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With the added information, I think you are on a good path. Not that I think you're looking for my approval. But I'm giving it anyway.
Originally Posted by charlieparker
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05-14-2026 11:31 AM
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As in exact voicings for chords? Or just a general major/minor/dominant type thing? Originally Posted by charlieparker
Last edited by brent.h; 05-14-2026 at 12:34 PM.
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C'mon, I'm not trying to be condescending, we're talking about "learning tunes" here. Free base jamming (a generic blues or whatever) is something else. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
Seriously, what is this "house band" you're referring to? -Do you mean the band that played for a paying audience that night, that after the show supposedly invites the audience for a jam session, like back in the good old days? Great if it still happens (I haven't seen that in a long time). -But don't you agree, there must be a rhythm section (the "house band") providing a solid foundation, or this will crash; a bunch of dudes that all want to solo, but no one knows the harmony...
-Who calls the next "song"? If you enter the stage and call a tune that the house band has never played before, what could reasonably be expected?
If we assume that the house band calls a jazz standard from their repertoire (e.g any of the most played 500 tunes). -What's the chance that this tune is on your repertoire? Let's assume they are polite and calls some of the top 10 most played standards (e.g Autumn Leaves), or maybe negotiate tune and key with the attendees, then the question boils down to:
-What are the top 20 songs I should concentrate on internalizing (harmony, melody, rhythm), and practice at home before I attend the jam...
(Jam sessions are fun, but I don't think this is where we learn new songs. Miles Davis' ideas on the subject is something completely different)
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Okay, I guess we need to start from the start.
There are events called jazz jams. They have a house band, the guys who get paid to run the jam. They are typically pretty good players.
The night starts out with a small set from the house band as jammers file into the venue. This is where they play their esoteric deep cuts and work out new songs for other gigs. They are professional, to some degree, and can put on a show for 20-40 minutes.
After this, the success of the night depends wholly on the house band's level of engagement. I will summarize, in my opinion, what a good house band should do.
- Between songs they will welcome people to the jam and mention a sign up sheet
- jammers will put their name, instrument and possibly a song on the sheet
- A very well run jam I used to frequent had a place to put your email and they would send a homework list. The homework list was their setlist for next time. For example, if you knew Totem Pole, you could come up early during their set next week.
- Band takes a set break, and whoever is running the jam looks over the list of jammers, their instruments and their tunes and starts pairing a mix of jammers with house band members to play the songs the jammers know.
- This continues for the remaining 2 hours of the night.
Songs you should know, I already said this but here we go again, with some changes.... any beginner list will do.
- Blue Bossa
- Autumn Leaves
- All of me
- How High The Moon
- Billies Bounce
- Now's The Time
- Oleo
- Satin Doll
- Take the A Train
- Girl from Ipanema
While you are at the first jam, take your pencil and pad of paper and note what other songs are being played. Learn these songs, if you know the songs other people are calling, and you sound good, the band will let you sit in more. I've been to more than one jam where I watched the house band, went up first because the greenies were nervous, then never left the stage. I'm like, medium talent at best, this isn't me bragging, I'm trying to lower the bar everyone else has mentally raised with anxiety.
I hope this helps.
Oh yeah, if you do go, buy a sandwich and a drink from the bar. From a guy who's lost a gig or two, that will do more to keep the jam alive than $20 in the bands tip jar.
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There has been a house band at every single jam session I’ve ever been to in New York and elsewhere. Originally Posted by JCat
Someone runs the jam. They bring a band. In an ideal world, they play and then the jam starts and they hit the bar. Most of the time, though, they facilitate … the leader helps the newbies pick a tune, the bass player stays on stage when no bassists show up, etc.
Not sure why this is a point of contention.
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Observations from a mostly-untrained, jumped-up folkie (who has nevertheless learned a bit about learning).
