Easy Guitar Chords: Backing Tracks

Backing Tracks and Handouts Package for Guitar Teachers

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Many guitar teachers choose to (or would like to) supply their students with easy chord guitar backing tracks as an aid to practice.

teachwombat have a set of eight downloadable guitar backing tracks with handouts featuring the easy guitar chord diagrams to go along with them. The materials especially designed to be used not only for novice players learning open position chords but also for intermediate standard musicians who wish to work on bar chords, soloing etc. You can drop the tracks onto CD or even email them to your customers to allow them to practice guitar more efficiently.

The chord sequences like the one above which features the chords of A D and G are largely based around the CAGED Guitar system which is used by teachers around the World as a way of developing novice musicians. The Chords in open position are C A Am G E Em D and Dm (hence CAGED).For absolute beginners this means that they are exposed to a set of open position chords generally regarded as the easiest and most useful to learn.
The backing tracks and handouts in the package are directed not only at total beginners but at the intermediate level players who need to develop skills with relation to bar chords/knowledge of the neck etc. To this end some of the handouts feature bar chord root finders as well as the relevant chord diagrams.

The backing tracks encourage a student not only to learn the shapes and change from one to the other but more importantly to make those changes in time with the music.

Its the distinction between awareness of the chords and familiarity with them. In educational terms this makes a huge difference to a student's progression

The Backing Tracks In Use With a Beginner

Lets take a closer look at just one of our backing tracks and the handouts that go with it.

We have a rock style backing track that uses a repeated chord progression consisting of one bar of each of the following chords. A C D and E. The chords are part of the CAGED System as it applies to the beginner and are all featured on the free Caged Guitar System handout that you can download free from this site.

Beyond The Basics: The SameTrack And "Power Chords"

The same backing track can be used again when the student is at a slightly more advanced stage (once they have mastered the basic open chords and the ability to move between them) The track can now be used to help develop a facility to play "power chords" (and from there work towards a situation where they will be able to handle full barre chords).

The handout featuring "Two Note Power Chords" which explains the principle behind the shape (simply a root note combined with another a fifth above it) and which also has a "Bar Chord Root Finder" on it serves as an aid to study and also helps develop in the student a "map of the neck"

Working Towards Full Bar Chords

After mastering two note power chords its a relatively straightforward process to extend this principle to include the "fuller sounding" three note versions (featuring another note an octave above the root)

Again a "Root Finder" is supplied along with diagrams which will help a teacher to explain the principles behind the lesson.

Practicing three note power chords is an ideal preparation for the next step which is to develop the ability to form full bar chord shapes.

Bar Chords With Roots On The A and E Strings

Full Bar Chords now with root notes to be found on the E and A Strings.
A root finder is again provided in order to increase a students familiarity with the neck of the guitar. By asking students to use the root fider (rather than just by telling them where to play the relevant shapes) your customers are more likely to develop a "joined up" knowledge of the neck and move from a situation of "imitation" towards one of "understanding" which when you think about it is the whole point of the exercise?

First Steps Toward Soloing

This guitar teaching sheet features the A minor pentatonic scale at the bottom of the neck. It is particularly suitable for novice players who wish to develop single note skills because they are ablle to generate "feel" without having to bend strings by sliding between the notes (eg sliding up from the B string at the third fret to the same string at the fifth fret or from the B string at the third fret down to the first). Working with this shape can be very satisfying for beginners as even those with a basic technique can produce "authentic" sounding lines

There are a series of tab grids to the right of the neck where teachers can write down licks and figures appropriate to the students current ability.
There is another sheet (not shown) which adds a further octave to the scale and takes it down to the A Sring Open

A teacher can use this shape as the ideal preparation for the next one where the scale is played in a different (more common?) position and bending notess can be introduced.

Extending The Am Pentatonic Scale

The sheet on the left shows the Am Pentatonic Scale played in a more common position (with the first finger positioned behind the fifth fret). Playing here allows students to bend strings (particularly the third string at the 7th fret with the third finger and the second string at the 8th fret with the pinkie)
Again there are several lines of blank tab that you can use to write down licks and runs for your students.
The scale is illustrated with shaded circles but the scales previously learned (at the bottom of the neck) are also shown in white so that a teacher is able to supply licks and figures that move between the shapes on the neck

Extending The Am Pentatonic Scale

There are two more handouts (shown on the left) which further extend the scale.
In addition to the rock backing track featuring the chords of A, C, D and E there is another (slower-funkier) backing track which uses the chords of A minor, D minor and E.

This track is also well suited to solos and single note phrases drawn from the A minor pentatonic scale and it is possible to transfer the knowledge and technical expertise developed whilst working on one track to the next.

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How To Use The Backing Track

Below you can see some of the guitar teacher's student handouts that go along with this track
The first features the open chords and is designed to help the novice work through from a position where they will be able to strum each chord once as the changes come around to a situation where they can make more involved "down-up" strumming patterns

The second sheet shows the bar chord shapes for the progression and is intended to be used with intermediate level guitar students
The third handout that you can see shows the bar chords along with the Am Pentatonic scale and is intended to help with the development of single note and soloing skills

A tip when usin this sheet is to ask the student to play the chord as it changes and then to provide short single note fills before playing the next chord (these fills can either be from their own heads or you can provide appropriate figures as the lesson progresses)
This has the effect of breaking the single note sections into "short bursts" so that your guitar students are not confronted with the daunting prospect of having to solo over a long section of music. After a while of playing the "short phrases" longer sections of single note passages will not seem anywhere near as scarey?

A Job Teaching Guitar?
How Good Do You Need To Be?

Used along with the Guitar and Bass Teacher's Toolkits the Backing Tracks and Handouts package provide all of the materials that a reasonably competent guitarist would need to make the move into teaching. If you are currently wondering if teaching guitar might be for you it might be worth taking a look at our page which looks at the question "How good do you need to be to teach guitar ?"

The page features an extended version of an article that Rob (one of the teachwombat team) produced for "ultimateguitar.com" and looks at the qualities that someone setting out to teach guitar might have as well as providing loads of ideas for easy songs for guitar students to learn in the early stages of playing.

Backing Tracks with Handouts for Guitar Teachers

Download now for only $16.00 or bundle with the guitar and bass teacher's toolkits for just $25.00

Download The Backing Tracks and Handout Package now for
Only $16.00