free jam tracks - brought to you by nick cresswell

Latest Updates

FJT Latest Updates:

January 28th:
Two new jam tracks. First up we get funky with Salmon in Spring. Then you can put on your cowboy boots and head down to play Both Kinds of Music. Both tunes include jam tracks for guitarists, bass players and drummers.

January 8th:
Funky blues with a spring in its step. Off Beat Blues

December 27th:
12 bar blues jam track Howlin' Wolf in the key of A. Guitar jam track, bass jam track, drum jam track and drum chart.

December 10th:
Free Jam Tracks mobile site. Same great jam tracks customized so you can download tracks on your mobile. www.JamTracks.mobi

November 24th:
A friend of free jam tracks built a guitar. Seriously cool work: James Cherry's Guitar Project .

November 23rd:
A couple of fantastic performances posted from YouTube on the front page.

September 16th:
Music Lawyers is a jam track in the key of C that you can play guitar, bass or drums over.

August 21st:
Nova Bling rock/hip hop style vamp over a G chord. Jam with the G Blues Scale and G Mixolydian Mode. Nova Bling Drum Chart.

July 18th:
Russell's Shuffle. Blues jam track in the key of E. Jam along with guitar, bass or drums. Russell's Shuffle Drum Chart.

June 29th:
Jimmy Jam. Rock jam track with a pulse in the key of C for guitarists, bass players and drummers.

May 27th:
Rockabilly jam track Cowboy Kent Strut Jam tracks for guitar, bass and drums.

April 28th:
The Dog and The Chooks. Funk-Rock jam track filled with syncopation in the key of Ab. Jam tracks for guitarists, bass players and drummers (including drum chart). Time to get funky.

April 26th:
New section: Give the Drummer Some Learn to Read Drum Notation. Drum charts with mp3/wma files that take you step by step through learning how to read, transcribe and write for drums. These are the building blocks to take your drumming beyond the next level. Learn to read and I'll put up some hard/really fun stuff.

April 26th:
On Our Way Home. Tune in the key of C with backing tracks for: guitar/lead, bass players and drummers.

April 23rd:
Very Proud of You. Jimi Hendrix inspired tune and backing track.

April 15th:
Blues with soul for guitarists, bass player and drummers. Cookin' Green Onions.

April 15th:
Bob's Country Bunker. Guitar tune and backing track in the key of A.

April 14th:
The Coolest Band in the World. Texas blues jam tracks for guitar, bass and drums.

April 13th:
Rock n Grohl: new jam track for Guitarists, Bass Players and Drummers in the key of Nirvana. Comes with guitar tab for chords and scales suggestions, bass guitar tab and the drum chart.

April 12th:
New jam track that comes with a Warning of Guitar Insanity: Captain Mudbank

April 9th:
Zappa Ahoy a tune and backing track you can jam over using the D# Locrian scale. Includes guitar tab for the D# Locrian scale in five positions. Time to get experimental.

April 5th:
New jam track in the key of E: My Fingers Are Killing Me Comes with complete tune and guitar tab, scale suggestions and the backing track. Also has ideas on using drum rudiments with rhythm guitar playing.

April 2nd:
Music theory by a guitarist and bass player for guitarists and bass players: Music Notes and Numbers. Includes guitar tab, example mp3/wma and a track 'Thank God for Nirvana', that uses one note to show you the power of simplicity in music.

March 28th:
I've added a blog to Free Jam Tracks called Jammin'. Nothing fancy - just a place where I can post additional ideas about the jam tracks on the site and on music in general. You can also add comments and your thoughts if you so desire. We'll just see how this goes over the next few weeks. Update - I took these pages down from the site. I can just add what I want to the jam tracks pages. I don't have any need for a blog.

March 22nd:
More pages of guitar insanity. Chemo Brain - tune plus backing track in the key of E with scale suggestions you'll want to tell your neighbors about.

March 9th:
New jam track and tune with full guitar tab:
Freddy Alcheringa
This one's in the key of G. I've put up guitar tab for the G blues scale as well as the tab for the lead guitar I played in the tune. You can start with that but ultimately you want to come up with your own guitar parts and solo.

March 7th:
New jam track and the tune it came from: Edan's Cutting Horse Theme. I've broken the guitar parts down step by step so you can learn some guitar licks using the E Major scale.
Warning: the music theory is bordering on guitar-insanity.

March 4th:
4 new jam tracks. Each track includes guitar tab for scales you can use to play along with the progressions.
A Progression
Eb Progression
E Progression
G Progression

March 1st:
New surf rock jam track for guitar players, bass guitarists and drummers: Cruisin at Apollo Bay.

