Trouble playing with backing tracks

  1. Ed McGarrigle
    Ed McGarrigle
    I started on-line lessons with “ online academy of Irish music “ (0aim.ie) in March and have learned a few tunes, currently working on “the connachtman’s ramble”. I’ve been particularly focused on trying to memorize tunes and timing by being able to play along with the instructor Paddy Cummins. My problem is difficulty playing along
    with backing tracks. I can play along with the instructor okay but not with the backing tracks. The backing tracks can be a fiddle and guitar or various other instrumental combinations. Sometimes the 50%-75% just don’t sound ( to me) like the tune at all.
    While playing along with the instructor at a slowed tempo works for me, finding the “space” in a backing track without a mandolin track is not happening.
    I’m wondering what others experiences are and if you have any tips.

    Thanks
    Ed
  2. Spragster
    Spragster
    Do you use any sort of metronome? For me playing to backtracks can be a bit strange as well if the chords or harmonies dont go where I think they should. If i know the tune though and focus more on the timing than the back track i do better. Irish tunes feel less mechanical than the more “american” traditional songs somehow, personally at least. Play the tune at whatevers comfortable, and sooner or later the backtrack will get familiar and hopefully take a back seat to your melody
  3. Ed McGarrigle
    Ed McGarrigle
    I’m kind of scared of metronomes. I suppose I’ll have to face my fears pretty soon.
    This morning on my walk, while listening to the Liz Carrol station on Pandora, I heard a really lovely slow version of “Britches Full of Stitches” by fiddler Martin Hayes.
    This is a tune I’ve gotten pretty well under my fingers so I think I’ll try playing along with it and then go back and forth to the accompaniment tracks on the OAIM website. I guess anyway you cut it, it’s a matter of going back over and over
  4. maudlin mandolin
    maudlin mandolin
    With regard to IT backing tracks I have noticed that sometimes where the tune is being carried by either a fiddle or flute it can be slurred and ornamented so much that it almost disappears; so you could either try to concentrate on the guitar and other rhythm instruments in your existing tracks or find tracks which are purely rhythm and just play the tune using the backing track to keep in time.
  5. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    Why not create your own backing track?

    If you want to keep the beat, seems to me a metronome (which is your friend, Ed!) is a must, at least initially.
  6. Louise NM
    Louise NM
    Ed, are you learning the tunes by ear or from notation? If notation is provided I find it helpful to look at what the other part is playing, or to listen carefully to figure out what's going on. If the accompaniment rhythm is quarter notes and you're playing eighths, for instance, you know you play two notes for each one of theirs.

    If you have a recording of the instructor playing with the backing track, play along with that, too, and not just with the instructor playing the unaccompanied melody. Then go it alone.

    While playing at 50 or 75% tempos there is a good chance you are getting ahead. Long notes at the ends of phrases last forever in a slow tempo, and in the easier sections it's hard to hold back, even if the slow tempo is comfortable in the rocky stretches.

    And, as others have said, a day at the metronome spa is always helpful.
  7. Sherry Cadenhead
    Sherry Cadenhead
    I tend to play ahead, as Louise has described. It helps me to count half notes as 1 & 2 &, rather than 1 2 - when I think to do it!
  8. JeffLearman
    JeffLearman
    Get over your fear of the metronome. It's a great tool. I'm new to mando (or will be soon, when I get my kit built.) But I've played guitar for 50 years, and wish I'd started with the metronome earlier and not waited into my 20's.

    With an instrument like guitar and mando, a really cool thing can happen when playing along with a metronome. When you really nail it, the metronome disappears and becomes part of your instrument's tone rather than a separate click. It's a magical feeling, and helps motivate getting better.

    A trick I like is to try to "play" the metronome. It helps get to that golden place I just mentioned.

    And of course, one of the best things to do with metronome, for most western popular music, is to learn to use it with the clicks on 2 and 4 rather than 1 2 3 4. It's a bit tricky the first time you try, but gets easier, and once started, feels really natural. The click acts as the backbeat, a lot more like playing with others or a drummer. It's just good for you, too.
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