Lead guitar lessons - The advantage of backing tracks
Having worked in the music production and backing track industry for the last 12 years as a guitarist come music arranger, one thing has become quite obvious to me.
Playing lead guitar to a backing track definitely makes a big difference to how well you play guitar solos. I often have to stop myself from just soloing endlessly over the backing, when I know I should be concentrating on finishing the backing track. Customers waiting and all you know.
But anyway, here’s the thing. Sometimes I’ve wasted too much time, and the song is due yesterday already, so I skimp on copying the exact guitar solo that’s in the song, and make up my own. This is quite easy to do when I’ve spent some time on just jamming to the track.
If you want to play guitar solos that are meaningful and fit into the song, it’s a good idea to have practiced with the same kind of rhythm and chord structure. Backing tracks, or “Jam tracks” as they’re sometimes called - Jam tracks being more specifically created for playing guitar over, are an excellent way to improve your soloing style.
Sitting in your bedroom and running over scales and learning guitar licks is all fine and well. You do improve on your soloing skills a lot when doing that, but when it comes to making up your own guitar solos, and getting it to sit well with the song, getting some decent Jam along tracks to practice to is a major help.
I find it very encouraging that lead guitar lessons like the Jamorama lead guitar course, which by the way, I do recommend, come with Jam along tracks.
If you can - Start a band.
The reason I say this, is because way back, when I first started to play lead guitar, I learned most of my guitar scales and lead runs sitting on my own in the bedroom, with no interaction with any other musicians. I thought I was doing alright but…
Later when I joined a band and started playing lead guitar to a whole lot of different songs, it took a lot of work to actually really get into the songs. I spent a two month stint down the coast as the lead guitarist for the band, and when I came back home I realized that my playing had improved radically.
For the first time ever, when I played a solo, it worked as if I’d taken it straight off the record.
Playing with a band for a good while, or failing that, some decent guitar backing tracks, just kicks your solo guitar style up a few notches.
Later then.