I learned to accompany standards (which I had been listening to all my life) when my playing partner/mentors included those tunes in their repertories. What I noticed (duh) was the bolt-together-components or standard-parts nature of much of that repertory, which meant that learning one tune usually offered a way into another. (This seemed especially true of bridges.) Of course, after decades of playing folk/blues material, I sort of already knew that, but I hadn't applied it to the harmonically larger world of Tin Pan Alley. (And I hadn't then been introduced to shell chords and the delights of B-flat.)
So when a workshop teacher offered a list of ten essential standards we should tackle (like AllenAllen's but more swing-centric), I could see what he was getting at. And as a guy whose main job was to back singers, I could also see the benefit of learning a tune in different keys--which for a potzer like me just means different sets of chord grips--much facilitated by those shell chords. (BTW, I had to devise an oddball fingerstyle arrangement of "Moonglow" to accompaniment for my own singing in D rather than the key of G where I first learned it. Very instructive.)
To bring this closer to the themes of this thread: Whatever offstage practice regimen one adopts, a lot of learning happens via playing with others, whether it's at a house-band jam session or in some less formal and organized situation. For a while, one of my playing partners hosted evenings where five or six of us would sit in a circle and play one tune for 45 minutes at a time. The others were working on soloing, but I was just trying to get, say, "Cherokee" under my fingers well enough to keep up. (And when I did, it became part of our repertory.) Evening jams at the swing camp I attended for twenty-plus years provided similar opportunities to absorb tunes and (almost as important) the protocols and etiquette of sitting in and backing up, leading and following. The social joys of making music pay for the solitary efforts of the woodshed. (Not that I spent a lot of time there.)
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Yes, it can be a hassle, I usually opt for just chord diagrams and maybe an audio recording. The chord voicings I used will remind me what I played. Originally Posted by frabarmus
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Thanks for your detailed explanation, I do believe that this is great way of learning new songs; the jam is organized and jammers come well prepared Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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Thanks for the clarification, so I'm right then; the house band is like a jukebox organizing a backing track for the jammers (like some kind of karaoke)? Originally Posted by pamosmusic
Not trying to be condescending, just trying to figure out how this works, because it doesn't exist where I live (beginners are doing the "open mic" thing around here).
-Are these jams organized the way AllenAllen described? -Do you pay an entrance fee to participate? (or is it a way to attract customers to the restaurant?)
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This brings back memories from my childhood, when my guitar teacher had all his students on stage; we were all supposed to play the same song and if someone hadn't done his homework his parents in the audience wouldn't notice (all the student had to do was to smile and look good, covered by those that had done their homework)...Guitar teachers are still using this method; the "concert" is the supposed goal of it all. (I still can't stand seeing more than two guitars on stage regardless of who those players are). Originally Posted by RLetson
The way I see it, "the joy of playing with others" presupposes that others have done their homework; spent sufficient time in the shed (which I believe is the answer to the OP). But of course we all have to start somewhere, and in this context the aspiration of actually making music is imperative for the social joys, imo.
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If I can sing the melody, I know the chords won't be a problem to remember and good melodies are easy to remember cause they got their own logic.
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No dude. Originally Posted by JCat
It works the way I described.
House band plays a set.
Jam session starts.
Someone organizes it so there aren’t 14 saxophones and no bass drummer.
House band folks are there in case there aren’t enough bass players or there’s no chording instrument in the last half hour or whatever.
In what way is that like karaoke?
How do they work where you live? Someone says “Go!” and everyone rushes the band stand?
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14 saxophones Originally Posted by pamosmusic
...childhood memories are brought back again...
There are no organized jams around here that I know of outside the music school system (jamming is typically a spontaneous activity when friends get together). The number of scenes are decreasing and it's getting harder for new bands to meet an audience, so maybe there is a viable business case for organized jams...we would have to find ways to pay the house band and rent a stage...
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Okay so you don’t know what jam sessions look like and just keep imagining it to be like karaoke. Noted. Originally Posted by JCat
14 saxophones...childhood memories are brought back again...
There are no organized jams around here that I know of outside the music school system (jamming is typically a spontaneous activity when friends get together). The number of scenes are decreasing and it's getting harder for new bands to meet an audience, so maybe there is a viable business case for organized jams...we would have to find ways to pay the house band and rent a stage...
