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I'm nervous!
A few local guys get together every other Wednesday at a fairly busy outdoor cafe with a lot of foot traffic. They drummer who leads the sessions has been really cool when we talk and said it's very beginner friendly and not a ton of players show up so most get a good amount of playing time. There will be a drummer, bass, piano at minimum.
I want to go and just check it out (recon for next time when I'm less nervous), but I'm brining my guitar and going to force myself to play some once I see how they operate.
Any tips for a first timer? My plan is listen a lot, play a little (if any). I'm pretty excited, but also pretty terrified! I've played in front of people a ton in my life, but it's all been rock and with bands. I've also done a lot of bluegrass jam sessions (I'm not a blue grass player but I can get by with country chords and rock licks). But this just feels different.
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05-17-2023 02:10 PM
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Have a list of songs to call out, be able to explain what style you want to play and be ready to do the heads.
If you call Autumn Leaves and Blue Bossa it’s going to go smoother than “I dunno what do you want to play?” Followed by a back and forth of “I don’t know this and I don’t know that” then you play Autumn Leaves and Blue Bossa anyway.
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Definitely doing it right by going and hanging out first...take some notes, either mental or on paper. Pay attention to what types of tunes are called, if the jam is "realbook" or ireal" friendly. Talk to people and get to know them.
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Agree with Mr. B.
Check it out first. You want to see if people are reading. General level of the play. What tunes get called. Do you have to bring an amp or is there one you can use. How many choruses for solos. Who plays the melody. How many tunes might you expect to play and who calls them? Who counts off the tunes and exactly how (two bars is standard, including pickup notes, but there are exceptions). Will the pianist make enough space for the guitar to comp? Who decides solo order?
Typical might be you play two tunes and you're responsible for the melody. You want to pick tunes the other players are likely to feel comfortable with. You can bring charts, but, more likely, people will have charts on their phones. Make sure you can count it off clearly and near the right tempo. You might want to practice some easy-to-play solo ideas because you may be nervous. Don't forget to look up at the end of your solo so that everybody knows you're done. Keep a list of the tunes (and where the charts if any came from) and learn them for next time.
Don't worry if it goes badly. Charlie Parker famously screwed up his first attempt.
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Yeah it seems like a weird thing, but seeing if it’s book-friendly is a big one. Can be a pretty big faux pas to show up with a book or iPad or whatever if people aren’t playing from books.
The upside is that *usually* people are pretty friendly, in that case. Meaning they won’t sneer at playing a simple tune because it’s what you know.
Most of the sessions I went to were no-book and to this day, I’d much rather play Blue Bossa with someone who feels good and knows it than Love Walked In with someone who needs to read it. It’s just more fun and feels more gracious in a weird way to play something everyone knows. That’s neither here nor there, but knowing the expectations and culture in that respect is very helpful.
Other little things —
Embarrassment is how you learn. A good session won’t try to cut you down to size or make you feel bad, but if you agree to a tune you don’t know well or flub a solo or get lost, a little embarrassment is good. That means you shouldn’t feel like a failure if you’re a little red in the face when you step off the stage. It also means that you don’t have to keep coming back to a session where people making you feel like garbage for learning in real time.
Don’t feel bad about sitting down or laying out if the band is moving forward on something you don’t know.
Don’t feel like you need to play the whole time. Most of the time if there’s a keyboard plaYer there, I just play like a horn. Unless they’re really deliberately laying out and giving me lots of space to play.
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Also an addendum to the above …
… don’t feel bad about saying you don’t know a tune (or sitting down or laying out) even if the jam is book friendly.
One thing I’ve noticed about book-friendly jams is that they’re great for beginners, but also attract the occasional Dude Who Thinks The Jam is His Backing Band.
So sometimes people will show up and call “Spain” or “The Intrepid Fox” or something and be like “it’s in the book.” And my response to that is always “actually I don’t know that one.” And they’ll say again “it’s in the book” and I’ll be like …
Doesn’t mean I know it.
But for real I just politely say I’d rather play something everyone knows. And that doesn’t mean I’ll never play anything I don’t know by heart. I’ll play maybe Night in Tunisia or something that I know by ear and know the form but just haven’t spent the time to learn well.
Anyway … the abridged version of this post is that a book is also not a reason to feel boxed into playing something you’re uncomfortable playing.
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I keep telling myself exactly this...but I'm 44 and he was 14
Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Well, that won't get any better if you wait <g>. Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
I keep telling myself exactly this...but I'm 44 and he was 14
The main way to screw up a jam is to agree to play a tune that you don't really know well.
Sort of knowing, or being generally familiar, or something short of full knowledge, is not knowing the tune.
You need to know the tune well enough that it will be hard for anybody else to throw you off, although it can happen anyway.
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I know! Every year I just keep getting older. I don't see that stopping anytime soon (at least I hope not).
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Here's a bad jam story.
House band with a well known pro bassist.
