Backing Tracks for Instant Jam Session

Do you ever wish you had a band to play along with any time you want? Do you need a backing track to keep a beat or a bass-line with? Do you want to hear how guitar parts or a keyboard rhythm styles sound?

If you answer yes to any of these questions, and you want to jam, then Jam Along Albums are for you. These jam albums are comprised of stylistic drum, bass, keyboard, horn and guitar parts that you would expect to hear behind vocalists, melody players and soloists. These parts are mixed together to provide music tracks to back up your own vocals, melodies or solos.

It's an Instant Jam Session!

Simply play the Jam Along Album tracks, and jam along. There are no solos, vocals or melodies, just background tracks, so you can really stretch out. Each backup track lasts at least five or six minutes, so there is lots of solo time for you to try out new ideas and work on improving old ones.

From Frank Singer, Jam Along Albums creator

As an American Music instructor with over fourty years of experience, I find that jamming with my students provides the best context to use what we are studying. Learning a scale form without a sense of purpose can be a daunting task, and may discourage beginning students from continuing. Using that scale form as a collection of good-sounding notes against a 12-bar Blues or a Modal jam generates excitement, confidence, and the gratification of hard work turning into great fun.

Jam Along Albums can be used by anyone wishing to have a good time playing along, and they are very effective for music lessons. Teachers will benefit from recommending the Albums to their students for home practice, or use them in the lessons as they play along with the student. Students can work on solo ideas, practice melodies, play rhythm styles, work on grooves, and even practice scales, patterns and drills to music that is metronome steady. This kind of practice will have very positive benefits for a musician's sense of rhythm and timing.

Starting off with the Blues

The first offering of Jam Along Albums is a collection of shuffle-style blues progressions, with a number of stylistic 12-bar cycles, backing tracks from some blues songs, and more advanced progressions using harmonic mechanisms like the cycle of 5ths and substitute dominant chords.

These music background tracks are at different speeds, with many at slower tempos. The slower tempos give players ample time to develop more complex ideas and work on more harmonic, or by-chord, approaches. Experience has shown that holding a slow beat without loosing the tempo or loosing interest is more challenging that it sounds, and is a professional skill.

The faster tempos challenge the chops and make for a good time in the process. Trap set players and bass players will benefit from keeping their shuffles and solos tight at high speeds. Guitarists, keyboardists and piano players, and comping horn players will all find demonstrations of ways to accompany the rhythm section and soloists at fast and slow speeds.

For more on the Blues Jam Album, click here.

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Experiencing the use of the Ionian and Dorian Modes

You have probably learned a number of major scales since you began playing your instrument. Understanding and experiencing Modes allows you to expand your use of this important American Music tool.

The Jam Along Albums Modal 1 disc offers a variety of rhythm styles to challenge you. Included in the Ionian selections are two Ballads and a Reggae groove. After warming up your Major Scale use on these three progressions, six Dorian progressions bring some Swing, Latin (Cha Cha), Latin-Rock, Funk, and a Jazz Waltz.

Most of these selections are based on parts of popular songs. Moondance, Oye Como Va, Evil Ways, Mr. Magic, Chameleon, and My Favorite Things are all represented in the Dorian selections, while the Tears Loop prepares you for the two main parts of the classic Eric Clapton ballad Tears in Heaven.

For more on the Modal 1 Jam Album, click here.

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