tone to B (chord tone in G7), bend from E (A minor pentatonic) up a semitone to F (chord tone in G7). There are four such bends for each of the four tones in each chord, however some of them will finish on chord tones outside the A minor pentatonic, others will  end on chord tones included in the A minor pentatonic.

It turns out that the melody for the children’s nursery rhyme “Have you seen the Muffin Man” can be played over this progression, an example of approach (1). Below are examples of the three approaches outlined above:

Lead approach (1)

Lead approach (2)

Lead approach (3)

Now, try your own:

Practice track with no lead

Have fun!

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Practice Track: F major ii-V-I

This practice track is done in a light rock style, and is great for practicing soloing using the F major scale. The chords are

||:F                |Gm               |C7                 |F            :||

Other approaches to soloing (besides the F major scale) you can use are (i) F major (D minor) pentatonic scale (ii) F major pentatonic for the F chord, followed by G minor Pentatonic for the G minor and C7 chords, (iii) A minor pentatonic for the F chord followed by G minor pentatonic for the Gm and C7, (iv) F major, G minor and C7 Arpeggios with passing notes from the F major scale. Any combination of the preceding of course will also work!

All the above approaches are really just using the F major scale, but give different selections of notes which help create different sounds. Using the pentatonic scales is cool because it allows you to make use of a well known scale, and get maximum value from fingering and scale shapes that you might already know well.

So download the practice track below, and start having some fun!

Free Mp3 Download: F major II-V-I practice track.