free jam tracks - brought to you by nick cresswell

C Wear It

C Wear It mp3 wma
Time/size: 4 mins 16 secs/6mb
Old school R&B backing track: This is 4 bar R&B progression in C. (98 beats per minute/bpm)
Backing track instruments: electric rhythm guitar, bass and drums.
Progression: This is a I, IV, V progression, played I, V then IV. The I chord is a C5 chord. The V chord is a G5 chord and the IV chord is a F Major chord.

Chords:

Rhythm Guitar Part I

C5
E|--x--
B|--1--
G|--0--
D|--x--
A|--3--
E|--x--

G5
E|--x--
B|--3--
G|--0--
D|--x--
A|--x--
E|--3--

F Major
E|--x--
B|--1--
G|--2--
D|--x--
A|--x--
E|--1--

For rhythm guitar part I, each of the chords above are playing very lightly on the back beat. The back beat is the 2 & 4 of each bar of 4 4. So when you count 1, 2, 3, 4 you'll find the chords above falling on the 2 & the 4.

Rhythm Guitar Part II. Octaves.
E|-------------------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------------------
G|-----5-----7-----9---------5-----7-----5---------5--
D|-------------------------------------------------5----
A|--3-----5-----7---------3-----5-----3---------3-----
E|---------------------------------------------------- --

For rhythm guitar part II the guitar is playing octave up the neck from the 3rd and 5th frets on the 5th (A) and 3rd (G) strings (respectively) and then landing on the C5 chord. The C5 chord is playing over the F Major chord in the 4th bar. Instead of saying it like that you could say that the F Major chord becomes a F9 chord because the C from the C5 chord is the 5th of the F Major chord and the G (the 5 of the C5 chord) is the 9th of the F chord. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't care what you call it, I just like how it sounds. You can call it Nick's Spaghetti and Meatball Chord for all I care!

Suggestions: Use an C Major pentatonic scale over this backing track. Here's 2 positions of the C Major Pentatonic scale and then both patterns combined.

You should note that the C Major pentatonic scale in 5th position is the exact same shape and notes used in the A minor pentatonic scale. The difference is that the Root note of the C Major pentatonic scale is on the 8th fret and the Root note of the A minor pentatonic scale is on the 5th fret. All the notes in each scale are the same except the scale degrees that each note falls on are different.

eg the root of the A minor pentatonic scale is the 1st degree of the A minor pentatonic scale. The root of the C Major pentatonic scale is the 1st degree of the C Major pentatonic scale. The C in the A minor pentatonic scale is the b3rd (flat 3rd) degree of the A minor pentatonic scale.

But here - we are playing the C Major pentatonic scale and our Root note is C.

C Major pentatonic, 7th position, 2 octaves:
E|------------------------------------8--(10)--
B|-----------------------------8--10-----------
G|-----------------------7--9------------------
D|----------------7--10------------------------
A|---------7--10-------------------------------
E|--8--10--------------------------------------

C Major pentatonic, 5th position, 2 octaves:
E|--------------------------------5--8--
B|--------------------------5--8--------
G|--------------------5--7--------------
D|--------------5--7--------------------
A|--------5--7--------------------------
E|--5--8--------------------------------

C Major pentatonic, 5th and 7th positions merged together:
E|--------------------------------5--8--10--8------------------------------------
B|--------------------------5--8---------------10--8-----------------------------
G|--------------------5--7----------------------------9--7-----------------------
D|--------------5--7----------------------------------------10--7----------------
A|--------5--7-----------------------------------------------------10--7---------
E|--5--8------------------------------------------------------------------10--8--

Move up and down the scales above but you want to be musical. So get used to the patterns first but listen to the notes you are playing and how they sound against each of the 3 chords of the progression. As you get more comfortable with the patterns start skipping notes instead of just playing the notes up and down in sequence. The more you mess around with the patterns and the more you listen, the more you'll get out of it and the better you'll become.

How much better is this than Guitar Hero!

Jam on!

Sam and Dave - Soul Man