Let’s talk about downloads of free blues backing tracks. Typically you’ve got nothing to lose by downloading them and giving them a listen, as long as it’s a legitimate site and there no risk of actually downloading a computer virus. Know who you’re dealing with. You might find a few real gems. I find that most times the free stuff is pretty bad though, but once in awhile you hit the jackpot.

When it’s time to pay money for your blues jam backing tracks, well…now it’s time to get picky, real picky. For me, one of the worst things that can happen is paying for some guitar backing tracks and ending up with cheesy MIDI blues backing tracks. Those are tracks produced inside a computer with keyboards playing synthetic instruments. That’s a real let down; no soul, no groove.

You’re looking for real instruments; a real blues band playing behind you. That’s one of the hallmarks of professional backing tracks. Never again will I buy tracks from someone who doesn’t provide a LOT of lengthy demos first so I can hear the quality of them before laying down my hard earned cash.

The other thing to look for is volume, and I’m not talking about turning your guitar amp up to eleven.

Even if you have really good backing tracks, if you only have a couple you’re going to get bored really fast. You also won’t be expanding your abilities by playing in a lot of different styles. So, you need professional tracks and a lot of them in many different styles.

Also, once you have all these backing tracks at your disposal, you may notice that you need some new licks and may need to expand your knowledge a little more. It never hurts to educate yourself on a regular basis and I think I’ll be talking more about that here in the future.

In the meantime, I’m checking things out and will have some recommendations soon. I’ll tell you, there’s nothing like when you find that perfect slow blues backing track and you can just wail. That’s serious fun!

So, one more time a quick sum up. You need lots of tracks in many varieties and your blues backing tracks need to be professional, not cheesy.

Quality Backing Tracks – How Do You Find Them? is a post from: Blues Backing Tracks

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