At the bottom of the page there is a backing track to play along with a blues in A. This is a 12-bar and the progression is: I – IV – I – I – IV – IV – I – I – V7 – IV – (I-IV) – (I-V7) where the last two measure contain two chords each. In the key of A this works out to: A – D – A – A – D – D – A – A – E7 – D – (A-D) – (A-E7).
If you are playing along with the track for the first time, start by playing the chord progression as shown above or in the sheet you can download below. Pay particular attention the the shuffle rhythm; it is prominent in the drum track. I describe the rhythm as that of a train: chug-a-chug-a-chug-etc. Notice the triplet feel to the rhythm.
When you are comfortable playing the chords along with the track, move on to the rhythmic accompaniment shown in the sheet you can download above. The basic accompaniment, shown for the A chord, is as follows:
At any time, you can “jam” along with the backing track. To begin, use the Am/C Pentatonic scale, which you can download below.
There are other scales we use to jam along with the backing tracking, most notably the A Blues Scale. This scale differs from Am/C by one note; the diminished 5th also known an augmented 4th. In the key A, this is Eb. You can download this scale below but I leave it up to student to identify the Ebs beyond the first position.
To hear the backing tracking, press play on the player below. Have fun and enjoy.