Backing tracks
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Hey @lilley-pad, not everything is free, but . . .
* On YouTube, you can just search for a tune, as in "Soldier's Joy backing track" and find some stuff. And remember that you can slow down YouTube videos and the pitch will stay the same.
* I have learned a lot of songs from https://www.mandolessons.com/ . For some of the tunes, there is a true backing track and for others he just plays the tune on the mandolin and then plays the chords while you are supposed to take the lead.
* Bing Futch has a series called "Mountain Dulcimer in the Band" that has backing tracks for all sorts of trad tunes. I'm not sure what the prices are if you want to buy individual issues, but you can subscribe to him on Patreon for as little as $5 a month and get access to it all. Then you can always cancel after a month if it's not what you're looking for.
* Years ago during my misguided effort to learn bluegrass mandolin, I purchased a product from Homespun Music called Steve Kaufman's Four-Hour Bluegrass Workout. It has both super slow and seriously up-to-speed versions of traditional bluegrass tunes, most of which are part of the old timey and folk traditions as well. For each version, he takes the lead for the first verse and then the next two verses just have the backing tracks so you can practice. I think there is a second series that has come out more recently, too, offering even more tunes. But beware: As with the mandolessons site, the tunes are shared in the most common key in bluegrass jams, so while some (St. Anne's Reel, Soldier's Joy) will likely be in the key of D, others will be in C, G, or A or one of the relative minors.
Good luck searching!
updated by @dusty: 02/06/25 01:40:59AM