PRACTICE TRAXX

- Used by music students, teachers and professionals!

Practice Traxx are rhythm tracks that you can use to practice scales and other technical exercises without an annoying metronome. We've created these rhythm tracks in a variety of modern music styles to help you develop rhythm and timing. Best of all, the tracks were created with a drone in each key to allow you to check your intonation and work on your ear training. This is invaluable in helping you to play or sing in tune and to hear intervals.

Kids love to use Practice Traxx, too!

How to Use Practice Traxx:

Scales and exercises: Start out by playing along slowly with the tracks - 4 beats per note - and speed up as you progress. Practice playing each scale or exercise smoothly (legato) or play each note short and separate (staccato).

Make up your own exercises or rhythms, or use Practice Traxx in conjunction with any of the popular scale books and technique method books such as Sevcik, Hrimaly, Wohlfahrt, Kreutzer, Schradieck, etc.

How Advanced players use Practice Traxx:

1. Three octave scales (Major/Minor/Arppeggios/Double-stops) and technical exercises (try them with Kreutzer and Paganini)
2. Transpose a learned tune or exercise into every key
3. Focused shifting, harmonics and vibrato study
4. Improvisational exercises in each key

Practicing never sounded so good!

Listen to some practice samples:

Here are a few samples of how some of our friends use Practice Traxx:

Practice Traxx 1 - Wohlfahrt Studies mp3
Practice Traxx 2 - Wohlfahrt Studies mp3
Practice Traxx 3 - Major Minor Scales mp3
Practice Traxx 4 - Major Minor Arppeggios mp3
Practice Traxx 5 - Song Example mp3
Practice Traxx 6 - Guitar Scales mp3
Practice Traxx 7 - Practice Your Guitar Riffs mp3
Practice Traxx 8 - Piano 2 Octave Scale mp3
Practice Traxx 9 - Piano Harmonic Minor Scale mp3
Practice Traxx 10 - Piano Triad Scale mp3

Practice Traxx

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Can I use Practice Traxx with my regular computer software?

Yes, Practice Traxx are MP3s so they can be used with all of the popular computer software and with software that comes installed on your computer such as iTunes, Garageband, etc. They can be used on either Apple or PC computers. You can also use these on your iPod or other MP3 players/PDAs. If your computer doesn't already have any of this software, you can quickly download free iTunes software for Mac or PC here: iTunes

Can I use these tracks on my home stereo and take them with me to my lesson?

Yes, you can burn Practice Traxx onto a CD if you have a CD burner - or let us know if you'd rather purchase Practice Traxx as a CD. We will send you one!

Can these tracks be continuously looped?

Yes, these tracks can be looped on most of the software you'd use to play the tracks including iTunes, Windows Media Player and QuickTime. If you are playing these tracks from a CD, you can use the "repeat track" feature available on most home stereos.

Are there other tracks available?

We can create any combination of rhythm, chord progression, track length or music style you wish. We can even create specific tracks for specific songs that you need. Just contact us with your request: questions@practicetraxx.com
Keep checking back as we will be adding new tracks to the website.

What if I still have a question?

If we haven't answered your question, please contact us at: questions@practicetraxx.com

Practice Traxx

"I honestly can't believe I'm having fun practicing scales!" - Katie - Los Angeles, CA

"My 12-year old has always struggled with scales but she is really enjoying practicing with the Practice Traxx. Her intonation is also improving. I'm glad we found this because it's helping her to make the connection between scale work and music." Jeremy - Sparta, MI

Master Violinists on developing rhythm and technique:

(from "Violin Mastery, Talks with Master Violinists and Teachers" by Frederick Martens)

"Rhythm is the foundation of all music - not rhythm in its metronomic sense, but in the broader sense of proportion. I lay the greatest stress on the development of rhythmic sensibility in the student. Rhythm gives life to every musical phrase." - Hans Letz

"At the bottom of all technic lies the scale. And scale practice is the ladder by means of which all must climb to higher proficiency. Scales, in single tones and intervals, thirds, sixths, octaves, tenths, with the incidental changes of position, are the foundation of technic. They should be practiced slowly, always with the development of tone in mind, and not too long a time at any one session. No one can lay claim to a perfected technic who has not mastered the scale. Better a good tone, even though a hundred mistakes be made in producing it, than a tone that is poor, thin and without quality." -Eddy Brown

"In one sense true violin mastery is a question of tone production and rhythm. And I believe that tone production depends principally upon the imaginative ear of the player. This statement may seem somewhat ambiguous, and one might ask, 'What is an imaginative ear?' My ear, for instance, demands of my violin a certain quality of tone, which varies according to the music I am playing. But before I think of playing the music, I already know from reading it what I want it to sound like: that is to say, the quality of the tone I wish to secure in each principal phrase. Rhythm is perhaps the greatest factor in interpretation. Every good musician has a 'good sense of rhythm' (that much abused phrase). But it is only the great musician who makes so striking and individual an application of rhythm that his playing may be easily distinguished by his use of it." -David Hochstein

"And guide-posts along the long road that leads to mastery of the instrument? Individuality in teaching, progress along natural lines, surety in bowing, a tone-production without forcing, cultivating a sense of rhythm and accent. I always remember what Moser once wrote in my autograph album: Rhythm and accent are the soul of music!" -Maximilian Pilzer

"Most pupils seem to lack an absolute sense of rhythm—a great defect. Yet where latent it may be developed." - Alexander Saslavsky