Looking for GJ play-along tracks for rhythm guitarist: only lead and bass

bohemewarbler

I'm looking for GJ play-along tracks for a rhythm guitarist to "rhythm on." I would like to be able to hone my rhythm skills at home in the same way that a lead soloist can. I can understand and appreciate the benefit of being able to easily isolate one's performance, as the readily available rhythm tracks provide for the solist. So while there seems to be plenty of rhythm tracks (rhythm guitar and bass only) available for GJ soloists to practice with, I'm not aware of any play-along tracks to benefit the rhythm player in the same fashion. Nous'che Rosenberg's rhythm lesson features a few tunes with bass only; however, without a soloist added to the mix, there's no GJ. IMHO, a rhythm guitarist's abilities and technique is almost as important as the lead player's when it comes down to performance. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

NylonDave

Sing the tune as you play along with a metronome at half time on two and four. Find a comfortable speed and then push the metronome DOWN gradually so you can hear detail.

If you can't do it you don't know the tune, period. Don't blame your poor singing voice, children do this and it is tedious.

Noone can internalise the tune and the harmony for you.

Lots of people will put their hands in you pocket until you find this out. Gypsy therapy I think it's called.

bohemewarbler

Hi Stuart, Thanks for the tip! I'm interested in Joscho's online GypsyGuitar Academy. Two questions: (1) Would I have access to all the tunes currently available on the site during, for example, a 3-month membership? And (2) Do you know if it is possible to download those lessons into a format so that the tunes with just Joscho's lead playing can be imported into GarageBand, allowing me to assign myself on a separate track for rhythm guitar playback and self-critique?

NylonDave

I must learn not to shout at the TV whilst the ads are running, it is terribly rude.

Meanwhile. I am looking to lease a camera to film myself looking in the bathroom mirror with my eyes closed. It's terribly hard to frame the shot so maybe I could get a lifesize dummy with my precise proportions and set it up so I can get it just right. This is really important to me as I am going to try and start shaving better soon and don't want to be reliant on seeing what is happening in real time, as my eyes will be closed. But with the camera running I know I will be able to look back and fix the cuts .......or something.

Anyone got links to a website offering this service ?

kevingcox

Well that got weird quickly.

There is a program called Any Video Converter that basically let's you put any video you have into another format (audio or video). I use it all the time so that I can make mp3s of youtube videos and the like.

NylonDave

It is difficult to share information and advice in a very commercially driven venue. If the OP's perspective was genuine then I would consider his desire to disregard my post as confusing and insulting, if only minimally.

However if the correspondance was as scripted as it seems to be then I understand the disregard more easily.

I have no problem with people touting for business openly an in particular have been impressed by Hemert's youtube posts which are excellent. In fact I admire very much many of the many very generous contributors and wish Joscho's site well.

However if a given functionality can be provided easily by a web based site but which simply leads a student down a dead end should we withold advice from an artistic perspective in deference to commercial interests ?

Seems like there is one winner if that is the path taken.

And there really is no need since there is lots of stuff around which reflects the practice habits of professional players (note here Sebastian Giniaux comment that a lot of his practice is simply playing along with existing recordings of the players he admires.)

If it is the case that the acquisitive instinct should be respected most then I am very comfortable with not posting any more as I always believed politeness when used as an excuse to exclude common sense from a conversation is not particularly useful, even though it is so terribly common. I have no particular axe to grind and if I am upsetting the status quo I need never post again. I shan't lose a penny.

I didn't claim to be a competent player, I am just another student who rues all the time wasted following bad advice.

Anyway I thought it was funny that this just came up after I made new thread which had hoped might be amusing about the counterproductive habit of providing useless material to enthusiasts which just leads them blindly down the garden path.

D.

NylonDave

It is difficult to share information and advice in a very commercially driven venue. If the OP's perspective was genuine then I would consider his desire to disregard my post as confusing and insulting, if only minimally.

However if the correspondance was as scripted as it seems to be then I understand the disregard more easily.

I have no problem with people touting for business openly an in particular have been impressed by Hemert's youtube posts which are excellent. In fact I admire very much many of the many very generous contributors and wish Joscho's site well.

However if a given functionality can be provided easily by a web based site but which simply leads a student down a dead end should we withold advice from an artistic perspective in deference to commercial interests ?

Seems like there is one winner if that is the path taken.
.And surely there is no real need since there is lots of stuff around which reflects the practice habits of professional players (note here Sebastian Giniaux comment that a lot of his practice is simply playing along with existing recordings of the players he admires.)

If that is the case that we must take everything at face value at all times I am very comfortable with not posting, I actually have no interest in offending anyone.

