free jam tracks - brought to you by nick cresswell

Play Guitar Rock 02

01 C Jammin' With Little Eythan mp3 wma
unplugged acoustic version mp3 wma
Time/size: 5 mins 38 secs/7.74mb
Rock jam track: Progression is verse: C-C9, F-F9, G-G9 chorus: C9, D/F#, F, G-G9 (80 beats per minute/bpm)
Backing track instruments: electric guitar, bass and drums
Suggestions: This track is split between verse and chorus that go for 9 bars each section.
Play a C Major scale over the progression, use plenty of 9ths.

Chris Cornell - Black Hole Sun

02 G Let the Marching Band Go mp3 wma
Time/size: 5 mins 15 secs/7.23mb
Style: Straight ahead Rock in G (130 beats per minute/bpm)
Backing instruments: electric guitar, bass and drums

Progression: C9-G5 over 2 bars x 4, then a G riff over 2 bars x 4
You could think of the C9 chord as just a variation of the G chord. ie the C is the 4th (or 'sus' ie suspended) of the G chord and the 9th of the C chord is the 5th of the G.

You can get carried away with theory though - what we are really dealing with here is sounds. The G riff runs down from the 6th to the Root - (6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd to Root) x 3 & (6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd, 7th to Root) x 1.

I absolutely love Pearl Jam - that's what I had in mind when I was coming up with this track.

Suggestion(s): Play a G Major scale over the progression and then try a G Mixolydian scale.

G Major is: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#

G Mixolydian is: G, A, B, C, D, E, F

Can you see the difference between the G Major (Ionian Mode) and G Mixolydian Modes?
The Mixolydian scale uses a b7 instead of the Major 7. That one note is the only difference between those 2 scales. Simple, but it gives a total different sound using the b7 instead of the Major 7th.

Play around with it - that's what this website is all about - not telling you what to play or that one thing sounds better or something is right or wrong - there are no rights & no wrongs, it's all up to your ear, imagination and your soul.

Music is not intellectual, it's about feel, groove, experimentation, exploration, communication and fun. Play it from your heart.

03 E Float Like a Butterfly mp3 wma
Time/size: 6 mins 24 secs/8.79mb
Style: Grunge-Rock in E (108 beats per minute/bpm)
Backing instruments: electric guitar, bass and drums
Progression: E - F#sus7, Bsus - A7
Suggestion(s): Try playing the E Lydian scale over this progression. It makes absolutely no sense to me why this scale works over these chords but it sounds pretty nice to me.

The Lydian scale uses the same notes as are used in the Major scale except you raise the 4th degree of the scale. In the key of E, we raise the A of the E Major scale to play the A#. Thisgives us the E Lydian scale.

E Lydian Scale. 2 Octaves starting in 6th position (ie index finger on the 6th fret).

E|---------------------------------------------9--11--12--
B|-----------------------------7--9--11--12---------------
G|-------------------6--8--9-------------------------------
D|---------6--8--9-----------------------------------------
A|--7--9---------------------------------------------------
E|----------------------------------------------------------

Pearl Jam - Black