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I described a VERY VERY well run jazz jam that used to be near me. The coordinator, a guitar player, is a music professor, and private instructor and his students would be at the jam. It was very organized and family friendly, which I liked. Originally Posted by JCat
Pamosmusic is describing your average, NYC "pro" jam. I put pro in quotes because, from the live streams I see, they can be directionless and messy, the opposite of what I think anything pro should sound like. But you know, I'm just a guy in Illinois who bought Easy Jazz Guitar. Extremely disconnected from NYC.
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Not really ... I'm describing I think every jam I've ever been to. I've run them that way too. They should absolutely not be directionless. That's the guy who runs the jam's job. Keep things flowing. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
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You made it sound more chaotic, like the Smalls Spain debacle. That's what I mean by directionless. The Smalls jam sessions look like a pain that's not fun for anybody. I cited the NYE spain one because it's what people most likely have seen, but other ones are the cliche of back to back 15 chorus solos, that Wynton Marsalis regularly bemoans.
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Yeah no fun. Originally Posted by AllanAllen
The session I go to here in Virginia is pretty orderly. That's the one I've run from time to time and it's a job, for sure. The rule there is "two if you're hot -- one if you're not" ... referring to number of choruses in your solo. He also doesn't say no, but strongly discourages ballads. Folks tend to take full choruses, so you accidentally end up with a 12 minute song if you're not careful.
The big parts of the job are running around making sure that everyone who wants to play is on the docket, then grouping people in ways that make sense. You don't want beginners to feel like they're getting sharked, and you want the more experienced players to feel like they're having a good time and making good music, but you also don't want new players ending in a train wreck because they lose they're spot. So it's a balancing act. After that, it's just helping them choose tunes before they all get up there so that they aren't haggling for fifteen minutes. I usually count to 60 and then go "HOW ABOUT A BLUES??" if they haven't settled on one yet.
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My impressions are like Allen's.
There's a house band, typically including keys, bass and drums.
There's somebody running it, who tries to make sure everybody gets a chance to play. In the best one I've seen, the leader keeps track both mentally and with a sign-up sheet of who wants to play. Sometimes, he announces a tune and then asks who knows it. Sometimes, he just calls out the names of the players he's selected for that tune. If I am sitting around with my guitar case, not even having signed in, he'll ask me if I want to play.
Everybody who needs it has IRealPro. Seems like the kb and bass players are guys who know a lot of tunes and don't care what key you call them in.
The negatives are, in no particular order ... 1) the guitar amp is Peavey modeling amp that is not intuitive. You have to get it into a special mode to adjust the EQ and I can never remember how to get in that mode. 2) the bandstand is tight and dark. 3) no room for a music stand in case I have to read from my phone (since I may be asked up -- and plug in -- all before anybody picks a tune. 4) If you want to start quietly, good luck. 5) it's awkward to not find out what the guitar is going to sound like until you're playing the tune -- and not being able to adjust it -- sometimes you can't even reach the amp or see the knobs in the dark. 6) sometimes, the roadmaps aren't clear -- you might be right on the IRealpro version, but the kb and bass aren't reading from Irealpro and play a different arrangement. Gotta keep your ears open! This isn't really a negative -- that's why you're there -- but it can feel like one.
Overall, it's enough of a hassle to play just a couple of tunes that I usually don't bring a guitar and when the leader asks me if I want to play, I volunteer to sing, which is fun.
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I know of a few sessions in NYC that are pretty much a free for all, no house band running them. Smalls late used to be like that because they'd have the late set band, who had just finished 2 sets, open up the session, and they would usually just leave. In the past year or so they restructured the schedule and started hiring a dedicated jam session house band.
I would not say that jam sessions are a good place to learn tunes. You usually have like a minute to plug in, tune up, and agree on a tune. Then you start playing and have to get comfortable playing with 5+ people you've never met or played with before. Occasionally I'll read something I vaguely know or a simple songbook tune, but its never very fun, and I wouldnt say I retain it well. Plus a jam session is not a practice room; there's usually an audience who is hoping to hear something halfway good. Nothing kills the vibe in the room like a bunch of people fumbling through a tune they dont know.
