GrassTrax was created to help solve a problem we’ve experienced ourselves in learning to play bluegrass tunes. You see, we’ve done what you did, searching online for backing tracks to help us in our practice times. And we found a few providers of backing tracks.

But there was a problem.

These backing tracks only came in two or three speeds, which created some problems. First, the “slow” version was often too fast to play along with when first learning the tune. Second, once we were able to play the “slow” version, the jump to medium speed was so drastic (20-30BPM) it was nearly impossible to make.

That’s why we provide many different track speeds in our practice bundles. For most of our songs in 4/4 time we create 8 different tracks at 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120, and 130BPM.

60BPM is quite slow, but when you’re first learning a tune it’s really nice to have a slow speed to play along with. Moving up into the 70-80BPM range makes the song start feeling more like a real song, and the 100-110BPM range (for most, tunes, at least) is a pretty comfortable “jam speed.”

Professionals play many bluegrass tunes in the 120-160BPM range.

We also create a woodshed track for each tune, to help you build speed. This is an innovation we haven’t seen anyone else do, but we’ve found it to be very useful, and so have others who’ve tried it. Learn more about woodshed tracks >