Piano backing tracks for blues

Blues jam tracks without piano parts made for improvise and exercise with on keyboard or piano.

The Blues Scales Backing Tracks album includes instrumental tracks made specially to be used with Blues scales. A single scale can be used for the whole song, but you could expand the palette by also use parts of the Major Pentatonic Blues scale when Minor Pentatonic is indicated and vice versa.

All scale notes from the included scale diagram will sound consonant, meaning they are congenial to the harmony of the other instrument in the jam track. Good improvisation, however, is more than just playing notes which in some way match the harmony. You want to “say” something with your improvisation, not just throwing out notes. One method to make it sound “right” is to mainly play notes from the actual chords that are played and in other ways adjust your note palette throughout chord changes. To be able to distinguish the chord, you need to develop your ear and recognize intervals (check out Ear training for intervals).

Tips: combine single notes with intervals (two notes) and chords based on the notes in the scale diagrams. You should also think about the concept of target notes, which can be used to accentuate the chordal harmony and outline chord changes. In a C blues that include the chords C7, F7 and G7, the target notes are as follows: C7: C, E, G, Bb; F7: F, A, C, Eb; G7: G, B, D, F. The E note over C7, the A note over F7 and B note over G7 will be extra effective (notice that the A and B notes are outside the suggested scale, but this is also recommended notes to use to improve your soloing).

In coming updates, licks to use will also be presented.