Guitar Background Music ( aka: backing tracks )

If you are a guitarist, you may enjoy playing along with some of your favorite songs. But playing with the original song is just like singing to it: you think you sound good because the "other guitarist" is hitting all the notes you missed. The solution is to play along with a backing track. Backing tracks are basically a cover of the original song without certain tracks. For a guitarist, the best track to exclude would be a lead guitar. Most guitar backing tracks are missing vocals as well (sing along if you must, but if you are like me, you play guitar for a reason... weak vocals).

So how do you get your hands on these backing tracks? The most obvious method would be to search google for: backing track! If you want guitar specific, obviously search for: guitar backing track! Most of the sites offering backing tracks provide a midi or mp3 cover of the song.

One of the largest sites I've found is www.guitarbt.com. Check them out. They have a large collection of free backing tracks.

But if you don't have the sheet music, how will you ever learn the song in the first place? Well, I suggest you look at a program called GuitarPro. If you play guitar, just check out the program ( it has too many features to list on my site ). It uses files with an extension of .gp3, .gp4, etc. to store both the sheetmusic and a midi version of the song. Finding songs for this program is as easy as searching google for: GuitarPro .gp4!

And my final suggestion for getting .gp files and backing tracks would be for you to download Shareaza. Shareaza is a windows based, open-source, FREE, peer-to-peer network client ( think of bearshare, kazaa, morpheus, early napster... but without all the ads! ). Now don't use Shareaza to download copyrighted material! Just use it to find free backing tracks and GuitarPro music files. You are on the honor system here, so don't screw it up!

If all of this is new to you, then I'm sure you'll be busy for the next few years sifting through all the information available at the sites listed above. If only some of it is new, then you'll be busy for the next few months. If none of this is new to you, and you know of some good information I have left out, then quit holding back and share the wealth! :)

CNN Charges for Freely Available Video Feeds

Oh, the power of the Internet. There are many sites on the internet which charge their visitors for information which is available for free on the Internet. One example of this is the peer-to-peer file sharing program called Shareaza. Shareaza ( www.shareaza.com ) is a free download available from the authors who created the application. However, some individuals purchase mis-spelled domain names ( www.sharaza.com ) to try and profit from the hard work of these generous authors.

But the unethical actions from sharaza.com are only from a few individuals who are unwilling to share the same information which was freely provided to them, right?

Well, CNN is willing to charge visitors for a free C-SPAN video feed via a site they have named "CNN Pipeline". This pipeline does include multiple video feeds at the same time, so I guess they could claim they are charging for simplifying the process of locating interesting video feeds. I bet the sharaza.com site would argue the same topic. They are simplifying the process of locating peer-to-peer software.

I bring this information to light because I believe the sharing of information is what makes the Internet what it is today. When individuals or corporations begin charging for information which was provided to them at no cost, I think it shows the lack of character for such sites. C-SPAN offers the information at no cost, and CNN should provide a link to the free video feed. Instead, the "news" organization hides the fact of a no-cost feed, and advertises their own pay video feed.

There are many additional video feeds available for free over the Internet. Some quick searches on Google can provide a list of feeds available at no charge.