What are your experiences with jam sessions?

**butchblack** · #1 05-06-2007, 10:14 PM

Hi all

I'm curious as to other's experiences with jam sessions. Were they helpful in your becoming a better bassist?

I consider my experience playing in jams and then playing in house bands hosting jams to have been indispensable in developing my ear and an ability to quickly fit into what's being played. However, I play blues, a form that lends itself well to jams. What are everybody else's experience with them?

DayoftheGreek · #2 05-06-2007, 10:25 PM

I love jamming, and hope to do as much of it as possible. I agree with you on the ear thing, as well as blues being fun and easier to jam in than some other formats.

My favorite is to jam with just a drummer. All the freedom in the world, and endless amounts of groove.

uturnbass · #3 05-06-2007, 11:38 PM

I jammed for the first time last night.. well, the first time with a full peice band, and where it included the pianist just telling me the key and that's it.
Not only that, but we were jamming "soft music" to the enjoyment of the people there as they talked and ate, so it was pretty weird, I had to figure out a lot of things by ear and sometimes I wasn't right on (ouch!) but a woman said our playing was beautiful, so I think I did a decent job I guess, haha.

But yeah, just sitting down and jamming is very good for improvisation and for you ear. I was already pretty good at improv because I have to play 3-6 songs a week with about 30 minutes of practice at most with the band, so I've had to rely on improv since I didn't have the time to remember bass lines and chords.
But jamming was a whole different ballgame!
I really enjoyed it though..

middy · #4 05-07-2007, 03:03 PM

Heck yeah! 1 hour of jamming, especially with an audience, is often worth 10+ hours of practice time when it comes to developing groove and general "musicality". In fact, some of what you're developing, if you're playing with the right people, cannot be learned in solo practice, no matter how many hours you put in.

There's nothing like it.

I second the vote for playing with just a drummer, that's a lot of fun. And, most drummers would much rather play with just a bass player than any other single musician (except a keyboard player, of course).

LooseFit · #5 05-07-2007, 05:38 PM

I've only been playing for 8 month now but I've found jams to be THE most helpful thing so far to my playing. I've made it a point now to regularly go to open jams. (I live in NYC so there are several through the week that fit a number of styles). I've made many a conceptual breakthrough in my understanding of music while doing this. Times where I realize "oh...!!!... so THAT's why my teacher/TB told me about this." I view it as a sort of playground/lab where I can talk all the concepts I've been learning about and the techniques I've been practicing and put them all together.