February 22nd:
Bass tab for JC Guitars Tambourine Day.

February 21st:
I updated the right hand side logo while I was mastering a new jam track. I tried to upload the new track but my internet connection kept failing. My internet connection is an empty can of beans that has an old piece of string tied to it. It runs out to a garbage can out the back of the place I'm staying at and gets picked up by various satellites if the wind is blowing in the right direction. I'll have another go at it tomorrow.

February 14th:
A Motown inspired groove with this backing track for guitarsts, bass players and drummers: JC Guitars Tambourine Day.

February 13th:
Rhythm guitar tab for A Medium Shuffle Blues on the Play Guitar Blues 01. If you want to learn to play blues rhythm guitar, this is a good place to start.

January 2nd:
New chord shape of the week: A6. Use this chord to play a really cool sounding blues or jazz style progression.

December 29th:
Punk backing track Rotten Punk. Note, I've put the guitar, bass and drum backing track on the one page.

December 26th:
More backing tracks for free, sorted by key signature, coming soon.

December 6th:
Home page YouTube video of Eric Johnson playing his tune East Wes. It's a great live version with awesome tone and a killer bass solo in it.

November 25th:
New blues jam track, Blues for Yous, in the key of A. This one is for guitar and lead instruments. The jam tracks for bass players and drummers will be up in the next few days.

November 17th:
Home page YouTube classic of Bill Withers and band playing a great live version of Ain't No Sunshine.

October 3rd:
Let's bring it all down with a laid back acoustic rock track using just two chords: D Major 7 and A Major. Missing Javapuss.

October 2nd:
Here's a Lynyrd Skynyrd inspired jam track for all you Southern Rockers out there called Free Songdog.

October 1st:
Alrighty! The new multi-track recorder has arrived. What better way to Christen it than with a new jam tracks. I've had a few requests to make some jam tracks with me playing only acoustic guitar. So here is the first track, with a salute to the shop I bought the Zoom HD16 from: Capital City Guitars Blues.

September 19th:
Great news: I've just secured a Zoom HD16 multi-track recorder. It's been a long time coming. Watch this space for new jam tracks.

September 4th:
Updated video clips on the home page. The music videos that were on here have been archived on the Music Videos 07 page.

August 15th:
I'm updating the layout. Nothing too fancy - just trying to make it easier to read the information and music theory on the site.

July 7th:
If you just want the downloads, bass players can download most of the jam tracks from here: 79 Jam Tracks for Bass.

July 6th:
Most of the jam tracks for guitar players are available for quick download from the one page: 83 Jam Tracks for Guitar.

July 5th:
I added four blues licks in the key of A using the blues scales at 12th position for jam track: 01 A Cool Jazz Blues Shuffle on the Play Guitar Blues 03 page.

July 4th:
A 12 bar blues bass line for track 8 from the play bass blues 01 page: Medium Blues Shuffle.

July 1st:
New guitar backing track in the key of C: C Wear It.

May 23rd:
Chord shape of the week.

Videos moved to Music Videos 06 and video updates on the home page.

April 5th:
Lesson 06: Building Chords - Part 2. Follows on from Lesson 05 - Building Chords - Part 1 adding minor and Major 3rds to each of the Root + 5th chords.

April 4th:
Lesson 05 from the Guitar Lessons Page: Building Chords - Part I. Learn to build chords using the E Major scale played on the 6th string. Root + 5th chords. Also discusses fingerstyle and hybrid picking techniques.

March 8th:
YouTube - front page - pay attention or go play guitar hero. Just don't come cryin' to me if you wake up in 10 years wondering why you can't play!

February 23rd:
Lesson 04 - E Blues Licks in 7th Position. 6 licks that form a compete blues solo in E.

February 22nd:
Lesson 03 - E Blues Scale in 7th Position. More position shifting, note tone and introduces the idea that music is a conversation.

In case you haven't worked it out already - like most things on this website, the lessons are extremely detailed and overly pedantic in their approach to playing. I'm going to try and add a new lesson every day to the site until my brain turns to jell-o.

February 21st:
Lesson 02 - E Blues Scale Guitar Licks. Learn how to slide into and bend notes.

February 20th:
I'm writing up some guitar lessons for beginners. You can view the lessons on the. Guitar Lessons home page. Lesson 01 is on the E Blues Scale in 10th and 12th position. And teaches basic position shifting.

February 14th:
Everything I know (how I derive): Modes, Pentatonic and Blues Scales. This is not for the faint hearted! Comes with an Excel summary that shows you how you can break down and derive the Major pentatonic and the blues scale from the Modes.

