Absolutely right! The tracks are the next best thing, we can’t always practice with a band, and even when we can you can’t just experiment freely for a as long as you want anyway…somebody will threaten you eventually!
You can do stuff nobody would ever tolerate like practicing one lick throughout the whole song, many many times until you can do it perfect every time, or play one or 2 notes over the entire track to get your intonation just right… I’d do stuff like that all the time.
I’ve always practiced this way and so by the time I get around to trying the tune with the guys I’m already very confident with it.

Bienvenido! Yes, this is a great site. I want to learn to play Take Five as well. Last night I googled How To Play ‘Take Five’ On Guitar. I found a great tutorial there in Eb minor of course. I’m a guitar player so I’m used to visualizing scales as patterns on a fretboard. How do sax and horn players see scales I wonder? On the alto, I just don’t have the speed to play this tune or blow those higher notes properly YET but I’m able to get a handle on it on the guitar (on the 13th fret). It’ll take a day or two (he said, with optimism) to be able to play the alto part on the guitar but I will eventually get it down. I’m quite familiar with the minor and blues scales on guitar. And, at the same time I’ll be practising it on the sax. My reading skills are rudimentary but now that I’ve seen it played on the guitar, I can see the pattern in the written music. Then I googled how to play it on piano. I’ve learned the intro on the piano that Dave Brubeck is playing. I want to learn to play the chords on piano similar to how Dave Brubeck played it but it will probably be more of a ‘vanilla’ version because I’m not a piano player. Being a semi-retired guy, one sometimes has to look for things that motivate and inspire one to keep busy. Finding this site has really racheted up my enthusuiasm for learning to play the sax. And as you can see, Take Five has really got a hold of me. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? Jim

Hi Fergus,
No, you didn’t come across in the wrong way at all. I saw a guy busking with a backing track for the first time about ten years ago. He was playing an acoustic guitar and singing Your Cheatin’ Heart by Hank Williams. I was impressed. I’m starting to accumulate some backing tracks because I see their potential for learning. Plus, they give one the opportunity to get out and play gigs. In my book, BTs are one of the best things since sliced bread.
Regards, Jim