I didn't claim to be a competent player, I am just another student who rues all the time wasted following bad advice.

Anyway I thought it was funny that this just came up after I made new thread which had hoped might be amusing about the counterproductive habit of providing useless material to enthusiasts which gets in the way. As usual of course I was wrong.

D.

NylonDave

Well well, if people are gonna point out my obtuseness I guess I shouldn't object =D>

bohemewarbler

Hey everybody, I certainly didn’t mean to upset anyone. I should have thanked everyone who contributed something to help me in my quest in my first posting reply. My thinking at the time was that I would wait until the thread more or less ran its course before thanking everyone for his or her assistance in my quest. Since Stuart’s post seemed to immediately respond most directly to what I was looking for, I wanted to thank him directly with two follow-up questions that I also thought would be of interest to this forum.

And just to set the record straight: I’m not a beginner to this genre. However, I am strictly and unashamedly a rhythm player. Our role is not as dazzling and prestigious as the lead players, but we can be just as classy and smart in our ability to bring out the best in a lead player and overall GJ sound.

So my quest is to be the best rhythm player I can be. I've been trying out different rhythm techniques for quite some time. And now I want to be able to isolate my sounds as much as possible. Naturally, I play along with recordings that inspire me and try to detect those nuances that make the rhythm guitar outstanding in some way. But it’s really difficult to truly isolate one’s playing while the recorded rhythm guitar is still present. That was the reason for my original post: To recreate a trio experience in which I can isolate my own rhythm playing at home, then play back the recording for self-analysis and critique in my quest for perfection – or at least confident satisfaction.

Going back then to Stuart’s original reply: Unfortunately, at first glance at the website, the Joscho’s play-alongs to “rhythm on” feature his lead playing with a click track, but no bass track, while Nous’che Rosenberg’s lessons have a bass track, but no lead.

Alas, I’m still searching for those play-alongs to "rhythm on" that feature both lead and bass sans rhythm guitar! If there are none out there, there ought to be.

NylonDave

Hi, sorry for being facetious.

If you really want to practice like this then Band in a Box is your best bet. It has a feature to turn every possible combination of melody/soloist/rhythm section on and off.

It is computer generated so it cannot interact with you but then again neither can any other playalong.

And I think that this is maybe the problem with this kind of practice, since you yourself cannot put the band off you don't get the feedback you need to know if what you are doing is helping or hurting. Also if you have a lot of attractive stuff to listen to you will maybe paper over the cracks of the aural impression you yourself are giving.

And this thing is if you take this kind of practice to a jam session then you might be in the habit of stepping on peoples toes, indeed everyone else might be. So the whole thing can be really musically unrewarding. I hear some overproduced contemporary JG that sounds like this but I never ever hear it on a Django track. The practice with the slow metronome (especially of you are singing the tune) is actually much more revealing and instructive than the bells and whistle approach.

If you were to record that all the areas you needed to work on would scream at you, whereas a recording of yourself over a professionally produced rhythm track may well not.

All this being said this is advice that I probably need to take more than you as I do not currently own a single plectrum.

One last idea, record a simple bass line (on guitar will do) while you listen to a click track with headphones. Critique and repeat. Now listen to that track and record a few chorus of yourself playing rhythm. Critique and repeat. Now take your favourite take of a single bass line chorus and your favourite take of rhythm and have that loop, solo over that (listening with headphones) and record yourself. Critique and repeat.
When you get a take you like record yourself playing rhythm over that solo.

If you spend a lot of time like this you will have really have worked on a tune and you will have really noticed the things which are offputting in your playing.


We all need ONE resource and one resource alone and that resource is DISCIPLINE. You cannot buy it and I think that whilst technology is fun it has turned jazz musicians who are not careful into exalted Karaoke singers.


One last thing, soloists talk a lot about tension and realease. Now if you are playing music with relatively simple harmony you need to use dynamics to give the impression of movement. Since well voiced jazz harmony has movement within it an awful lot of people weigh each chord equally. But it is much more rewarding to play with someone who has an emotional narrative which reflects their feelings in the moment about the harmony. With la Pompe this can only really be conveyed with dynamics. And this will result in a much more subtle and nuanced performance. If you just try and play strong and even then because there is no actual narrative arc or tension and release there will be nothing to draw the listener in so all they can do is wait for mistakes. And you as the player will be a listener too and that can be a stressful position. And the soloist who has to play over this will be forced to ignore you or feel that stress.

D.

Hemert

Stuart, there are actually of couple of tracks in the Noushe course (five if I'm not mistaken in the advanced course) with both Stochelo and me (on violin) taking solos!