Open Jam Etiquette

[Sparkdog]

Unfortunately, that is typical of disorganized low level jams, it's pretty much "wankers night out".

For some of these guys it is their only opportunity to get onstage and by God they're going to play every note they know before somebody yanks them off the bandstand!

A little scouting beforehand is a good idea so you can avoid these situations.

But lest some folks read this thread and think jams are all just a clusterf--k there ARE good ones where you will hear incredible players who are respectul of each other and actual music gets made.

And if you're one of the guys who plays well with others it can even lead to gigs, I've hooked into a decent number of those from playing at jams.

[fhm555]

Originally Posted by Sparkdog

Unfortunately, that is typical of disorganized low level jams, it's pretty much "wankers night out".

For some of these guys it is their only opportunity to get onstage and by God they're going to play every note they know before somebody yanks them off the bandstand!

A little scouting beforehand is a good idea so you can avoid these situations.

But lest some folks read this thread and think jams are all just a clusterf--k there ARE good ones where you will hear incredible players who are respectul of each other and actual music gets made.

And if you're one of the guys who plays well with others it can even lead to gigs, I've hooked into a decent number of those from playing at jams.

Which is why I was so taken aback by it all. In the past the same organization had always put on very well run, organized jams where it was not unusual for some of the local luminaries to show up if they happened to be in town.

I got lots of work from attending in the past, but if what I saw friday was typical of the way things are run these days, I'll take my chances on my own.

[SR505bassman]

Originally Posted by Deathblade Eric

With the two I regularly go to in London, the format is basically the same with some differences. I've culled this list from personal observation...

1 - Backline usually provided. I always make a point of asking the House bass player if it's OK to mess with the EQ (just courtesy).
2 - Bring your own instrument, never assume that the House guy will be willing to loan (plus you will find that it's set up for them, not you - and it could be a POS).
3 - Sign in (if that's the MO), or introduce yourself to the bandleader/organiser.
4 - Bring your own instrument cable.
5 - Be tuned up & ready to roll. Onstage Tune-ups are a big yawn & look totally amateurish.
6 - Sit in the pocket. No-one knows you. You'll score more points playing Mustang Sally with passion, or making Route 66 swing than giving an awesome Nuclear Slap Barrage demonstration. That can come later, when you've got "in".
7 - After your set, thank the players you were up with and also thank the organisers.
8 - Stick around for a while & catch some of the other players. Put some cash over the bar - even if it's just a soft drink. Chat. Network.

It's worth going down for a couple of weeks armed with a notepad. That way if there are any "usual suspects" numbers, you can go away & get 'em down. Also gives you an idea of the overall standard & whether you actually want to get involved.

Have a link... This is my regular Wednesday night out:

The Coach & Horses

Pete.

Pete - thanks so much for your advice and especially for this link and your great website!! I'm gonna use the recordings to jam with myself Great practice for 'sitting in".

Cheers!

Steve

[Deathblade Eric]

Originally Posted by SR505bassman

Pete - thanks so much for your advice and especially for this link and your great website!! I'm gonna use the recordings to jam with myself Great practice for 'sitting in".

Cheers!

Steve

Glad it's of use Just a quick correction though... it ain't my website, it's theirs - I just turn up every so often & have a blow

I guess the vids etc could be of use, as they're spur of the moment/on the fly examples with no prior rehearsals, however... no amount of bedroom practice really prepares you for the jolt of doing it for real; f'rinstance you don't get the 10-15 seconds of 'instruction' like "OK, swinger in Cmin, quick change, 251 turnaround, watch me for the stops... 1-2-3-4". No song titles, no warning, off you go.

Home jamming can take some of the sting out of it, for sure, but the first time at a jam night is a real heads-up to how much you don't know - & the more of 'em you do, the more you find you need to learn

This is actually a good thing, as you then have clear targets to aim at rather than wondering what to randomly learn next - it's kind of an ongoing apprenticeship in what knowledge & techniques you really need.

I've learned more in 3 years of doing jam nights than in the previous 20+.

Pete.

[BluesBear]

If you're the one singing a song... PLEASE KNOW ALL THE WORDS!!!

