Want to get even better at playing licks, riffs, and solos on the guitar?

Try playing with a guitar backing track!

Backing tracks have been around as long as cassette tapes have, and before that, lots of great guitarists polished their skills by playing along with the radio.

They provide the same rhythmic assistance as a metronome, but with other instruments added in, so you get the live feeling of playing with a real band. Using a backing track will help you get a sense for how your playing sounds with other instruments, whether or not you have a band of your own.

A backing track will help you play with an actual drum kit, with snares, kick drums, and cymbal hits, rather than with a simple beep of a metronome. It will help your ear find melodies and harmonies that fit with an overall sound of a band, and allow you to improvise while staying in key.

In the Fret Zealot app, you can find dozens of backing tracks for every genre and mood. Each track shows the chord progression in real time, so you can either play along or solo within the notes of the chord. Your optional Fret Zealot LEDs will light up in coordination with the backing track to give you a fully immersive experience with three options for each track:

1. Chords
2. Scales
3. Chords & Scales

We recommend using 1 or 2 as the third option can be a little busy in terms of LED displays, but it’s there as an option if you want it!

Check out these backing track packs for hours of play-along:

Blues Backing Track Pack