Advanced backing track and free drum loops

As a guitar player, I have always been on the lookout for good-sounding backing tracks that I could play lead over. And while there are some pretty good ones out there – mostly of 12-bar blues backings – it’s hard to find the difficult-to-play stuff that will actually help me develop as a musician. At least for free. That led Magnus and myself to start thinking about doing our own series of free backing tracks in genres such as fusion, funk, progressive rock and instrumental hard rock. But then we thought some more… We already produce our popular free Jam of the Month MIDI drum loops, so why not combine the two and include some live recorded MIDI drum loops too? Said and done. The first one is called Fools (originally called Fools Golden Ratio), and it was written around 2009, back when OddGrooves was an actual band. You know, with gigs and stuff. We even had groupies (our wives). To hear the track (with me playing the lead parts) simply click Play on the Soundcloud section below. To download, scroll down and click the green button.

Magnus Brandell: Drums
Per Ulfhielm: Guitar, bass, keys, composer and producer

What’s included?

• A backing track
• Sample 13/8 and 4/4 MIDI drum loops
• All for FREE with no strings attached

Download Fools backing track and free MIDI drum loops

Playing the fool

No, I’m not going to tell you how to play this. I’ll tell you how I usually play it, though. The time signature alternates between 13/8 and 4/4, and the tempo is 93 BPM. During the 13/8 parts (kind of like a verse, only not so much…?), I sort of hover around a D dorian mode, fiddling with both minor and major third for a little extra bluesy touch. I’m also doing some chromatic runs, which I’m not going into detail about (mainly because I don’t know what the hell I’m doing most of the time, but chromatic scales sound badass!).

The 4/4 sections (let’s call it a chorus, shall we?) have some chromatic changes, with a bunch of tight intervals that can make you sound like you really got some chops if you manage to hit the right notes at the right time (did I mention that chromatic sounds badass?). If you don’t, just put on your ”jazz face” and pretend you meant to play that minor second over the major seventh chord (ouch!).

So, this song can be pretty useful when practising odd time signatures.

Record your own version and share it

I REALLY wanna hear your take on this track. So, if you record a version that you are comfortable with sharing with the world, simply send me an e-mail at [email protected] with a link to your Soundcloud, Reverberation, Youtube or whereever you uploaded it, along with a couple of notes on who you are and the gear you use and I’ll post it right here on oddgrooves.com.

And while you’re here, why not share this page with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or whatever?

Cheers,
Per