Hey there everyone...

I'm not seeing much activity in this thread so I thought I'd post an explanation of what this GT Solo Assignment thing is all about for those that don't already know, and for those who do already know: to remind them that it's back and running again.

Ok.. So this thing has been running for 2 years now, according to magicninja. How it works is like this:

1. A person makes a backing track of any style they want and then uploads it to a file sharing site so that anyone who wants to participate can download it.
2. Each person that wants to participate loads the MP3 into their favourite recording software and plays a guitar solo over the top of the backing track.
3. Then everyone uploads their "take" on to a file sharing site so that everyone else can listen to it and share their comments and feedback.
4. At the end of the month, everyone votes on which one they liked the best.

There's a couple of obvious rules to follow of course.. The backing track shouldn't be altered too much, if at all, to suit your needs. It should be left as close to the original backing track as possible.. it's meant to be a challenge to yourself more than a competition against other people. Also, as it is a monthly thing.. all submissions should be in by the end of the month. This adds a specific deadline to the whole process so that you have a fixed amount of time to come up with something.

Since joining GT, I have participated in 4 or 5 of these and the main thing I have gotten out of them, is it has actually improved my playing because it challenges you to come up with stuff that you wouldn't normally play because you can't change the backing track to suit you. If I had all the time in the world to finish it.. I would never finish any of the ones I did.

It doesn't matter what your level of skill is, it all about challenging yourself and comparing what you created with what other people created using the same backing track. It's a lot of fun and I would like to see more and more people participating. If we were to get enough people, we could even start to put "skill levels" into place.. would probably need 30+ people participating to get to that point though. Then we could have a "Beginner", "Intermediate" and "Advanced" voting scheme.. but we need the participation first.

This month's backing track was made by myself and is a great place to start because, as fingerspasm pointed out, you don't need to be a lightning-fast shredder to make a great solo track with it..