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I am looking for recommendations as to what is available these days for beginning students to use to play along with, presumably where a particular instrument could be tuned out (fiddle, in this case), and one has a choice of a number of standard tunes, adjustable tempo and time signature, and so forth. What do people find useful for relatively inexperienced players? I assume this sort of thing would be an online subscription service, but any mode is acceptable. Thanks in advance.
-Allan
I have used and enjoyed Band In a Box for many years, mostly as a fancy better-sounding metronome, but also as a way to practice soloing for fiddle tunes and jazz standards. The sound quality of the instruments isn't amazing, but it does the job. The drawback, in terms of your question, is that while there are tons of preset rhythmic styles, you don't get any songs. You have to chart out all the chords yourself, which isn't awful but it sure would be nice to not have to, sometimes.
The most popular one I see folks using is Strum Machine. The sound quality is much better (although it may just be acoustic guitar? Could be wrong about that)- and has tons of standard repertoire available, which you can transpose to any key. I probably should switch, but you know how it is when you get used to one thing... old dogs new tricks, etc.
Free Bluegrass Backing Tracks.
Also iReal Pro software (not free). Then download the two available bluegrass playlists, over 500 tracks total. All user-generated, so quality varies and some are downright bad. You can change tempos and keys. The midi tracks don't sound anywhere near as good as those from Band in a Box, but at a fraction of the cost they're good enough.
Another idea that just occurred to me is the free TEFview software that plays TablEdit ".tef" tablature files. To use this for the purpose you describe, download .tef files of the tunes you want (from here on the Hangout and other places) and keep the ones in which the tab writers included backup instrumental tracks (as I did in most of my tabs) and delete the ones in which they didn't.
Good luck.
I second Band in a Box software. You can in put chords to any song, play at any speed, loop it where it plays the tune over as many times as you need. You can also add repeats, 1st and 2nd endings, codas, etc. It does a lot more than that, but for beginners, it's great for learning new tunes and checking your timing on any song. If your timing is off, you'll know because BIAB doesn't slow down for you, it just keeps on the beat.
It's a little pricey, but if you get just the basic software, it's not too bad.
I've used it for over 20 years and it definitely helped me when I was a beginner and learning.
strummachine.com has been very useful for me. Lots of trad tunes there. Easy to put in your own chord progressions. Set your own tempo, auto-speedup feature, looping or single play, arranging parts. Free trial period. $50 per year. I make use of it daily.
+1 for Strum Machine. I use it every day on my phone connected to a bluetooth speaker. It's very easy to use. Over 1,300 songs in the included library, and you can add songs or save a copy of a song from the standard library, make changes, and save it in your personal library. Standard band setting includes bass, guitar, and mandolin, and you can add or remove instruments. Free two-week trial. The paid subscription is $5/month or $49/year, cancel at any time.
quote:
Originally posted by Old HickoryFree Bluegrass Backing Tracks.
I believe these tracks are generated using Band-in-a-Box. Thus, they may serve as an indication of what your own backing tracks will likely sound like if you use/master Band-in-a-Box.
I use a free drum computer program and bass and guitar strum samples for the various chords. This doesn't sound all that great but it's good enough for practice. And I can generate backing tracks for any song or tune I want to practice. My recordings of "Jerusalem Ridge" and "Salt Spring" in my profile's media section are using such backing tracks.