Promoting a Monday Jam Night

billhilly66 · #1 08-26-2009, 02:59 PM

Any ideas on promoting a jam night? I made a deal with a bar a block from my house to try a jam night on Mondays and see if it flies. They have live music Thu-Sat with decent crowds so I figured I’d go in there with a side project and see what happens. I could always use an extra night o giggin.

There are a few successful blues jams in the area on different nights but I want to be more inclusive. Blues, rock, country, standards, whatever. I’m gonna hit CL and a local musician’s forum that caters mainly to the country guys. I’m also going to hit up the local GC guys to help. Any other Ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Caca de Kick · #2 08-26-2009, 03:27 PM

Around here a couple of 'new' jams have popped up, and mainly the way I heard about them was the future host was out at the clubs (even at the old jams) introducing himself and telling musicians.
CL would be the easiest, but sometimes many musicians don't search for stuff like that on CL.
The other would be the local music/or arts newspaper. Every city seems to have some sort of local paper that has club listings and show dates, dance/dj etc.

LowDown Hal · #3 08-26-2009, 03:36 PM

Is there a local Blues Society?

What time are you going to start? Around here a lot of the jams don't start until 9:30 which means 10:00.

Makes getting up for work the next morning real rough.

rcarraher · #4 08-26-2009, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billhilly66

Any ideas on promoting a jam night? I made a deal with a bar a block from my house to try a jam night on Mondays and see if it flies. They have live music Thu-Sat with decent crowds so I figured I’d go in there with a side project and see what happens. I could always use an extra night o giggin.

There are a few successful blues jams in the area on different nights but I want to be more inclusive. Blues, rock, country, standards, whatever. I’m gonna hit CL and a local musician’s forum that caters mainly to the country guys. I’m also going to hit up the local GC guys to help. Any other Ideas would be greatly appreciated.

As a club owner (once upon a time and also as a musician hosting a jam, a helpful thing that drew in listeners as well as players was passing the word at local colleges. Word of advice, don't put fliers on car windshields, some idjit turned us in for litering! Instead, ask about how to post on Bulletin Boards. In Plano, you have Collin CC, but go out even further than that, to maybe Mesquite, Richardson, etc...Also, make the rounds of music stores and put up fliers. Also, hit other places that have live music and find out if any players hang there and pass the word.

neatobassman · #5 08-26-2009, 03:37 PM

craigslist is also awesome. Post an ad there and just talk it up "Meet new musicians and jam with them" blah blah blah

billhilly66 · #6 08-26-2009, 03:41 PM

We're going to run from 8-12. The blues jam down the road on Wed. starts at 7:30 or so.

I don't know about the blues society. There are a few blues jams in town but no place that does anything else. There used to be years ago when I'd be in off the road but it's been pretty much strictly blues at any jam I've heard of for a while so I thought we'd try and mix it up.

Kenny Allyn · #7 08-26-2009, 04:05 PM

Having played and hosted blues jams one issue you can run into is players with a "deer in the headlights look" when they are out of the loop on the chord changes of a tune.

If you host and all forms of music jam try to make sure you keep it on some sort of track that the song is one 99% of the players on stage can follow.

... You don't want players to have to fumble around on stage

billhilly66 · #8 08-26-2009, 04:14 PM

Yep, I'm hip to the deer deal. I've hosted lots of jams back in the day, just never had to promote one before.

emor · #9 08-26-2009, 04:56 PM

Ask for email addresses on the sign-up sheet. Send out reminders on Sunday evening or Monday mornings. It's also handy if you have to inform the regulars of a cancellation for holiday or whatever.

billhilly66 · #10 09-09-2009, 03:36 PM

Well, I’ve done everything I could think of to promote the deal. I’m heading over to another jam on Sunday to try and recruit/steal some jammers. We’ve got the word out among the locals and it looks like we might have a pretty good turn out. If any of you TB’ers are close, come on out and jam with us. PM me for the directions.

troy mcclure · #11 09-09-2009, 03:49 PM

I did this for a while, I used CL , started a myspace and a bot to build a 1000 friends in like 3 weeks. I hung signs in music stores and went to other jamnites and while I was onstage , annouced it....

Jim Powers · #12 09-10-2009, 07:50 PM

My favorite pub uses CL, putting an ad in each week late Tues night for Weds jam night. Bands can take the stage for an hour which is attractive, but otherwise its open. They take pictures and recordings of the jams and post them on their webpage. They also have an email list of the regulars to send a direct weekly email describing whats up, any bands this week, etc.

www.thegetawaypub.com