How to play with a blues backing track in A
I found this backing track here: www.learningguitarnow.com/free-blues-backing-tracks/free-blues-backing-track-slow-blues-in-a/
Now I try playing it with this scale:
Will this work out? Because as a beginner I do not know if the backing track is in A Blues as well. It only says its in the key of "A".
How to figure out if this will work?
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Backing track says Blues in A. It should be using the dominant sevenths of each chord. The order ought to be
A7 A7 A7 A7
D7 D7 A7 A7
E7 D7 A7 E7
the E7 being the turnaround chord to get to the next verse.
The guitar neck pattern is the minor blues scale in A, so notes will fit.
Don't just play up and down the scale - it sounds awful - you want awesome!
Try to play the chord notes on the first beat of each bar to start with. Then add some of the other notes between. Use your ears more than anything else. You'll find some notes just won't sound good over certain chords, and others will sound bad in a good way.Short notes will fit almost anywhere, so it's the longer notes you need to be careful with - vibrato will sound good with them.
I struggled with this, and "use your ears" isn't always the right answer if you're not Eric Clapton and unblessed with prodigious natural talent, rather just a willingness to learn.
There are lots of variations on the blues chord progression too. You need to know the chord progression and so which chords come along in which sequence. However I never knew a way to pick which notes would sound good. This guide (admittedly for bass guitar) shows you which elements of each chord to use heavily and which to leave alone, or to use sparingly. It was this article that demystified it all for me.
Jarek is right to say that you do need to learn the vocabulary of phrases and their rhythms to sound "authentic" but its good to start by sounding musically literate first. Its a huge confidence boost and every learner needs that.
See also here simple discussion of note choices in another answer for an excellent answer from Michael Martinez.
Bass guitar for dummies article on note choices for chord progressions
It should work fine. Just make sure your guitar is tuned well (use tuner). If you need a sanity check play the lowest A note on your guitar (open 5th string or 5th fret on low E string) and it should be the same note, the bass guitar plays at the beginning of the track.
Now, how to make a blues scale sound like a blues is another thing. Blues scale is only a selection of notes that fit well to basic blues chord progression and work well more or less throughout the whole progression. But these notes are more like a letters of blues alphabet and blues is a language that, as all languages, starts from words.
The best way to start playing the blues is simply by learning and copying existing vocabulary of phrases, licks ect. Then as an afterthought you might think about how they fit into blues scale. Sometimes they won't as the blues scale is not the only scale that works well in blues. But to sum it up: don't "use" scales - they're not for using, they just are. Learn the language instead. And if you're not sure if something sounds right or not, devote lots of time to training your ear, active listening, copying from recordings. It will get you much further at this stage than studying the scales.
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