Hi, my name is Marc from Jazz Guitar Lessons Development and you're listening to podcast, which is seven Reasons to go to Jam Sessions. Welcome to Jazz Guitar Lessons, where we help guitarists learn jazz faster, express themselves more fluently, and have fun along the way. My name is Marc, and if you're looking to learn jazz, form better practice habits, and especially if you enjoy French accent, make sure to subscribe.
Let's get going! Talking about jam sessions. Jam sessions are generally great for learning or amazing learning experience. Anyways, in my own perspective, they are you get a little bit of tough love here and there. And of course, I'm not talking about open mikes, you know, nice when you can bring your acoustic guitar and sing a song with friends.
I'm really the jam sessions we're talking about here are really jazz jam sessions where you walk in, call a standard, and people will most likely know the tune. So let's get going. I think there's conflicting advice and ideas about jam sessions in general. What I've seen online is like people think, well, at least one website I saw was interesting, said A jam session is like a play.
It's like theater where there's always the same characters over and over. there's this guy and that is the character of the teacher that would walk through a beginner and disclose is Facebook and just point to his ears, you know, and there's this other guy that is an asshole to everybody, and there's the beginner that's too kind and there's all sorts of character.
There's a drunk also, I guess, but I think this is only a perspective and I believe you should go anyways. So let's go and hammer out what are the seven reasons you should go to a jam sessions, along with your daily dose of jazz guitar rambling by yours truly. First reason to go out of the seven, I think it's obviously to get to meet new people.
If you're new in town or if you're not around jazz a lot, you gain fresh, fresh perspectives and you get to meet the people you would never meet otherwise. You say, oh, I didn't know that guy played guitar or trumpet. And then you can really hear the people play for what they are. Jam sessions. You go there, you're totally naked.
There's no safety net for slamming your face. So it's a great way to meet people in a very natural environment. So is it. Second reason to go to a jam session is you get to hear different versions of the song. I think it's great because locally here people might play standards in a different key or in a different way than another city.
So you get to hear different versions and maybe be inspired by what you heard at Jams, or say you come back next week, you'll be prepared to play, My Funny Valentine in G minor, or play, alone together in G minor wet, which is something that I've never personally done, but that could happen any time. The third reason to go to a jam session, I think, is to hear guest stars, quote unquote, sometimes.
So I'll give you a good anecdote. I was jamming in Montreal at Grumpy's, and it was someone's band that was in town. One of the crooners, of course not Sinatra, but one of the great, one of the great jazz quote unquote singers wasn't down. His band was there, and his band was looking to hang out and drink.
So you hear this guy walk on stage? Never heard of him. He's from New York. Start playing Trump. It's like, oh, shit, this guy's the best musician in the room. And this can happen at any time. If you are out in a jam session and it's not likely to happen if you're in your living room. So take note of that for a reason, which is the one I'll go in more detail here for two reasons.
To go to a jam session is get your ass kicked big time, big, big time, and I'll take a moment to expand about my own experiences with the first few jam sessions I've been to. So portray this 2003 or 4, probably I had already played trio gigs on my own. I was still learning. It's not some that long ago, but I've been in the game enough to know, you know, what kind of comp, and I kind of solo on standards and I kind of, I know my way around tunes when people play in a jazz style, but at that point I was still a beginner.
I was young and foolish, and I had played a new standards, and I was practicing my butt off every day. And I showed up to a jam session and I got my ask it not for the reason that I sucked or anything, but it was this guy that played saxophone and it was my first, my first actual jam.
And it was a studio jam. And I walk on stage, I'm kind of happy and nervously happy to be playing with other people that are outside of my circle of friends. It was really like a public jam session, and I called All the Things You Are, which is a great song that I think we should all continue to play forever.
But the guy, the saxophone player, which I which we became friends after about a week, we played tons of gigs. he said, let's get it over with, let's get it over with. So I was so nervous that I played very badly, because I felt the pressure that this guy didn't like the tune, but he was the band leader and he was politely admitting it, admitting me on his bandstand.
And, you know, I felt like we have an expression, an idiom in French that says, you want to go back, in between the cracks on the floor. I really wanted to. I felt small in my shoes. So that was the first really public one. And I was frustrated going back home to be treated in such a way.
So I built some sort of a shell, which I think is good to some extent. And then a second jam session that I remember clearly. After having been to different public ones, I decided to go to one that was more serious, that was more people that were had graduated from university, even teachers. And there's a Sacklers that shows up.
He's in the house band and he blows on Juju by Wayne Shorter for like 15 minutes in a row. And I was very intimidated. So when they opened a jam, I kind of shyly raised my hand and I kind of walked in to my guitar and I showed him my my tune list. And of course, the reaction of any bandleader is always, hey kid, what do you want to play?
And you say your first song and you're not half finished saying the title. Say no, I don't want to play that one. So he played that game with me and I was kind of intimidated. And then we played and I realized not only I was intimidated and I couldn't play at this level, but also that I did not have the tools and the skills required to come up behind that guy he was soloing.
I had no idea what to do, so I got my asking. Overall, it's humbling, especially when you know what to look for in your humility. If you know you don't have a shell, that's too thick and you know that's okay, let's just admit that honestly, I need to work on this. So that was my first advice, which is go to jam sessions because you're going to get your ass kicked on the three last ones.
Sift reason I think you should go to a jam session is to get advice from more advanced player, if they are willing to share it. So you meet this guy, you think he's great? it's not like it's not unanimous. Like you may like one player more than another one. And if these people are willing to share their secrets like, well, you're getting a little closer to sounding like them.
So I think it's just a great way to go out where it means to to make friends and to hear fresh perspectives, especially if you like the players. That's how I'm I met a lot of players I know today, and the six, reason is to get a new perspective on things. So say, you came out to a jam session.
I was there and we were to like, having, like the traditional we're having a smoke outside or something, and we start talking about Pentatonix and you get to hear my perspective. And let's just assume for now that we're exactly the same level of musicianship. So I can brag about brag or talk or whatever about my pentatonic ideas and how we should approach Pentatonix and how you can use Pentatonix in your song swimming or copying or dis or fingerings.
And it's cool because you don't have to agree with me. You just get to hear that new, fresh perspective. And I think it's worth it's worth your while to have these interactions and conversation in your life. And the seventh, reason to go to a jam session is grabbing a drink. Of course. So there's there's been to seven reasons to go to jam sessions.
Now, of course, if you've never been, there is etiquette, as we say in French, there's a standard way of proceeding that you need to respect the other people. As always, respect, respect, respect. There's a page on jazz guitar lessons dot net that you want to look up. It's probably just our lessons are that slash jam sessions dot HTML, something like that.
Look it up. quickly. Just if you've never been just player 1 or 2 tunes, don't play like ten tunes. Say thanks to everybody. Don't come up all the time. Take short solos, don't play loud, and don't just jump in with your guitar. Wait to be invited on stage. I'll let you look at the page. So that's it for podcast 29 seven Reasons to Go to Jam Sessions.
My name is Marc from Jazz Guitar Lessons. Dot net. Improve your jazz guitar playing with a real teacher and I'll see you in the next podcast. Take care.
