playing to backing tracks

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playing to backing tracks
Topic Started: Apr 26 2009, 03:07 PM (297 Views)
glynb	Apr 26 2009, 03:07 PM Post #1
Member Posts: 45 Group: Members Member #9,040 Joined: December 2, 2008	I have been playing for about 6 months now,coming along ok.Until I try to play along with a backing track or song then I go all to pot. Cant keep time, just sounds awful, Any tips on how to improve this? Ta Glynb
	Hamer XT series Sunburst A/T Vox AD15VT


monwobobbo	Apr 26 2009, 05:07 PM Post #2
Posts: 1,032 Group: Moderator Member #8,625 Joined: June 23, 2008	a metronome is a good way to learn to play in time. if you can find repeating drum patterns that is even better in my opinion as it gets you used to listening to and keeping time with drums. when you say you are off does that mean you loose your place in the song? backing tracks for songs are a great way to learn to play them however if you don't know the song parts you will get lost way easy. part of your problem is that you may be concentrating to hard on trying to remember the chord changes etc for the song and not following the beat. if thats the case then forget about the song and just play whatever (say like 3 chords) to the track and concentrate on keeping time with it. i noodle along to songs all the time and just play to the drum beat or for leads the vocal melody which helps with both.
	and now for something completely different


glynb	Apr 27 2009, 01:56 PM Post #3
Member Posts: 45 Group: Members Member #9,040 Joined: December 2, 2008	I have just started using a metronome in the hope that this will help. I mostly try to play along with generic backing tracks rather than songs, just cant keep in time. Will stick with it though as I am determind to get better at guitar Glynb
	Hamer XT series Sunburst A/T Vox AD15VT


Rampant	Apr 27 2009, 02:39 PM Post #4
Immortal (well, ...so far!) Posts: 403 Group: Top Contributor! Member #8,896 Joined: October 7, 2008	Hi mate What kinda stuff are you playing? Is it lead style rifffs or chord based rhythm scores? The reason that I ask is that right from the start of my learning, (sorry, I mean from about week 4 of my lessons!) I've been playing rhythm chord scores playing along to the music. At the very start I would practice the chords slowly to get used to fretting the changes, but then transition to playing with my iPod playing the music as soon as I could and then to try to keep up with the tempo. Sensei planned it that way and even admitted at the beginning that sacrificing a little bit of accuracy to stay in tempo with the track was the optimum way to improve. I still come at it from both angles, though. First of all playing chord changes slowly and analysing the finger movements required to change. Then play attempting to stay in tempo, regardless of how the first strum of any particular chord rings, while furtively adjusting my fretting if necessary... Doing both usually ends up in proficiency meeting somewhere in the middle!! Staying in tempo with chord changes improving through practice over time. Clearly, if you're learning lead riffs from the get-go, then adopting this process would be much much more time consuming. Also, if you're not learning by playing selected artists songs, then there won't be the actual music to play along with? Cheerz Mark H
	NEW - Scarlet red PRS Custom 24 (25th anniversary birds) Black/white Yamaha Pacifica 112V Translucent red Ibanez Artcore AFS-75T semi-acoustic Vox Valvetronix VT30 Roland Micro Cube travel amp Sensei called Johnny Oriental red sunburst Yamaha APX700 electro-acoustic


Bullet	May 9 2009, 06:26 PM Post #5
Admin Posts: 1,912 Group: Admin Member #183 Joined: January 13, 2007	I found it quite easy to stay in time with backing tracks, especially songs I knew well. The hardest part for me was playing the same songs in time with a metronome. I couldn't get passed the fact that the metronome sounded nothing like the drums to the song. I think the easiest way for me is to look at the tabs for a song in guitar pro. It shows the timing of the songs so it is easy to get your timing spot on. It's definately worth the �50 I paid for it. I wish I could give a better reply, but that's all I've got as for advise. Just keep practicing.



Volume Swell	Jun 3 2009, 08:36 PM Post #6
Newbie Posts: 2 Group: Members Member #9,206 Joined: June 3, 2009	Glynb, try listening more to the rhythmic elements of players. Look for things like where the chord strikes are according to the beat, and try to feel the subdivisions. 1 2 3 4 in 4/4 are the normal beats that you feel. Each of those beats are broken down smaller and smaller: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + , the + being the off beat. 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a, the E and a being the subdivisions between the beat and the off beat. You'll hear a lot of rhythm players using those subdivisions to make their rhythm playing more colorful. If you are having trouble understanding this, take a listen to some latin music as it is all based around great rhythm playing.
	Fusion � Jazz � Rock � World � Jam http://www.last.fm/user/Volumeswell


Rampant	Jun 5 2009, 08:40 AM Post #7
Immortal (well, ...so far!) Posts: 403 Group: Top Contributor! Member #8,896 Joined: October 7, 2008	Hey Volume Swell One of the things that makes rhythm playing so engrossing is the variations of strum pattern. For instance, taking the 16th rhythm: 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a and missing the strumming on a number of 16ths, maybe like this... 1 . + . 2 . + a 3 e + . 4 . + a ... which creates a fantastic assymetric swell in the centre of each bar. The combinations are certainly limited and finite, however, they feel almost endless. Edited by Rampant, Jun 5 2009, 08:42 AM.
	NEW - Scarlet red PRS Custom 24 (25th anniversary birds) Black/white Yamaha Pacifica 112V Translucent red Ibanez Artcore AFS-75T semi-acoustic Vox Valvetronix VT30 Roland Micro Cube travel amp Sensei called Johnny Oriental red sunburst Yamaha APX700 electro-acoustic


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