Don't stand there and sing the same verse over and over.
It's both annoying to the audience and rude to anyone else who might be thinking of performing the same song later.

[DontFret]

Oh i hate that, same awful department as people who only know one bit of a song and think they can get away with playing the same thing over and over again, and miss an important key change... annoyyyying...

don't be a stage hogger
don't be the weird quiet kid in the corner...

thats my advice on this which also can be expanded for pretty much any situation.

[AnchorHoy]

Played one last night that was kind of a weird mix of things found elsewhere in this thread

Tiny club - maybe 80 people SRO. Decent backline and PA. Run by a semi-local (lives some distance away but has many ties to the area music scene) who is a fine player in his own right. The thing is being advertised as an Open Mic, but in practice it's more of an 'invitation only' jam. They have a signup sheet but that means absolutely Nothing......

So I go there with just an acoustic flat-top guitar, leaving the bass at home even though I'm known locally as "that fretless bass player" first and foremost. The plan was to play some acoustic blues with solos by whoever was interested. Sure enough, I get called up to the stage 5 minutes after I get there - to play bass

Leader is kind enough to lend me his Pedulla fretless for the purpose and *ahem* it took more than a little bit of getting used to, to say the least. Managed to cope with it eventually, despite the strap height hanging the thing down to my knees and the lined fretless fingerboard (been playing variations on the P fretless all my life and flat-out hate lined FBs). Since I was singing, I got to call a few tunes which went reasonably well. Then he throws me a total curve ball: coming out of Stormy Monday, he leans over and says "you know Freeway Jam right? Lets do it!" and off he goes into the intro. Have I heard the tune before? Yep. Have I ever played the tune before? Nope

Doesn't matter in the slightest. Two more guitar players hear the familiar opening lick and jump on stage. Drummer kicks it into high gear and away we go, ready or not. Nothing left to do at that point except fake it, totally from a 20 year old memory. Main riff is simple enough, pulled the first part of the bridge out of my hat and got totally lost on the last lick of the bridge. Covered the potential train wreck by palm muting the strings at the bridge for that section and just going ThumpThumpThump in tempo, which actually worked out better than I expected LOL. Later on that night, I finally got to play what I came to play (with tasty leads by Mr. Gotcha) and that went well enough to get a solo gig offer from the club owner

Lesson #1 - Bring your own bass, no matter what else you have planned for the night

Lesson #2 - Expect sudden surprises from this leader

Lesson #3 - Don't forget to tip the bartender. He's the one who set me up for the potential solo gig

[TheRealKong]

Lesson # 4...and be sure to invite the right musicians!

A few weeks ago there was a open stage night in a well known bar in my aerea in germany, called "The Rock And Metal House". The name says it all, nice people with long hair that love heavy music. A guitarist and singer, well known in my place as he is with 4 or 5 bands, invited several people to give this bar with that first jam a good start. He asked some guitarists to bring theyr combos, and I was asked to bring my "small stuff", Little Mark II and Peavey TVX 210. I was there first at 7:00 pm, unpacked my amp, cab and bass and started to find a sound for the hollow wooden stage, playing along with some tunes from the stereo.

BTW, a guy walked in and told the owner imediately: "Wow, you really did something with that old stereo! Heavy bass!"

Later on more musicians arrived, and we waited for the man who was asked to bring his drumset. Yeah, what can I say: A drumset ever arrived. As they reached tis drummer on the phone he did not know anything about the jam. So we had to chacel it.

Next time I will do the invitations for those people who are supposed to bring the backline to the jam. I think this will work better.

[foursring]

its not a jam if you do covers all night...(unless your a jazz player)
it bothers me because i dont do covers but i can play all night ; )
and as far as i know the house will have the amp for you to plug in 99% of the time.

