Learning to Jam

[Benjamin O]

Hi Everyone,

Quick context: I’ve been playing 2.5 years – know about 20 songs and understand a good amount of theory, know Pentatonic, Majors scales and modes etc.

However, with Covid didn’t get much chance to learn to play with folks… which is now changing.

So I’d like to learn to “jam” both being able to play good and in time interesting Rhythm as well as be able to improvise some decent lead ideas.

–> What would you recommend as a series of weekly lessons to come up that learning curve. For Rhythm? For Lead?

Thank you,
Ben

Topic

[John H]

I am not sure I would look to a series of weekly lessons to help you jam. There is no real blue print for jamming. It is kind of like dating. There is no way through this but through it. Grab some backing tracks of Brian’s and turn everything up to “11” and start jamming. Try blues, rock, jazz, western swing and country selections. Keep it simple and fun. When you develop a comfort level maybe start participating in Craig’s AM Jammers remote collaborations. Or, pair up with somebody on AM to do a remote collaboration. You can try open mic nights at area clubs or bars too. There are countless opportunities well in front of you. Good luck and have fun.

John

[sunjamr]

And don’t forget the Monthly Challenges. They help to develop a lot of skills that are useful for jamming.

Sunjamr Steve

[Benjamin O]

Yes – the Monthly Challenges sound great to develop skills and ideas that will feed into jamming.

In addition to the lesson used for the Monthly Challenge – are there easy/beginner lessons that I can use to help structure/inspire how I write something for the Challenges?

Thank you, Sunjamr and John H!
Ben

[John H]

Structure doesn’t sound good to me… find a backing track that you like and try and play along with it… What kind of music do you like? I can find you some….

JH

[GnLguy]

You might find this helpful

[Benjamin O]

Great video – Any other resources like this one I should look into?
Thank you, GnLguy!

[Phil67]

Hi Benjamin, you may also have a look at the micro lessons.
It’s activemelody in a shortcut.
There you will see tips on rhythm, soloing, etc. It may help you found full lessons on what you appreciate.

Where does the white go when snow melts?

[Benjamin O]

Thank you, Phil!

[Mark H]

I’ve found that when you first sit down with other musicians at a session it can go one of two ways. The two ways are usually either ‘let’s play a tune we all know (or can learn in a hurry)’, or the secondary impulse, ‘let’s just jam for a while and see what happens’.

The path of least resistance is when you-, or someone else, instigates a ‘warm-up jam’. Gets everybody into playing for fun, out of the box, no matter what their individual skills are. It certainly doesn’t preclude working on new stuff later. Save the hard work for later in the practice session, jam a little first. People will thank you for suggesting it and you’ll absorb a lot.

[Benjamin O]

Great idea! I’ll start doing that.
Thank you, Mark

[Jean-Michel G]

Hi,
I don’t know about specific lessons (not even sure there are any), but I can offer a few ideas.
In my experience, jam sessions can be fantastic but they can also go terribly wrong, depending on who’s invited…

Here are some musical games that help get the ball rolling in the right direction. You can prepare for these games with a loop pedal and they make for good exercises.

1. Sound sketches
It starts with a single musician playing a single short phrase repeatedly (it can be a single note played in a rhythm). The second musician comes in with his own repeated single phrase while the first one continues with his phrase. And then the third comes in, etc.

2. Free Sound Sketches
This is similar to the previous game, but everyone is free to change his phrase at any time.

3. Improvisation over one chord

4. Improvisation over a chord progression (not necessarily but possibly a twelve bar blues)

5. Playing popular songs

6. Playing jazz standards

[Benjamin O]

Love the idea of sound sketches
Merci Jean Michel!

[patrick c]

If you know those songs. Try to find someone or a group that would also know those songs. That will make jamming really easy.

I don’t know if you like bluegrass. Bluegrass guitar is what got me playing with others. I learned a bunch of fiddle tunes (which are common tunes to play in this context) which include the rhythm and a lead and then i researched where the local bluegrass and old time jams were in town. Luckily, they were almost always at a brewery.

At these jams you sit in a circle. Everyone plays the rhythm to whatever song is called and each person gets a chance to take a lead. Once you are finished with your lead you go right back to playing the rhythm with everybody until the song is ended. You don’t have to take a lead either. You can simply “pass” if you are not comfortable.

If you don’t like bluegrass, look for other style jams. I have seen “acoustic” jams although I have never been to one. They may have more variety.

Patrick

[Author]

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