5 Cool Backing Tracks to Help Practice Your Scales
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Cool Backing Tracks to Help Practice Your Scales · Source: Italy Stock Images / Alamy Stock Photo
Cool backing tracks are essential for working on guitar improvisation. Having the right track will help you explore different vibes and techniques. Here are some killer tracks for you!
Cool Tracks to Practice With:
What Are Backing Tracks?
Good question! This all depends on where you are in your guitar-playing journey. If you’re just starting out, chances are that you may not have looked at scales with your teacher yet. But don’t worry! You’re only a few steps away from what we’re looking at today.
However, there will be a lot of players who know some scales but don’t know what to do with them. This is where our backing tracks come in handy! A good knowledge of your scales is a perfect window into improvisation. Whereby, we, as guitarists, take a scale and jumble up the order along with cool techniques like bends, slides, and hammer ons.
Overall, creating mini guitar solos. For those of us who have been improvising for a while now, it’s a pretty cool thing to do, isn’t it? Here are some personal recommendations for tracks that won’t disappoint. Exploring different styles will change up your usual playing comforts. Let’s take a look.
A Blues Backing Track
So then, the first look into our quest for cool backing tracks is this fantastic starting point. Why is it so good? Well, it’s very stripped back, it’s at a steady 90bpm, and it works around a simple I IV V blues progression.
The benefits don’t top there. I use this a lot with my own students, as it’s a perfect opportunity to practice two of the easiest scales out there. The A blues scale, or indeed the Am pentatonic scales fit perfectly over this backing track. Both of which will start on the 5th fret of the E string.
Ideally aimed at beginners, the combination of the steady tempo and the accessible scales will allow you to take your time. You could even just use the track to work your way up and down the scale before looking at jamming out.
Badass Aggressive Rock Guitar Backing Track in F#m
This time, we’re going to expand on our knowledge, and move outside of our comfort zone a little bit.
As well as this example, anything from Elevated Jam Tracks is always worthwhile! This track allows us to use the same blues and pentatonic shapes from before, but this time we’re in the key of F#m. Meaning, that we’ll want to play from the 2nd fret on the low E string.
But, that’s not all! F# is a great key for practising playing in the octave! If you play the scale from the 14th fret, in addition to the 2nd fret, you’ll find that all of the notes are the same, just in a higher pitch. This makes for some great high-pitched guitar improv! Ideal for big bends.
Bleeding Heavy Rock Backing Track for Guitar in D Minor
Okay, our next look for cool backing tracks is our first heavy guitar backing track. For some of us, the blues just doesn’t cut it! Let’s see what this one is about.
What makes this sound so aggressive, then? Well, the main chord progression descends from D5, down to G#5, and then concludes on a G5. All of these power chords have very little space between them, and therefore create this evil feel.
Moreover, we could introduce some more scales here. Ideally, some of the Dorian mode. However, the easiest addition would be to utilise notes from the harmonic minor scale. Think of this as adding a few extra notes onto your regular pentatonic scale, for more of an unhinged sound.
For something like this, I’d personally opt for a Super Strat. Ideally, something with humbucking pickups, tall frets, and maybe even a Floyd Rose! Just like this *Max Fusion signature, which is currently reduced by 10%!
A Mixolydian Fruit Backing Track
We’ve avoided them long enough. Let’s talk modes. That sounds scary, but let’s break it down and look at ways to play them.
Essentially, this cool backing track is in A major. So we could use just our regular A major shapes to work over this one. The Mixolydian scale is like the A major scale, but with a natural G instead of G#, which gives us more of a blues feel.
Also, we could use D Ionian, since A Mixolydian is the 5th mode of D major. The notes are the same, but we want to focus on A. You’ll find that there are so many different flavours to be had when playing in different modes, and plenty of new shapes to unlock too!
Pink Floyd Backing Track G Minor
Finally, to round off our look at cool backing tracks, we have one of the O.G.s when it comes to guitar backing tracks on YouTube. Based on Pink Floyd’s Great Gig In The Sky, this isn’t to be missed!
I’m one of the 9.1 million people who have jammed out to this track, and hopefully, you will be too! This backing track essentially allows us to work on everything that we’ve seen so far. You can go for your pentatonic scales, octaves, harmonic minor, and throw a bit of Dorian in for good measure.
Think of your Dorian as playing in D minor with this example. Plus, the easiest octave would be to take everything to the 15th fret of the low E string. Reaching that higher register feels like you’ve entered a new world!
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