To practice tunes I usually listen to several recordings, learn the melody, check a couple charts for different changes, and then semi-rubato noodle through the changes. Once I have a feel for it I might throw on a backing track and play through it a couple times. But the deepest way I've found to work on tunes is to try and play through them solo guitar in a way that you can clearly hear the tune. Having no accompaniment to fall back on and having to do everything yourself is a good barometer for how well you really know a tune.
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I have been paid to be the chord player at a local jazz jam (I presume that all of the local piano pros were busy and that is why I got the call). It was a 4 hour gig that paid $100 and frankly, for me, it was not fun. It was well organized with a sign up sheet and nobody took more than a couple of choruses on their solos. The tunes were all standards and the changes that the bassist knew were pretty vanilla (so that is what I played). We did a 30 minute trio set before anyone else came up, and that was fun. But once the beginner and intermediate players and singers came up, it became the longest gig ever. I thanked the organizer and asked to not be called again. I suppose that I am not much of a nurturing person. And it certainly wasn't Karaoke. When the soloist did things like go to the bridge a chorus early, so did we.
All of that said, for those trying to learn to play jazz, that is, IMO, a pretty good format.
Years ago, when I played at a Seattle Area jazz festival called "Djangofest NW", I was invited to an after hours jam at the home of a local pro guitarist (Troy Chapman). All of the invited players were pro level players and that was fun! There were no charts and it was before Ireal, so if you didn't know a tune, you laid out. I remember that on a few tunes, it would just be myself, Howard Alden and Troy as most of the Gypsy Jazz guys had a limited knowledge of jazz standards . I know that festival still goes on every year, i wonder if Troy still hosts that jam session?
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Of course I know what a jam session is. The part I've been trying to grasp is the concept of a "house band" in the context of a jam...I get that in your world a jam is an industry, dedicated to provide a foundation for people to meet and play together. Of course, like others have witnessed above, the experience will depend on the level of the participants. Originally Posted by pamosmusic
-Who's paying the house band? (Where did Stringswingers' 100 bucks come from that terrible night?) Dinner guests? Entrance fees from the audience? Entrance fees from the jammers ? (maybe the jammers are the audience?)
(The karaoke part, please don't get offended, in my example is that jammers can hide behind the house band. You have explained that this is not the case in the NYC pro jams, all good.)
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My fee was paid for by the host of the Jam. the Jazz Society of Santa Cruz Originally Posted by JCat
Jazz Society of Santa Cruz County
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I don’t really understand the confusion. Originally Posted by JCat
They play. The leader helps keep track of who’s there and who wants to play. Maybe the members of the house band fill gaps if there aren’t enough drummers or bass players or something.
Apologies, but is there a specific point of confusion?
Probably the venue. Big ones in big markets maybe charge a cover. Mostly it’s like any other gig. The jam presumably brings enough people in to justify a couple hundred bucks for a trio to help facilitate.Who's paying the house band? (Where did Stringswingers' 100 bucks come from that terrible night?) Dinner guests? Entrance fees from the audience? Entrance fees from the jammers ? (maybe the jammers are the audience?)
You say not to be offended here, but you clearly mean in derogatory terms. Saying that someone is “hiding behind” something is generally considered to be an insult. For whatever that’s worth.(The karaoke part, please don't get offended, in my example is that jammers can hide behind the house band. You have explained that this is not the case in the NYC pro jams, all good.)
And again … I feel like I’ve explained this like seven times now, but this isn’t really how jam sessions work anywhere. At least not good ones. The one bass player staying up because there’s no bassist there yet while four other people come up and hash out the tune isn’t karaoke or hiding behind the band or whatever is it? I’m sorry but I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make or the questions you’re asking.
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Not be condescending, but it seems like JCat has never been on a stage and has no idea what he's talking about. "who pays the band" is like, naive beyond belief.
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