So I’m attending my first jam party tonight. It’s about damned time!
My friend has a full studio in his basement complete with a raised floor for the band.
It’s going to be a small gathering and anyone can play what they want. His format is a projection of the Ultimate Guitar tab on the screen and players can sing and play.
Now for bass that’s difficult for me because who really knows the fretboard, really… not me.
If I see that I have to play a G, well I’m counting frets to find it.
I’ll bring a separate tablet and use the Official tabs to get my music.
Really looking forward to it but at the same time I’m somewhat nervous that I’ll ruin EVERYTHING!
He sent me a playlist of songs he’s been learning to sing/play and from his list of 500 songs I’ve picked out a few. I can play through them using a simplified method of only playing the root of each bar. Maybe I’ll throw in a couple extras.
Anyway, any suggestions to relax my nerves? My friend says to not worry about it. It’s all for fun and everyone just plays to their level.
My fear is I’ll screw up a song and not want to do it again!
Whatever songs you feel good playing through, play them a ton!
Play them so you don’t have to think about it, you can just listen to the song and know what to do.
That’s the ideal!
Easier said than done.
Just have a blast, and remember that you’re there to learn, not impress. It’s a huge win no matter how you play. Just getting to be there and make music with humans is the best.
I hope you have a killer time, and please report back after!
Thanks Gio! Ideally if I had a month to prepare I would have practiced a lot of these songs more about. I only had a week so it’s going to be best effort at this point.
I will definitely report back hopefully with some clips.
True! With the week I went through my friends list and using a 'play it through without ever practicing it and see how well you do reading the sheet" method, was able to gather about 20 songs.
I have a shorter list of “I can do this, if you don’t mind a mess” songs.
Biggest piece of advice , share with your friends that you are there to learn and have fun. That will remove ALL expectations.
Next , don’t be afraid of playing open strings as E , A , D , & G are common notes and open string require zero string , fret , octave , etc.
Lastly , the bass have NO wrong notes , only leading notes. Have a blast with friends and keep asking questions. Musicians , that are your friends , remember when they were young grasshoppers.
Thanks Travis. I do intend to let them know that I am still in the learning process. I did finish the course a couple years ago and I’m still in the process of learning but I don’t practice nearly enough as I should.
Was a blast. I took some video but haven’t had an chance to look at it to see how it is.
Played a bunch of songs. Some I had never even heard, but was still fun!
I’ll go through my recording and hope it turned out.
So much fun!
Yes, me too! Good for you, that it went so well! I can absolutely imagine myself being a nervous but excited wreck before and having red cheeks and sparkly eyes afterwards.
