Backtracking music

I’m having a problem perhaps someone can help me with. I’m working on improvisation and I’ve been relentlessly practicing. I would like to use backtracking music to make what I do sound better but I am really not very good yet at tapping to the beat of the music and as a consequence if I’m using backtracking music that has a melody I drift so that I end up not synchronized with the backtrack and as you can imagine that makes me sound pretty bad… Do you know of any vanilla backtracking music that will blend with any form of blues and for which I don’t have to count? I’m working on getting better at counting the beats, but with concentrating on what notes to play in improvisation and how to embellish them with the shapes of my mouth and hands I just can’t keep the beat count accurate at this point. Having backtracking music that fits without demanding counting would be a big help in developing what I sound like. Thank you for any help you might be able to offer.
Best regards,
Wayne Trebbin

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https://www.youtube.com/@ButternoteBackingTracks

These two are a good start. There are lots on youtube and some surprisingly good ones on applemusic. You can also go on youtube and look for the KARAOKE version of any song. Then you have the words rolling along to give you ques to the notes.

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some advice that really helped me:

  • start off with a slow backing track
  • start off with just a single note that you just repeat
  • AFTER that, eventually add a couple more notes and don’t rush into something more complicated till that sounds good.

EDIT: Also, try to avoid backtracking music and just do backing tracks, backtracking can really reverse your progress (sorry, couldn’t resist)

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Get with a Metranome. A naked down beat is the best to practice with. If you can’t stay with the click you won’t be able to stay with tracks or other musicians. Hope this helps.

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