Guitar Backing Tracks - A Better Way to Learn Scales

Paul Celly has started writing for ckoMusic. Make your guitar practice way more productive with ckoMusic guitar backing tracks.

Now stop the guitar backing track and work out 2 licks using the scale pattern. Make sure they are on different sets of strings. Maybe use 3rd and 4th string for lick number 1 and 1st and 2nd string for lick number2.

Throw on your guitar backing track and jam on the 4 new licks.

Guitar Backing Tracks - A Better Way to Learn Scales

Now that you have your licks, start up the guitar backing track again and start playing the first lick. Play this lick over and over changing the phrasing. Change the rhythm. Hold some notes longer each time around. Vary the dynamics and put accents on certain notes. Do the same thing for the second lick the next time around. Make sure that you are playing licks that are not your "staples". We want brand new stuff here.

Your next step is to learn these licks one octave higher. This is going to take a couple of minutes to work out. If you are struggling, work out your lick note by note and tab it out. That way you can use your tab to memorize the lick a little at a time. You now have four licks. The 2 originals and the two licks one octave higher. But also just as important, you are playing in the same key as you started but you are playing on a different area of the fret board. So you just learned another scale pattern without being having to run up and down a new pattern.

Guitar backing tracks not only make you a better soloist and improviser, but they also can help you to learn scales better. Many players can't stand the thought on running up and down scales all day long. Some would rather not learn them at all. What if practicing your scales was actually fun?