Jam night mess-up

[rwillett]

1 hour ago, jimmyb625 said:

Music is an art. If you want perfection be an aeronautical engineer. 

 

Unless you work for Boeing...

Ooohh, harsh, but fair...

[PaulWarning]

Don't do Jam nights, same old songs, usually the blues, with long solos for the guitard to show off, but if you think you're bad I was doing an open mic once, playing guitar, and a bass player asked if he could join in, I said "sure we'll do 500 miles, same 3 notes in the same order all the way through" thinking how easy it would be, somehow managed to make a right mess of it

[Geek99]

I went but they started early and I didn’t get chance to jam with drummer. Did chat to singer from train wreck night though and also a potential new member 

[rmorris]

10 hours ago, PaulWarning said:

Don't do Jam nights, same old songs, usually the blues, with long solos for the guitard to show off, but if you think you're bad I was doing an open mic once, playing guitar, and a bass player asked if he could join in, I said "sure we'll do 500 miles, same 3 notes in the same order all the way through" thinking how easy it would be, somehow managed to make a right mess of it

 

So I don't want to put people off doing what they want to do - but isn't a "Jam Night" often more accurately a "Clique Night". And often conflated with an "Open Mic".

Last Open Mic I did with a singer songwriter type I know was going okay until someone running it decided my bass was too loud and turned it down.

Top Stuff 🙄 Now I can't hear myself and the singer's "loose" sense of time means I can't compensate. Magic 😳

[peteb]

1 hour ago, rmorris said:

 

So I don't want to put people off doing what they want to do - but isn't a "Jam Night" often more accurately a "Clique Night". And often conflated with an "Open Mic".

Last Open Mic I did with a singer songwriter type I know was going okay until someone running it decided my bass was too loud and turned it down.

Top Stuff 🙄 Now I can't hear myself and the singer's "loose" sense of time means I can't compensate. Magic 😳

 

There are jam nights and jam nights, often confused with the dreaded open mic nights. 

 

To me, a jam session should be where you get a group of musicians together to play through a song or musical idea that someone has that hasn't been rehearsed before. The idea is that you don't have a firm arrangement or know exactly where it is going to go, but you follow whoever has an idea that might take it to different places. Therefore someone might extend a solo (hopefully not too long), then give you a nod when they want to finish, someone might want to bring it down or even to try to a reggae feel over a middle eight or whatever. It encourages people to listen, support whoever is soloing and get used to busking. Of course, if you have guys who are not used to doing stuff like that or even being onstage, then it's about helping them get through the song until the end. Obviously, it's not going to work every time, but often it can be great as well as give you new ideas and improve your playing. 

 

Edited March 21 by peteb

[TimR]

@peteb

 

Agree. 

 

A jam night 'should' be a group of musicians playing over a chord progression and bouncing off each other.

 

An open night is where people bring their material to perform.

 

However, I'm finding the youngsters aren't able to jam, and it's more usual to be playing standards that everyone is familiar with, but still swaping around musicians. 

 

A well run Jam night requires a leader to schedule people in and out after each song. 

 

There's no reason why @Geek99 shouldn't have had a spot, regardless of how late they were. It's the job of the organiser to ensure everyone gets a shot. 

[Geek99]

They started late and they knew it. They started earlier this time, which is why i

missed my drummer jam spot 

[TimR]

So you played? Just not with the drummer? 

 

How did it go?