February 4th:
New guitar jam track with chords and music theory. E Rock Groove

Video clips that were on the home page moved here (the Darth Vader playing blues harp is still making me laugh). Music Videos 05

January 24th:
One for a Brother. Brother Russell's Page.

December 13th:
11 Bass Guitar Lessons with examples of each bass lines and backing track to play along with. For beginners wanting to learn to play bass from the ground up.

New chord shape of the week added. A really nice, Hendrix inspired, B6 chord.

December 12th:
Classic blues songs that you can download for free. These are at the bottom of the home page. Including songs by Robert Johnson, Ledbelly and Lightnin Hopkins.

YouTube clips added on the home page. Stevie Ray Vaughan playing Riviera Paradise and a new song by Mumford and Sons. Previous clips of Laura Chavez and Curtis Mayfield moved to music videos 04.

The articles on the Music Concepts page have been updated and are all on the Free Jam Tracks site. Previously they were taking you to EzineArticles.com which is where I first started publishing the articles.

December 6th:
The A Blues Scale in 12th position. On the Play Guitar Blues 03 page.

December 5th:
Videos of: Albert King and Derek Trucks

November 29th:
I'm putting the articles I've written on EzineArticles on pages on free jam tracks.

November 22nd:
Video updates on the home page. The great blues guitarists Laura Chavez and a cool clip of Curtis Mayfield playing his classic Pusherman.

November 16th:
The PayPal donate button was taken off the site because after 2,000 visitors to the site and 5,000 tracks downloaded, no-one helped out. So I went and sold a bunch of records to pay for some of the bills instead.

I need a new multi-track recorded to start recording new jam tracks but I think it's going to take a few months for me to get the money together.

November 9th:
We need a little help to keep the site running so we've added a PayPal donate button to the site. If that doesn't help we're going busking, gigging, teaching and might have to start playing weddings!

November 3rd: New blues jam track for drummers: Nothin But A Jam Again on the Blues Drums Jam Tracks page.

October 6th: Nup - didn't like the page re-names for the guitar pages so instead of moving onto the bass and drum ones I name the guitar pages back to what they were. And I put the old banner logo back up - it was no good navigating through the site without it (in case you don't realize if you click on the logos they take you back to the home page).

So it was like New Coke - FAIL!

The beauty of having a website that you don't earn any money from is that you can do anything you want to it when you want and no one can really complain about it cause they ain't payin'! Kind of like being a jazz musician - that's why they just play random notes and get away with it - they know they're not getting paid so why not throw in a flat 2nd and an augmented diminished raised 4th six-8-nine chord!

October 4th: I put up two new videos on the front page tonight. One is of Eric Johnson playing Cliffs of Dover live. He plays some pretty out there notes in the lead up to it but it all still sounds pretty cool. His tone is something else. Plus I put up a great interview with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the Blues Guitar page. Stevie is sitting down with his guitar and plays through Rude Mood and then a bit of Superstition. 100% groove. Stevie Rave On!

I put the video that was on the home page on Music Videos 04. I don't really state anything about those pages - they are just a random collection of the videos that were on the home page. They are mainly on those pages so I can find them and listen to them more than for anyone else. Like with this page, I don't think too many people read what I write here but a few do and like me - just totally into music and checking out what other people are listening to and all that jazz.

Blog - I think I'm going to have to add a WordPress blog to the Jam Tracks site so I can put all the updates in an ordered format. Then people can opt into a get a feed for when I'm posting new stuff etc - I've just finished re-formatting the entire site and now it's time for me to start really adding new content to the pages - so I'm thinking a blog will help me with that - then the updates page will be automated and ordered. All those in favor say Aye!

October 4th: I spent the entire day cleaning up the headings and making everything look more consistent on the site. It doesn't get much more boring than that - I hope it all looks ok. Now I can get back to playing music and updating the site with The Real Deal.

October 3rd: New Jazz Jam Track added to the Guitar, Bass and Drums pages called: '08 C Jim's 251'. This track was made for a bass player who emailed me asking if I could do a jazz track with a ii V I progression.

September 27th: Privacy, contact and legal pages updated.

September 22nd: New articles published:
12 Bar Blues in E: Easy Guitar Chords - Use 2 note chords to play a blues in E 9/22
Triplets and the Shuffle Rhythm - Fundamentals of counting triplets and shuffle rhythms
Blues Chord Progressions - The Quick Change - Looking at the 2nd bar of a blues 9/22

September 20th: Bass guitar lessons. This is a new page and new for the site. Bass guitar lessons for beginner to intermediate musicians with backing tracks and examples lines to teach you how to construct your own bass lines from the ground up. The lessons will be going up daily over the coming weeks.

