Free Audio Practice Tracks

To start off our library of playalong files, we’re offering:

  • Drone files in all 12 keys
  • Backing tracks for blues in D

The drones can be used with any type of harmonica – diatonic, chromatic, bass, chord – you name it. Each drone runs over 6 minutes, featuring a full orchestra playing only the skeleton notes of the chord – the root and the fifth. Backed by just those two essenital notes, you have the tonal background to play a wide variety of major, minor and modal scales, arpeggios, chords and melodies. This can help you stay grounded in a key and in tune while practicing. It can also help you explore unfamiliar key positions, techniques, and musical materials (even weird alien stuff), by putting them in a tonal context.

Here are the drone files. To hear a drone, just click on the key you want. To
download it, right click and follow the menu.

Key of C

Key of G

Key of D

Key of A

Key of E

Key of B

Key of Gb / F#

Key of Db / C#

Key of Ab / G#

Key of Eb / D#

Key of Bb / A#

Key of F

Here are the blues backing tracks in D. You can use these to work on your third-position blues chromatic styling, or any type or position of harmonica you want to use to play blues in D.

  • Blue Walk in D This is a relaxed tempo 12 bar blues, running for four verses.
  • Blue Romp in D This is a standard 12-bar blues in D, at a lively tempo, running for several verses.
  • Choked and Rising This is a stop-time tune that’s a little unusual.
    • Instead of 12 bars, the verse runs 16 – the initial section on the I chord runs 8 bars instead of four, giving you extra time to riff before the IV chord comes along.
    • The first two verses are in D, while the last two are in Eb. If you’re playing a C chromatic, just press in the slide to change key. If you get adventurous, try finding more notes by letting the slide out. If you’re playing a diatonic, just have another harp at the ready that’s tuned one semitone higher than the harp you started with.