Many guitarists when practicing will find it more beneficial to practice to some kind of a metronome or backing track. There are a lot of different blues backing tracks you can find on the web today, and some of them are even free. They make practicing blues guitar licks and solos way more fun.

Most of the ones I’ve found were pretty good, but there was one thing in particular that stood out. They all were pretty much the same beat and sound the entire way through the track. This is ok for a little while, but if you really want to practice improvising, you need to react to things happening in the track such as a piano line, a different guitar rhythm, or a bass line.

These changes that happen during the tracks will cause you to react and play differently. It also makes it WAY more fun to play to when the track changes dynamics during the tune.

This is why I try to create artificial dynamics within my backing tracks by using different drum parts, crashes, and real people playing their instruments. There are no midi files used in the production of my tracks. Real people playing and reacting is how you can truly learn how to improvise. And while it’s not as good as a band, it’s definitely the next best thing.

Here’s me improvising over a track I created.

I’ve recently created 14 new blues backing tracks which will be coming out very soon. You can preview some of the tracks here.

Do you use backing tracks to practice with? Let me know by commenting below.