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Rock Jam Session Course Handbook
Welcome to Total Guitar Lab and thanks for grabbing these rock backing tracks. You’ll find them a valuable practice tool in taking your guitar playing to the next level!
These tracks are in four common rock keys and use chord sequences and rhythms similar to those you hear on your favourite rock and metal recordings. The tempos are not too fast. This makes them perfect for practicing new licks, scales and improvising without feeling like you can’t keep up!
We normally use scales when we solo. A scale is simply a set of notes which will ‘work’ over a particular song or chord sequence. On guitar we normally learn them as scale patterns. The most common scales used in rock soloing are the blues scale and minor pentatonic scale. Check out the scale diagrams in this book to find patterns for these in each backing track key. These diagrams are a valuable resource for learning to solo in different areas of the guitar neck.
Before you dive in and start jamming along, check out the following pages for a load of powerful tips to help you get the most out of them in your practice time.
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Practicing New Licks
Learning new licks is an important part of building a soloing vocabulary for use in your playing. But just memorising them is not enough. It’s essential to also practice using new licks and backing tracks give you a musical context in which to do this.
Here are some cool ways to use backing tracks when learning new licks:
x Practice looping new licks round and round over a backing track. This helps you nail the timing of the lick and you’ll also absorb it into your playing much faster. You’ll probably want to use one of the slower tracks to start with - and make sure you’re in the right key!
x Take a lick you know and practice improvising as many variations on it as you can think of. Some of the things you'll play won’t work - that’s okay! Experimenting in this way is one of the best things you can do to develop your own style and become a great soloist
x Practice pushing the speed and fluency of your playing by playing a lick over a faster backing track than usual. Don’t be afraid to push yourself, even if you make some mistakes. Be realistic though. If something is way too hard then slow it down so that you’re stretching yourself without it being totally unachievable
x Practice ‘surrounding’ the new lick with things you already play. That way you’re getting used to mixing it into your playing. In time the ’new lick' will come out naturally in your guitar solos.
Check out my Rock Guitar Lick Lab course to learn dozens of awesome licks heard in the playing of all the rock guitar legends and how you can easily create great sounding licks of your own!
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'Focused Jamming' I find that jamming with a particular ‘focus’ in mind helps me achieve more when I practice soloing. It stops me rambling and normally what I play is of a higher quality.
The idea is to focus on a specific idea when you jam. For example you might focus on;
x soloing only using a specific scale pattern x soloing using lots of space x using lots of bends in your solo
This is a great way to improve at something because you’re really concentrating on using it.
Here are some suggestions I’ve used before:
1. Instead of just jamming non-stop - practice playing short solos. This is more like what you’d have to do on a gig or a recording anyway. Try 8, 4 or even 2 bars! Then count yourself in again and play another one. This teaches you to play something short but effective instead of needing hundreds of bars before you get in your stride
2. Resist the urge to play non-stop! Practice leaving space between your phrases. This simple concept can have a huge impact on how slick your soloing sounds!
3. Isolate two neighbouring strings in a scale pattern. Then jam only using those two strings. Doing this with all the strings in a pattern is an awesome way to really nail any scale pattern and you'll end up knowing it inside out
4. Practice using 'call and response’ phrasing in your solo. Play a phrase, leave a space, and then answer it. This is one of the most commonly heard things in all music styles and makes for great solos
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5. Try and think like a drummer! Instead playing lots of different notes take just a few notes and concentrate mostly on the rhythm you play them in. It’s easy to neglect rhythm making our soloing sound rhythmically boring. Shifting the focus onto the rhythmic content of your playing can instantly make your playing sound much better!
You wouldn’t do any of these exercises on a gig! These kind of exercises are just for when we practice. But they’re a really cool way to concentrate on different elements of our playing and work on really improving at them.
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‘Free Form Jamming' You should also just ‘forget everything’ and just jam without concentrating on anything in particular. Have a bit of a ‘blow out’ and just play! It’s important to practice 'just playing’ in this way, it’s fun to do but also teaches you lots about what your strengths and weaknesses are as a player. Close
So there you go…try these different ideas and concepts and you'll really benefit from using these jam tracks in your practice. Have fun and see you next time!
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Essential Scales for Rock and Metal Soloing
The following fretboard diagrams show you scale patterns for the minor pentatonic scale and the blues scale. These are the two most useful scales in rock soloing. They are shown in the same four keys as the backing tracks are played in (A, C#, D and E).
How to Use these Scales
You need to play the scale that goes with whichever key you are playing in. If you’re playing over a backing track in the key of A minor then use the A minor pentatonic scale and the A blues scale. In the key of E minor you’d use the E minor pentatonic or E blues scale.
The root not in each pattern is shown by a square on the diagram. Make sure you know which note in the pattern is the root - it’s very important!
You’ll notice the minor pentatonic and blues scale patterns are almost identical. The blues scale is simply the minor pentatonic with an extra note added in. When you’re soloing you can mix them up in any way you choose - think of them as being interchangeable.
I’d suggest becoming really comfortable soloing with shape 1 before you worry about the other patterns. Shape 1 is the basis of hundreds of classic rock soloing ideas and it’s essential to be able to use it well. Being able to play a great solo with shape 1 also makes it much easier to learn to use the other shapes when you’re ready.
Learning the scale patterns will teach you which notes to play - but this is just the beginning! You also need to learn cool sounding licks which go with each pattern.
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By doing this you’ll learn the best notes to bend, strong sounding note groups and patterns you can use, cool sounding double stops and more. Basically you'll learn to use the scale to make music instead of just playing up and down it each time you solo.
See my Rock Guitar Lick Lab course if you need help with learning licks and turning them into great solos! Have fun and happy jamming!
www.totalguitarlab.com
www.totalguitarlab.com
