Using Backing Tracks

You might think that to be musically excellent you need to play with backing tracks. That is 100% false. Backing tracks are a recent phenomenon — were all the church bands of the last fifty years “bad”? Of course not. You do not need tracks to be musically excellent.

Backing tracks are supposed to be the ear candy — the enhancement, not the essence.

Don’t even think about introducing tracks until your band sounds good without them. Tracks are the peripheral stuff, not the core. This is a short lesson with four things to keep in mind.

Four things to consider

• Get your band playing well together first. Teach your musicians to listen to each other, make space, play in parts, understand frequencies — all the things this course has been about. If you layer tracks on top of a messy band, you just get more mess: now the tracks are out of sync with everyone who’s already out of sync with each other.
• Don’t use tracks on every song. Great Are You Lord, 10,000 Reasons, How Great Is Our God, How Great Thou Art — these work just fine with the band you have. Leave some songs with space and room to go where the Holy Spirit wants to go.
• Don’t overdo them. Don’t run every track unmuted and full blast through the PA. Mute your foundational instruments in the tracks — if you have a lead guitarist, mute the lead track; same for acoustic, bass, and keys. You don’t want the tracks doubling what your band is already playing. Leave only the ear candy.
• Pick software that’s easy to use. Ableton Live works, but newer apps are getting powerful and flexible — look at Loop Community’s Prime app or MultiTracks’ Playback app. Both have iPad, phone, and Mac versions, and both can send audio out over Dante (networked audio over Ethernet instead of a messy snake of XLR cables).

Supplemental, not foundational

Tracks are supplemental. They are not foundational.

Train your band to play well, then add the ear candy on top of an already-great band. If you can’t afford tracks, or your church context can’t use them, don’t worry — you can be fully musically excellent without them. But if you use them, use them wisely and well.

Application

• Honestly assess: is your band excellent without tracks yet, or would adding them just paper over deeper problems you haven’t solved?
• If you already run tracks, audit your last set — are your foundational instruments (bass, keys, acoustic, lead) muted in the tracks, or are you doubling and clashing with your live players?
• Which songs in your rotation are strong enough to leave track-free, with space for the Spirit to lead?