1. What are jam tracks?
Jam tracks can be thought of as the guitar solo section of a song, minus the guitar solo. The guitar player puts the jam track CD in a CD player, grabs a guitar and practices soloing, strumming chords, or playing scales along with the jam track. It is like jamming with friends, except a lot more convenient, and you don't have to provide it with food and beverages!
3. How can I buy jam tracks from Best Jam Tracks?
All jam tracks created by Best Jam Tracks are available on iTunes and Amazon.com as MP3 digital downloads You can find them by opening iTunes, going to the iTunes store, and searching for "Best Jam Tracks". If you want a physical CD, you can purchase one from Amazon.com - just open a new browser window, navigate to Amazon.com and search for "Best Jam Tracks" or "BestJamTracks".
This website also offers a way to get to the tracks via iTunes. Click on Jam Tracks on the menu to find them.
2. Why should I buy jam tracks from Best Jam Tracks?
Jam tracks available at Best Jam Tracks were made by talented musicians with a broad range of experience. Each jam track represents the best ideas put forth by a collection of artists. The tracks are diverse, and include a wide range of styles and tempos, which makes jamming to tracks very similar to jamming with friends. Have you ever been to a jam in which every song is the same tempo and style? If so, it probably wasn't a lot of fun. High-quality instruments and recording gear were used to achieve the best possible tones. The artists involved in the recordings are fanatical about good musical tones. You might find a free or super cheap jam track online, but it won't sound as good. When you are jamming to a jam track, you'll spend quite a bit of time listening to that track. If the track has even one bad sounding instrument, the fun factor goes down dramatically. You can buy a Best Jam Tracks song from iTunes for 99 cents. You don't need any other expensive equipment like you might with other jamming tools.
4. I'm only a beginner guitar player. Will these work for me?
Yes. The tracks can be used to practice scales, simple solos, or can be use to compose complex solos that use a myriad of concepts and techniques.
5. I'm an experienced guitar player. Will these be challenging enough?
Yes. Some of the best rock and blues guitar solos were built off of simple 3-chord rhythm patterns. These jam tracks have enough chords to make the songs interesting, but not so many that you are limited in your scale choices. To challenge yourself more, you can move beyond the pentatonic scales, and play modal scales, arpeggios, intervals, etc.
7. Were the tracks created using MIDI or loops?
No MIDI. Loops are used sparingly, and only when it makes sense. Most of the instruments are recorded live to replicate the experience of playing live with friends. Each song has a chord progression that spans anywhere from 2 to 12 measures, with the chord progression repeating for the duration of the song. That enables the guitar player to hear the same part over and over again, and really focus in on perfecting riffs and solos.
