Midi Play-Along files

If you want to skip the lesson material and go straight to the play-along files, use this page.
If you find that you need a little guidance about what to play over these tracks, visit the Modes Workshop
(all of these tracks are available there too, along with details about the mode, scale fingerings, etc.)

Some of the play-alongs are based on certain songs, although you will find that most of them don't really sound exactly like the song they are based on; they are just approximations. And I should add that most of them sound pretty cheesy too, but they're still effective for our purposes here. I'm sure there's a way to make them cooler, but I don't have time to figure it out. If you are not familiar with some of the songs in this list, you may still find it useful to play along with the chord progression and mode. When available, you will also see a link to a short mp3 audio sample of the actual song so you can hear the real thing.

Song Title and composer (click to launch play-along)	Chord Progression (loops for about 5 minutes)	Mode
Bathtub Gin (Phish) (MP3)	C / Bb / C / Bb	C mixolydian
Blue Sky (Allman Brothers) (MP3)	E / E / A / A	E ionian
Comfortably Numb (ending solo) (Pink Floyd) (MP3)	Bm / A / G Em / Bm	B aeolian
David Bowie (Phish) (MP3)	Em / D / Em / D	E dorian
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Allman Brothers) (MP3)	Am / D / Am / D	A dorian
Fire on the Mountain (Grateful Dead) (MP3)	B / B / A / A	B mixolydian
Jessica (Allman Brothers)	D / G / D / G	D ionian
Let it Rain (Eric Clapton) (MP3)	A / G / Gmaj7 / A	A mixolydian
Reba (Phish) (MP3)	Ebmaj7 / Ebmaj7 / F / F	Eb lydian
Stairway to Heaven (Led Zeppelin) (MP3)	Am / G / Fmaj7 / Fmaj7	A aeolian

All of the midi play-alongs on this page were made with the program Band-In-A-Box. It's a great program for this kind of thing, as well as doing your own composing, and it couldn't be any easier to use. You just type in your chord progression, select a pre-created style, and you're ready to go. Here's a link to the Band-In-A-Box website (will open in a new window).