New articles published:
12 Bar Blues Progression - The structure of, and how to play, a basic 12 bar blues
How to Write Lyrics - 5 Tips on Songwriting

September 17th: New articles published:
Playing Through Mistakes and Going Unnoticed - 09/16 Story of my life!
Bending the Blue Note - The Secret to Great Blues Guitar Revealed!
How to Tune Your Guitar Down Half a Step - Then Jam with 4, 5 & 10 on Blues Page 01
Play Music With Backing Tracks, Friends, Teachers and Other Musicians - More is More
The Difference Between Acoustic and Electric Guitars

September 15th: New articles published:
Performance Anxiety - Overcoming Nervousness on Stage - 5 Tips
C Dominant 7 - This was a previous chord shape of the week
Songwriting and Multitrack Recording - I'll write up how to record jam tracks soon

September 14th: Chord Shape of the Week: A Major 9, also called an A9 chord..
New page: Guitar Chords. Has the previous chord shape of the week C7. This page is going to become the home page for guitar chords. As you can see I have started writing more about the chord shape of the week; which fingers I'm using to fret each note with and so on. So I'll put together a collection of all the coolest chord shapes/voicings out there to use (especially if you are into Hendrix and SRV) and post them as pages from the Guitar Chords page.

New articles published:
Shut Up and Practice - It's Time to Get Good 09/14 - On goal setting and practice
3 Easy-To-Learn Blues Licks in the Key of A 09/14 - To jam with a blues in A
How To Tune Drums - General and fine tuning.

I am trying to publish at least one article a day. The articles take me anywhere from half-an-hour to two hours to complete. I probably learn more from writing them than you do from reading them!

Taking off the AddThis buttons that I put up under the headings on each page. Even though I want people to post about free jam tracks on social media websites, the buttons don't look very good and are annoying when you hover the mouse anywhere near them.

September 13th: Essential Drum Books. These are must have books if you want to learn how to play drums. They will teach you rudiments, independence around the kit and much more.

New articles published:

Music Concepts and Instruction
Easy Guitar Chords for Beginners - Teaches you: G, C, D, E and A Major chords.
Easy Guitar Lesson - Learn how to play Knockin' on Heaven's Door (uses chords above).
Chords, Scales and Making Guitar Practice Fun - Take your playing to the next level.
Backing Tracks - Learn to Play Music - An introduction to playing with backing tracks.
Music Practice and Motivation - A small about of effort will give you big results.
Playing at Open Mic Nights - Nick used to run an open mike night and still plays at them.

September 12th: About two weeks ago, Nick started writing articles for EzineArticles.com. Links to the articles will be posted on the home page with the full list here:
Music Concepts - For Guitar, Bass and Drums.

September 5th: Home page music videos: Pete Townsend: Won't Get Fooled Again. Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks: Old Friend. Jim Chapin: The Moeller Technique.
Also added on the home page: Four essential books for drummers.
Carlos Vamos: Always With You Acoustic Tapping. Guitar video moved to Music Videos 03.

September 3rd: Chord shape of the week. C dominant 7th chord with the Root note on the 5th string.

August 23rd: 7 new blues tracks each for Guitar and Bass. Pages Blues 04 and 05.
Guitar: Blues 04, Blues 05 Bass: Blues 04, Blues 05

August 17th: Carlos Vamos on YouTube.

July 25th: Play Guitar Blues 02. Music theory and blues licks for Track 01, A Medium Shuffle.

June 18th: Music Videos 02

June 17th: Play Guitar Rock 01. Ideas and licks for Track 01, Leonard Skinner Rock Out.

June 16th: Jimi dude on the Tube. Nothin' but a jam.

June 10th: FJT jammer Victor playing Dee on YouTube.

June 7th: Front page ramble and a favorite YouTube clip.

June 4th: Play Guitar Blues 01 - Ideas and licks for Track 01.

May 30th: Next section on the front page in the right hand column: Chord shape of the week.

April: Oh - I remember what the biggest update in April was. Some jam tracks for people who want practice playing modes over something - yuk! Play Guitar Modes and Play Bass Modes

April: I can't remember - I have just realized that I haven't been updating this page. I am intending to expand all sections with theory, some licks, chord shapes and so on as I have done with Track 01 on Play Guitar Blues 01. (Note to self, update the Latest Updates page).

March 24th: 10 new lessons & bass lines for bass players on Bass Blues

March 23rd: 1 new track & theory for guitar players on Backing Tracks

March 20th: 3 new rock tracks; Rock 02. Guitar. Bass. Drums.

March 20th: 3 new tracks and pages; Odd Meters. Guitar. Bass. Drums.

March 19th: This page added!