We finished a tune I knew. The bassist wanted a break.
Meanwhile, a talented young guy I knew called a hard tune. Multiple sections and key changes. I knew that this guy didn't read. I sort of knew the tune (which is another way of saying I didn't know the tune), but what stopped me was the realization that the young guy was going to play the version in his head, which might not be the arrangement I knew -- and I got worried that I wouldn't be able to follow him. So, I put the guitar down and walked to take a seat in the audience. Meanwhile, the bassist is putting his bass away and a friend of mine, a very confident guy, who also sort of knows the tune, pipes up that he knows the tune and plugs in his bass.
The tune starts. The bassist gets lost (I can't recall if it was because he forgot the arrangement he thought he knew or if the young guy played a different one). Complete train wreck. As my friend sits back down after the tune is over, the pro bassist says to him, "You know, you don't have to play if you don't know the tune". Ouch.
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I think if you have good etiquette and so on you’ll do great. Real performance is where you really learn fast. Choose something to play you know is within your abilities. Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
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The only tip have got for you is to be your absolute self and practice how you want to be seen at the gig in front of a mirror, it helps calm the nerves. Good luck mate. Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
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So I did it and went lastnight. It was an absolute blast. The session leader really took charge from the get go and was super cool. He knew I was nervous so he had me come up and do a song toward the end when it was a little looser. Very beginner friendly jam.
I felt like I played some parts fairly well, hit a couple of "off" notes. I know I stepped all over the sax players solo at one point when I got a little mixed up, and I was about as stiff as a drum machine. Overall great feedback from the other players and it wasn't a bomb so I'll call it a success.
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Congrats, good to hear that! I'm nearly 50 and I think I will never be able to get over such feelings.
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Keep going! Next time will be even better. Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
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Maybe sooner they will need you more to play than you need them to play. Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
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That’s wonderful to hear, OP, congrats. As others said it’ll only get better. Keep at it, and enjoy!
I was so nervous at my first jam session that I forgot to zip up my gig bag before leaving. The guitar fell out onto the sidewalk!
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Well done!
having done a (classical) audition outside of my comfort zone today I am reminded of how much it brings to life to do something that scares you a little, every so often.
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It really does. Pushing yourself in any area of life helps with every area of life. Originally Posted by Christian Miller
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If you don't hit some off-notes, you're not trying hard enough. Well, that or you didn't play what you intended. <g> Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
As far as stepping on the sax player's solo -- if he didn't want that, he could have taken up solo piano! He's lucky that people are willing to step all over his solos.
And, stiff as a drum machine is a feature, not a bug. It means your time was solid. I don't assume that absolutely everybody prefers something that's swinging and relaxed. What about tense people? Isn't there music for them?
Some of that was jokes, but this isn't: Congrats on your first jam and it was even a success!
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Thanks! As much as tense people need music too, I'm really shooting for a little more swing this week, you know just to change things up so I don't get stale Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
Everyone was so cool that I felt a little like I missed out...like when am I going to get a cymbal thrown at me?
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I dunno? Early 80s new wave? Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar
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Congratulations on that first jam session! My first was a local all-you-can-eat buffet where the manager was a jazz FLUTE player. He hired a professional bassist, pianist, and drummer and advertised an open jam session on Thursday nights. I went one time and listened, writing down all the tunes. I talked to the leader (Pianist) and he was very gracious and invited me to come, and said if I wasn't comfortable soloing, how was I for comping? I felt I had comping down pretty well (I love chords!) so he actually gave me a copy of his "book." I went over those tunes all week (though I knew that they likely wouldn't be repeated) and paged through the book, flagging the tunes I already knew.
I came back the next week to play, and they let me put my amp up front and had a chair for me. I basically got adopted into the house band. The pianist gently reminded me that if I am uncomfortable at any point, I can sit out. No band ever crashed because the guitarist sat a tune out! Anyhow, I played with those guys for the entire evening, we all had a good time, I sat out maybe a third of the tunes, and they actually thought that was cool. I played the head on tunes I knew well, did some very basic solos, and over the weeks I know I grew more as a musician than practically all the time before. The pianist had a knack for giving really good advice very quietly WHILE PLAYING. Sometimes he realized I was lost, and he'd just say as if to everyone, "to the top!" and it got me straightened out without embarrassing me.
I grieved when that restaurant closed. That was the last chance I had to play regularly, and I know I played way better then than I do now. I was so lucky to have such gracious people to work with, who for some reason just decided to be nice to me. So I'm really happy for you that you've had this great experience. Repetition is the mother of mastery, so keep going back.
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Ah yes! The Yazz Flute is always a winner. This jam is at a newer restaurant, I hope it stays open for a while. Other than the jam they have live groups almost every night of the week too. Originally Posted by lawson-stone
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Thanks for sharing your experience, and I wish you all the best at the next one! Originally Posted by AaronMColeman
Just curious, what tunes were called by who at this session and which one(s) did you play on?
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