How to Practice Guitar with Backing Tracks

Backing tracks can provide us with great sounding musical loops with which to practice and develop guitar skills. They help to train our ears, and provide a musical pocket so we can work on our groove while we practice soloing & melodic improvisation, and rhythm guitar.

It’s easy to lose focus with backing tracks because they are so repetitive, and after a long stretch of aimless noodling you may wonder “what is the point?” So here are a few tips on how to get the most out of practicing with backing tracks.

Focus
It helps to have a clear idea of what you want to learn and focus on that. Do you want to improve or vary your articulations?  Develop more rhythmic variety in your melodic playing? Try applying licks in new ways? Get comfortable with new keys and modes? Write down your goals and then go after them, one by one.

For example, let’s say you want to work on articulations. Begin with two note sequences up and down single strings using only hammer-on’s. Then do the same with pull-off’s. Next pick the first note of each two-note sequence and slide into the second one. Lastly practice bending from each note of a scale to the next highest note in the scale. Now, create formulas that combine articulations, and try to fulfill them in the most musical way possible. For example, play licks with at least one slide and one pull-off; then with one slide and one hammer-on; now one slide and one bend. As you practice these over and over, try to make your phrasing as coherent and convincing as possible.

Listen
When working with melodic improvisation, and applying licks, here’s a tip that’s so obvious you might forget to do it – listen carefully to the tracks you are playing with! Take 30 seconds before you even play a note to listen closely to how the bass and drums are locking in together and to feel the groove. Try improvising a phrase or playing a lick and then stop to give yourself time to feel how it landed. Did it work, or should you try it differently? Sing the same lick starting at different beats in the measure, or over different chords in the progression. Experiment with varying the lick itself, trying to play the same notes but in a different rhythm; maintaining the melodic shape and rhythm but using different pitches; playing the notes twice as fast, or twice as slow; breaking the lick into parts and reassembling them differently; then repeating these same process on your new lick.

Jam
Though there is truly no substitute for playing with other musicians, backing tracks have unique advantages -. they don’t get bored doing exactly what you ask of them for as long as you want and need, and they show up for rehearsal at the push of a button!

related:
Single String Mastery on Guitar
Use Loops and Backing Tracks to Learn Lead Guitar

© 2014 Brenna Method