I know there are a few jam session threads but there are quite old, so I’m opening a new one.
So, yeah, tonight I’ve played in my first jam session. I’ve known very recently that this thing existed near my place, so I decided to try. I learnt that there are several types of jam sessions : by styles, cover lists, or pure improv. Here it’s pure improv.
When you come in, you register in a list of musicians, saying which instrument you play. Then it’s a random band that is formed for each song. You have something like one minute to decide a chord grid and let’s go. I played 3 songs and it was very fun. A female singer asked me to join her band for her incoming tour ; I refused politely because it’s not the style of music I like.
Great experience, I definitly will go again next time it happens.
most certainly the very first time I play live without a guitar ! it was kinda overhelming at first, but we looked at each other with the keyboard guy and it was fine.
Open jams can be great if on a whole the players are at least somewhat experienced in whatever genre will be played. I’ve played over a hundred blues jams, some classic rock jams, and even some acoustic jams where we’ve played everything from rock to bluegrass.
Any problems or train wrecks typically come when very inexperienced players want to play above their level of capability or when players won’t listen to what others are playing and find their own way to fit in. But when it all gets cooking it’s produced some of the best music I’ve ever played.
Glad to hear you’re getting out and experiencing it.
Cool! I should really give open jam sessions a try, but I only feel confident in blues jams, which I did on a few occasions. A bit afraid to cause a train wreck like @soulman described
The more open rock jams get easier once you’ve accumulated enough time playing the tunes that are more typically played. Most are pretty straightforward rock everyone seems to know. It also helps once your ear training is good enough to recognize or anticipate chord changes as they come up. Playing guitar as well helps with this part.
Great stuff!
