Jam Like a Pro: Say Goodbye to Backing Tracks: Guitar Lesson

all right if you want to improvise and jam as a guitar player there is a mental space you have to have in order to to do that to perform live improvise be confident and have the band move together and this lesson is for all the people out there all the guitar players out there who like to jam who like to improvise but they play the back and tracks and it still feels stale and you feel like you're going nowhere and all you're really doing is playing scales and maybe hitting some chord tones but but the um the Gena is not there the the the spirit of it the movement the the feeling that you want is not there so I'm going to show you how to practice uh so so that you can improvise and be a stronger improviser that's hard to say and also feel like you're improvising and feel like you're moving the music and doing your own thing now um wherever you are as a guitar player you can take whatever we're doing and and use it with wherever you are and and you'll understand that as the video goes along so let's get started let's start about my pet PE first backing tracks now no matter how good a backing track is and I'm serious about this like it's always fun to put on the back and track and know what scales and chord tones to hit but the thing is is that you're following the back and track no matter what even if the back and track is dynamic and it changes you're following the back and track and you're you're you know when when you want to start shredding all a sudden the back and track changes and gets you know tighter or looser all of a sudden you have to change your game and the idea is that's not improvising um when you're Improv ing a jam band scenario you you want to be free and feel like you are doing it and that the whole band is moving with each other and so back tracks are limited so I'm going to show you how to improvise without a back and track and use your mind and it is 10 times it it feels 10 times better and it's 10 times more successful so how do we do this now do not roll your eyes uh the first thing you got to do is you got to make a back and track and this is you'll see what I'm saying this is the number one miss for many of my students and I and I hear the comments from a lot of you out there which is it's hard to hear the music in your head when you were improvising and that is a must when you are improvising to any any track you need to know where those chords are it's like following the blues you need to know where those ones fours and fives are and in any Jam whatsoever you need to be able to feel those cords changing and that's the biggest misstep there when we have a backing track we have this like we're playing and then we're kind of like where's that next chord and oh there it is and we move into it maybe a little bit late and it doesn't let us really improvise but if you can develop the weight the momentum the feeling of those chords changing in your head when you improvise you will be improvising um how do I explain this you will be actually improvising on the guitar because you'll be hearing the chords in your head and you can actually play with your imagination I'll show you what I mean by this so the the song we're going to jam with today God I hope this is okay uh is um it's one of my favorite Jam it's by the band fish the name of the song is got jaibu and even though the song uh the song itself is e to D like like that the jam is actually e for eight beats to D for eight beats and it sounds like [Music] this just like that over and over again so the first thing you have to do and trust me when I say this is you have to create a backing track first you need to create it now if you have question about creating backing tracks or uh looping or anything like that you can check out the video it's going to pop up right here it's going to help you with looping but don't you worry so first thing I'm going to do is just lay that simple uh track down here we go I'm going Loop her here and let's do it here we go two [Music] ready let's see I get it going to listen to it good all right now we have the basic track there we're not going to be jamming to that what you need to do now is realize what's happening all right that is an e for eight Beats to a d for eight beats and you have to magnetize and train and and program your brain and heart and Rhythm Center and guitar to feeling those chord changes first to to knowing where they are at all times that's part of improvisation when you're with a band you're all leaning on each other and you have to be able to hear the music in your head the cords and you got to be able to improvise on top of them so we're taking the back and track out but how do we do that well the first thing you got to do is you got to Bob wear this up right you got to be able to play that back and track and sit for like 15 20 minutes at first I'm going to save us some time I'm just going to do it for like a minute or two and you need to play as many different inversions and different pieces of e chords and D chords all over the neck and all you're doing is magnetizing yourself to play the chords the chords hold all of the weight in a jam all of it all right so you need to be able to follow it so the first thing I'm going to do is play the back and track and there's the E and I'm going to think about all my e chords now this comes from the cage chord system right and so if you have questions about that you can check out this um cage playlist right here it's awesome and you know here's the E and then any D's I can see right and I'm going to sit and play as much as possible e d e [Music] d e d over and over again and you want to do that because what you're doing there and all I'm doing is playing all the different pieces of the chords and and and really sitting and making myself the rhythm guitar player that rhythm guitar player or piano player whatever it is has to exist in you while you're impr uh improvising you can't rely on just yourself that's not what impro improvisation is I can't even say it today it's not what it is it's about jamming together and you have to become that rhythm guitar player in your heart in your head as you play and so after you do that for quite a while and that's what you got to do you're going to start to be magnetized to those core progressions you're going to be able to start thinking d d over and over again you can feel it I can feel it right now now I said I think I said in the beginning you'll be able to do this wherever you are as a guitar player and what we're going to do here is do actually what