[A Greene]

I find that if I start playing along with tracks, I rely way too much on my ear to sort out the changes. This has served me well for a lifetime of gigs; however, now I'm trying to force myself into new areas and I really haven't used tracks much for a long time. I still have my Solo show material with tracks but not so much for practice. I'm primarily taking bits and pieces of things and moving them around the horn in both range and keys. This sort of practice really takes a lot of time.

Tell what you're doin'

 

[mmichel]

I find that if I start playing along with tracks, I rely way too much on my ear to sort out the changes.

Depending on a player's strengths vs. weaknesses, that can be a good thing. For many players (myself included, sometimes), our background is such that playing "written" forms of music (including written chord progressions) is easier than relying on our ears. For us, figuring out what to play by ear is a very good thing.

For example, when learning a tune, I try to work through the changes in various ways (e.g., practicing voice leading, arpeggios throughout the range of the horn, scales, etc.) before playing along with a track.
However, playing with the track and "using my ear" helps me find ideas that work and that I probably wouldn't have stumbled onto without it. So I still make extensive use of play-along tracks.

Ultimately, the ear is what really matters. The written chord progressions and other theory stuff just provides you with a convenient/useful way of "chunking" that information.

 

[whaler]

I’ve been putting tunes I want to learn in the iRealpro app.
It’s fun to add tunes not in there and hearing the midi track play it.

 

[mi000ke]

I use iRealpro as my backing tracks. I will use the last 30-60 minutes of my daily practice to shed whatever I've been working on in the context of actual tunes. So if I've been shedding some new vocabulary (without backing tracks) I will go through a few tunes trying to incorporate the new vocabulary into my improvisation. Or if I've been working on, say, diminished scales, I will try to incorporate them. Or intervals, pentatonics, substitute chords, whatever. I keep the lead sheet (usually one of the Real Books) in front of me, and I also find that doing this helps me to memorize the heads and changes over time and to get the changes into my ear. Then for the last couple of tunes for the day I'll usually just play to see where I am and try some stuff I might not want to risk doing live until it's more comfortable.

That said, when I'm first learning a tune I will not use backing tracks, although I will probably listen to a recording of the tune to get a feel for it. I'll go through the changes arpeggiating each chord and inversions top to bottom and bottom to top, then play all the roots through the tune, 3rds, 5ths, etc. Once I get that down, I may repeat this process using the backing track just to hear how it all fits together. Then I'll use the tracks to do what I described above.

I go through the real books (I use volumes 1 - 3) front to back over time to make sure I play lot of different styles and keys and don't bias myself to certain tunes or styles. Once I get to the end of the three books I'll start over. I also add in tunes that my bands might be doing that aren't in the real books (I like that I can add tunes to iRealPro).

One other thing that comes to mind is that we occasionally play tunes in odd meters (e.g., we like to do Speak No Evil in 7) and I'll edit the time signature in IRealPro and crank up the backing track to get used to the new meter before embarrassing myself in public. Actually it's a great way to get used to odd meters, if that's something you want to work on. Take any tune you are familiar with and change the time signature.

Oh, and we have a vocalist who almost never sings in the real book key, so it's a way to shed playing the tunes in different keys.

 

[mmichel]

Same.

I rarely use produced play-alongs anymore. I usually use Band-in-a-Box with RealTracks, which lets me change the key, style, and tempo, and allows me to work on isolated progressions or parts of the song.

 

[whamptoncourt]

It's hard to make recommendations without knowing what you're aiming for. If you're a "jazzer" then many just want to do a cut and paste job of plugging in riffs, arpeggios and finger memory stuff that fits with the chord progression. I'm frankly not interested in EVER going there. It's a dead end exercise that bores the **** out of audiences. However if you're spinning alternative melodic lines then a chord chart can help where you're having trouble hearing the structure. However you've still got to hear where you're going in order to run a good continuous line that works. Transitions shouldn't be a jerky affair, they need to make sense and be seamless. Knowing the melodic line is your best friend, but you also need to hear that underlying structure.

We play one note at a time, so it's about picking each note in a phrase/sequence and making the most of it in a manner that communicates to a listener. Those who are only trying to impress soon sound like a lot of noise to most listeners. If you're playing for just other sax players and want to impress them, then I guess that's OK...fastest gun in the west mentality. Practice to give yourself great chops, but when performing you play to communicate to your audience.