[Doctor Dirt]

Supply the backline, beg a drummer to come, call ever bassman you know to "please" come down so you don't get "beat up" all nite long. No one touches the P/A mixer, no ones plays any ones guitar, disinfect the mics when your done!!! Have "no problem" in telling someone to chill out, or just cut their time off and thats that!!!! You will have jerks come in but you might get some young folks with talent. Call the local high school music director and see if theres a few kids who could come with their parents for a musical/dinner nite out. It worked for me years ago and it sure beats the hell out of some horrible female singer butchering Stormy Monday or some goof ball singing Bruse Stinkstreet or whatever his name is. Go for it and make up a damage kitty for drum heads and dropped mics. Ear plugs work well too!!! Have fun, I did my share, and you better be getting paid! If your freebing shame on you! Doc

[Electric_Delta]

You should also expect to deal with jerks.

If your area is anything like mine, there are jam drifters who show up at every local open mic and they tend to be clique oriented. If the host band is partial to those guys, you may not get asked up. If there are friends of the host band there, you may not get asked up. You may sign up and the host may ignore you.

I've been doing jams for years and sometimes egos ruin the whole night. One week you could have a blast and everyone is cool, the next week you could want to give up playing because of how badly you were treated.

[soulman969]

This is an old thread so I don't know if this was mentioned of not but to me one of the biggest violations of jam session etiquette is to try playing that which you cannot. If your not familiar with the material and can't just comp then bow out.

There's nothing worse than having everyone else's jam tune ruined because you can't play it. Just excuse yourself and pass the torch to one who can. No harm, no foul and it's the professional way to handle it. No one will think less of you for it but they will think less of you if you can't hack it without creating a train wreck. It's OK to admit you can't handle something. No player can know everything.

That's my two cents.

[italianstalion]

These are all great. I'm new to this whole thing so it's nice to read up on this and learn. Thanks for all the help gentlemen!

[KingLucCole]

Originally Posted by capnsandwich

Nice. Improvising one of my strengths so I'm cool there. I can bring my own basses but I was hoping they would have their own amp/cab or combo there. I'm not sure about that though. They may have one. They're a jazz club for pete's sake.

If it's an open jam, just go DI.

[gigslut]

Originally Posted by soulman969

This is an old thread so I don't know if this was mentioned of not but to me one of the biggest violations of jam session etiquette is to try playing that which you cannot. If your not familiar with the material and can't just comp then bow out.

There's nothing worse than having everyone else's jam tune ruined because you can't play it. Just excuse yourself and pass the torch to one who can. No harm, no foul and it's the professional way to handle it. No one will think less of you for it but they will think less of you if you can't hack it without creating a train wreck. It's OK to admit you can't handle something. No player can know everything.

That's my two cents.

Abso-frikkin-lutely! I host weekly jams on Sunday and Monday nights. The Monday nights are frequented by a lot of wannabe guitards who don't know when to turn down or lay out. Even if you don't know the tune, you might be able to play along if you turn your guitar down and your ears up. Instead, these clowns turn UP and guess at the changes, and they usually guess wrong. And because they are playing so loud, they can;t hear that they are wrong. I even turn to them and dumb down my bass line, playing root notes with one finger to show them the changes and they still don't get it. To make matters worse, I am always stuck with the sit in guitarist next to me, blowing chunks in my ear.
I've also had some great guitarists sit in, so there are rewards.

[phillybass101]

Yeah man, it's a social event just be cool and watch what's going on. Be humble, be polite and when you get a chance to play, don't overplay just get down and fit in. People will remember you for sure (good and bad) Also don't forget to pack your thick skin. Each one I go to is a learning event. I'm a decent player and some events I go to, they hand me a bass as soon as I walk in. I don't pay attention to that stuff. I stay humble and try to fit in cause not everyone is going to like you no matter what you do, and scope out the place for all of the exits :-)

[DataDan]

My family hosts a summer party where we have an open jam from noon-10p every year. I setup my bass stack and start it off. Usually 4 or 5 players come up throughout the day with their bass and ask to play for a while. I show them the amp head, where to plug in, master volume, EQ for the guys I know, and say 'have fun'.

Sometimes we get a guy that didnt bring a bass, So they play one of mine. Not my favorite situation, but never had any real problems with it.

One year no bass players showed up all day. We cycled 5 drummers, 2 harp players, ~15 guitar players, and a few singers, but just me on the bass. I only took 1 hour off while one of the guitar players filled in for an hour midday so I could eat.