TR Anastasio does the best which is move The Pentatonics with the chords now wherever you are as a guitar player you know that's up to you and I'll put some pentatonic stuff up here and there'll be uh linked below but the idea is uh right now E major pentatonic all right that's 912 91 911 911 912 912 and D major pentatonic all right 7 10 7 9 7 99 7 99 7 10 71 I also know where those chord tones are all right they come from those cage chord system [Music] pieces now if that if you don't know what I just said right there again check out the playlist below they will help um but if you're a fan of Stitch method you know what I'm talking about now the first thing I'm going to do is I'm not going to push that uh Looper button on I'm not I'm going to turn on some Distortion I'm I'm going to pretend that the band is playing right now my head getting my self ready D and I'm just going to kind of come [Music] in now you probably noticed right away that you can kind of hear that back tracking in there okay this is Step number one when I'm playing the pentatonic of the chord that's happening you you're pretty much playing those chord tones as we move so we're playing E major pentatonic excuse me and D major pentatonic I'm playing the E major pentatonic when in my head I hear the E chord I'm moving to the D major pentatonic when I hear uh the D chord now that's like the basic of it I'm going to play it again and all you need to do is be able to hear you well you me vice versa when you're playing you need to be able to imply those core changes all right so listen for it again and make sure you're doing your J job which is first to imply those chord [Music] changes all right I could hear them in my head I I heard the E right I heard it and I went to the D major pentatonic and I focused on a chord Tone It Came in on the chord tone now this is Step number one when you're doing this you're going to feel free because you are in control you being in control is actually Freedom uh you're in control of hearing those chord tone changes now this is what gets really good your imagination all right your imagination is what makes your improvisation strong it it's what gives you Joy it what it's what helps move the audience and the band members okay you need to now pretend that you're with your favorite band and they're all all with you in the room and when you're playing now you're not playing to a backing track you get to hear the building of your lines and the B and the band kind of like starting to get you know bigger and the drummer kind of following you and everything and and the the staleness we'll say of the back and track which doesn't let you do that is not there and so now what I'm going to do is I'm going to play those in my head okay those chords I'm going to start improvising with just these two pentatonics I'll do more in a little bit but now I want you to imagine there's a band behind me and that's what I'm imagining and when you hear me kind of speed up or slow down or play something twice I'm imagining the band either speeding up or slowing down or playing stuff with me and it becomes this oh I'm in charge I'm in charge I can do this not in charge as in like I'm the head boss no you're in charge of your improvisation so check this out see if now you can hear not only the song but if you can imagine a band behind me kind of enhancing the moments here we go [Music] [Music] [Music] n [Music] sorry I had to stop there um that was that absolutely amazing no but what you're doing there is you are now closing your eyes you are now like pretending the band is there with you and when you do something when you like that you can hear the drummer you can hear the piano player you are in charge your imagination is what is key here and so I'll do it one more time and I want you like cuz I really enjoy this I'm going to do it one more time with these two pentatonics and I'll do more in a little bit excuse me and again I'm I'm playing to the uh music that's in my head but I'm also imagining those bandmates and I could I could feel them enhance anything that I do and now it's more joyous because I'm not playing to a stale backing track all right so check this out here we go one more time one [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right screw there all right whatever you know can't do everything correctly Stitch method okay so I felt the band moving all right so what you need to do is just this if this is where you are and you can move pentatonics then you do this to your favorite backing track right but the idea is stop playing to a back and track use your imagination let the band play with you now if you know all of your E major pentatonics for this you know if you know where they are and your D major pentatonics then you can have a a better time by now I'm going to slow it down I had I had a actually diet soda but well caffeinated but the idea is um you can expand more you can build more I'm going to do the whole thing again with more pentatonics in place um but I want you to listen and see if you can hear that back and track there if you can still pay homage to the chord progression here we [Music] go [Music] [Music] the [Music] all right so you can hear I was moving more and I was pretending the band was there and you need to do this I promise you now if you want to practice this stuff with me I'm going to have some great practice sessions on patreon uh my my patreon page is practice sessions based on the information on YouTube and so if you want to get better at this if you want to see how to dive a little bit deeper you can join me there I will stop talking um start to rely Less on back and tracks and rely more on your imagination and your knowledge as to where you are right now you'll become a much better improviser um I I promise I absolutely promise right thank you so much for being here talk to you again on another episode of Stitch method soon bye-bye

Channel: StichMethod Guitar

Views: 58,918

Keywords: Zeppelin, technique, free, stichtube, Pentatonic, chart, greatful, mayer, Hendrix, pro, mastering, solo, fret, clapton, chord, chops, guitar, teach, Jimi, king, 1-4-5, basic, fretboard, root, method, easy, help, weekly, never, Pentatonic Scale, sheet, john, guide, pdf, Jimi Hendrix, practice, soloing, stitchmethod, fundamental, tabs, stichmethod, dead, Eric Clapton, iMovie, anastasio, Scale, music, lead, teacher, blues, pentatonic, learning, lost, tone, stitch, scale, bb, learn, neverlost, trey, core, home, stich, professional, tricks, licks

Id: cL2ywJ-048A

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 08 2023