Practising lead guitar with a backing band that waits for you

A backing track on YouTube is a recording. It runs at one tempo, it never notices you, and when you lose your place the only option is to drag the slider back. The band in TabFollower is generated live from the song, which changes how practice works.

Three ways to play a song

• Play mode is a performance. The band counts you in and plays straight through. A note counts as hit if it rings within half a beat of its time, missed if it does not arrive. Your streak and score are kept.
• Practice mode is an accompanist. When a note is overdue the band loops that bar, holding the groove, until you play it, then carries on. Nothing freezes and the clock never jumps, so you keep the feel of playing with people.
• Step mode has no clock and no band. The tab rests on the next note and moves on only when you play it. Use it to learn the notes of a new passage before you worry about time.

Tempo

Any song runs from 25% to 100% of its written tempo. Start where you can play every note cleanly, even if that is a quarter speed, and move the slider up by five or ten percent each run. Because the band is synthesised rather than stretched audio, it sounds like a band at every speed.

A practice routine that works

1. Preview the song once to hear the lead line.
2. Step mode through the hardest section until the fingering is automatic.
3. Practice mode at 50% to 60%, letting the band hold bars you miss.
4. Play mode at the same tempo. Three stars means 90% of the notes landed. Then raise the tempo.

What the app tells you afterwards

After a run you get hits, misses, your best streak and up to three observations: which fret kept coming out wrong and what it sounded like instead, plucks that came out muted, and whether you tend to rush or drag. Over a week the account page turns those into a short list of things to work on.

More guides: How to practise electric guitar on an iPad with an iRig · How to read guitar tab: strings, frets, and the symbols for hammer-ons, bends and slides · Guitar practice songs written by AI for your level, strings and frets. Or browse the free songs.