Jam night skills?

[shoulderpet]

On 25/08/2022 at 18:40, Nail Soup said:

I don't think I've been to a jam night as such... the nearest is a) the occasional open mic where a couple of open micer's get up do do an impromptu song together b) folk sessions where peopel join in with each others songs.

 

But a formal Jjm (especially blues) fills me with dread for the following reasons (some of which may be mis-perceptions)

• Clique-y-ness
• fear of people not getting a fair 'turn'
• I don't read music
• I don't have a good ear for working out chords (but I can improvise to a chord chart)
• fear of too much 'widdling'
• fear of failure
• song selection be too cliched

 

 

 

Some of this is spot on 

 

Clique-y-ness - yes is often an issue

 

fear of people not getting a fair 'turn' - yes this is often an issue, the house band often has there "favourite"  jammers that they allow to play for several songs whilst everyone else just gets a couple of songs

 

fear of too much 'widdling' - Yep

 

song selection be too cliched - Yep

 

 

 

 

Edited November 3, 2022 by shoulderpet

[martthebass]

1 hour ago, msb said:

With E, G , B , C and D sounding so similar in a noisy room with musicians that I suspect suffer some hearing issues … we have a recipe for disaster at the best of times.

Yup that's me, lost a bit of hearing through Menieres and asking for the key across a stage when jammers are widdling is a nightmare.....

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Clique-y-ness - yes is often an issue

 

fear of people not getting a fair 'turn' - yes this is often an issue, the house band often has there "favourite"  jammers that they allow to play for several songs whilst everyone else just gets a couple of songs

 

A  well run jam night wouldn't suffer from those problems. 

 

Open mike nights might be different. I've never been to one of those.

[Mickeyboro]

4 hours ago, lownote said:

At a blues jam once, I misheard an A key call as E.  Having played like that through the whole number I apologised profusely afterwards.  The singer looked at me and said "That's OK, I just thought you'd decided to play the mixolydian."

FFS, stick to playing the bass guitar 😂

[shoulderpet]

4 hours ago, lownote said:

At a blues jam once, I misheard an A key call as E.  Having played like that through the whole number I apologised profusely afterwards.  The singer looked at me and said "That's OK, I just thought you'd decided to play the mixolydian."

I had a similar thing happen, I went to a jam night with a friend and we told the house band what song we were playing which was in the key of A and they started playing it in E, I started playing along and it sounded horrendous, figured it out eventually but those first 30 seconds were rough.

[paul_5]

1 hour ago, shoulderpet said:

I had a similar thing happen, I went to a jam night with a friend and we told the house band what song we were playing which was in the key of A and they started playing it in E, I started playing along and it sounded horrendous, figured it out eventually but those first 30 seconds were rough.

Yup, been there. Those first 30seconds are akin to waiting for the lubricant to get flowing properly. Grimm, but mercifully brief.

[Dan Dare]

8 hours ago, msb said:

With E, G , B , C and D sounding so similar in a noisy room with musicians that I suspect suffer some hearing issues … we have a recipe for disaster at the best of times.

 

Tell 'em something like "G, as in George, E as in Edward" or similar in that scenario. G minor is George Michael, A minor is Arthur Mullard, E minor Eric Morecambe and so on.

Edited November 3, 2022 by Dan Dare

[jrixn1]

Some people use hand signals for keys, so worth knowing:

• hand makes a C shape = key of C.
• a number of fingers pointing up = number of sharps (e.g. 1 finger = G)
• a number of fingers pointing down = number of flats (e.g. 2 fingers = Bb)

[msb]

At the jam there are some that are just ear players without a lot of theory, and others that have completed music degrees. 
Some that can lead a band with gestures , and some that are terrible communicators.

We get the dog’s dinner …