Help on how to use the jam major tracks properly?

[bogios]

Hi,

I bought the Jam Major tracks last night and they sound pretty good but I was hoping I could get some advice on how to best use them, and use them properly in my practice.

I have learnt the Major scale via the MTMS DVD and have been playing along to the G Major track provided on that.

I just can't seem to get the improv sounding really good over the tracks. 

During the tracks when the chord changes should I be shifting my focus to different notes (ie the root note) of the chord or is it completely cool to play any notes in the scale?

I really want to get better at playing over the tracks but would appreciate some tips and advice on how to achieve this.

Thanks

[bogios]

130 views and no replies?

If anyone has some advice?  Thanks

[asylum]

Hi well if your playing over a G Major backing track the G major scale should fit like a glove, just remember that just because you know a scale does not mean you can make it sound like good music or a good improvisation, when i first started improvising over blues progressions , even though i knew the pent scales quite well i still sounded like crap, the way i improved was to listen to a lot of blues to get a feel of what other guitarist where doing to make a simple scale sound so good, so after a lot of listening and a lot of playing over backing tracks i can improvise fairly well, not brilliant just well, it takes time and patience to develop your chops, so be patient and practice a whole lot and it will come to you.

[justinguitar]

@bogios - sorry it took so long for me to get to this post...

A lot of what you ask can only be learnt by practicing - getting them sounding good is just listening and playing around - transcribing some solos can help too - but it's mostly practice, experimenting.

I would recommend being familiar with all the keys and be confident with playing over the sequences with your ear as your guide before you think about the chord changes (at that point you become more 'modal').

Hope that helps, and sorry that my advice is really 'just practice' but that is all there is!

Good luck. J.

[JoshP]

It's really quite easy once you get the hang of it, what you should do is instead of trying to play with the Jam Major straight away, you could maybe start transcribing, you may be thinking: 'But i can't and it's hard!' well your right, and wrong, true it is hard but you can I use these methods and rules:

1- Understand that it won't come to you straight away

2-Tape yourself in a certain key, for exmaple, G Major, tape yourself playing notes from it, finish, name the file G Major (so you know what key it's in), forget about it and go back again and try and play whats on the tape, in other words TRANSCRIBE!!

3- Try not to use tabs

4- Identify what key the solo is in

5- Have as much fun as possible

[jangoolee]

Use these free jam tracks to practice common chord changes and solos in the key of G Major, and see which Fretboard Toolbox pages to use with each track!