Hi and welcome to Bluegrass Jamalong, a new podcast of fiddle tune and bluegrass backing tracks.
I play guitar and mandolin and love jamming along to backing tracks when I’m learning a fiddle tune. But, I struggle to find backing tracks I like.
First up, most backing tracks are too short. It generally takes me one or two runs through a tune to really settle into it – by that point most backing tracks are over.
Secondly, they only give you the backup. I want to work on rhythm, not just lead (and maybe even sometimes work up a harmony)! That means having just the tune to play to.
Finally, backing tracks don’t prepare you for a jam session. When you jam with people, you take it in turns to back each other up and play the tune or take breaks.
So…I started making my own backing tracks and now I’m releasing them as a podcast, one tune a week, so you can use them too!
They work with whatever instrument you play. Guitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro, bass, banjo…even if you’re a bluegrass cellist (I have actually met one!)
Here’s how they work.
Every week I pick a fiddle tune and give you three brand new backing tracks:
- I play backup and you play the tune
- I play lead so you can work on rhythm
- A 'jam along' track where we swap between the two.
Each track is four times through to give you time to really get stuck in.
I’m not a pro musician – I’m just a regular picker like you who has a day job but loves playing bluegrass. So these tracks aren’t note perfect, or state of the art recordings, but they hopefully feel like exactly what they are, jamming along with another picker who loves bluegrass.
Also, I’m not teaching you anything – we’re just jamming. There are so many amazing resources for learning fiddle tunes out there and so many better qualified people than me to teach them. I’m just your picking buddy and the great thing is this podcast lets you use any version of the tune you’ve learned, wherever you learned it (from a book, DVD, YouTube, your teacher, at a local jam…)
For more info, or details of how to connect on social media or get in touch, head to bluegrassjamalong.com
Thanks, and happy picking,
Matt
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Thanks to Bryan Sutton for his wonderful theme tune to Bluegrass Jam Along (and to Justin Moses for playing the fiddle!)
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