Guitar backing tracks are used mostly by lead guitarists in rock, metal and blues. These tracks are used for the sole purpose of practicing or live performances. There are different types of guitar backing tracks for sale on the Internet. Some are recorded in low quality or midi formats while others are professionally recorded. To get the best tracks for your practice, ensure that you purchase tracks from reputable companies such as LickLibrary or Planet of Rock. The best guitar backing tracks are the ones that are not in the midi format and have no fade outs. There are three different versions that are available including:

Record mixes: these guitar backing tracks will include a mix of bass guitar, drums, rhythm guitar and backing vocals. Instrumental: This is the preferred type of guitar backing tracks that is most commonly used for playing lead or solo. These backing tracks will have only instrumental music and no guitars and no vocals. Backing vocals: These guitar backing tracks will have backing vocals and other instruments except the guitar.

There are several free sites that will provide you guitar backing tracks in midi format but that is definitely not the right format for learning guitar solo or improvising your lead. Whenever you download these tracks they should be in high quality bitrate mp3 format or ideally, it should be provided to you in a remastered audio CD. You can purchase guitar backing tracks for some of the top performers like John Petrucci, Dream Theater, Metallica, Joe Satriani, Guns and Roses, Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Eagles, Eric Johnson, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Dimebag Darell, Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Whitesnake, Bryan Adams, Brian May, Deep Purple, and many more.

>Some of the most popular guitar backing tracks includes:

Guns N Roses - Sweet Child O Mine Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight Dire Straits - Telegraph Road The Eagles - Hotel California (Acoustic) Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit AC DC - Highway To Hell

Most of the solos that are played by various lead guitarists use two specific scales: the minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic. The most effective way to learn is by playing the minor and major pentatonic in all key across the fretboard with guitar backing tracks playing in the background. It is not easy to play lead; but then again with practice, time, effort and the use of the right guitar backing tracks, you will be ready to do your own live gig!