• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Guitarist Jam

BOOG

BOOG

Dec 13, 2016
3,900
4,829
56
Cleveland, Ohio
#1
So, I humbly come forth seeking helpful and genuine advice my bassist brethren.

Sometime later this week, I will be meeting up with a guitarist who's CL advert I responded to, to jam and meet. All I know so far is he's about 20-25 years older, plays a guitar and sings lead, he's gigged locally doing cover rock. His band is recently defunct due to his mates getting older and falling out for life's reasons. He claims he has a studio above an old nearby theater that we can jam at. Basically, his advertisement listed that he is looking for other musicians with younger blood to put together a 1-2/mo gigging band. He's looking for bass and drums with backup vocals preferred.

About me:
I am late forties, live in his neighboring burb and I have been learning and teaching myself theory, reading and to play bass for about 3 1/2 years. I do not have any experience singing and would not even attempt it at this stage. I have not played music with other musicians since I was in junior high but, that has been and is my goal. Hence the reason I lurk CL. My response to the ad admitted that my skills are probably not what he's looking for but since we live so close it couldn't hurt to meet up and give it a shot. Also, that I am looking for other musicians to meet and hangout with and jam. If it leads into gigging (barring it doesn't interfere with my full time occupation) I am all in.

Regardless of this tepid response he replied and volunteered the offer to meet and jam at his studio space.

I have some reservations:
1) This guy is going to have heaps of experience beyond my musicianship which is intimidating.
2) How do I jam when accompanied by a guitar? Or, probably more accurately, what should I plan on playing while he jams? R-5-8 along the chord progression? Simpler, with banging on the roots only? Should I prepare something?
3) Should I (this approach seems the most natural and genuine) just go into this with the mindset of the student looking to learn from this wisened and experienced cat and hope to make friends and have someone to jam with? This is really about all I feel confident in accomplishing at this point. However, the reservation rises again because I don't want to waste this guys time.

Thanks for reading this and any input you all have is appreciated. I am planning on calling him after the holiday to give him a better feel of where I am at with knowledge, skills and abilities and to gauge him a little bit. If it sounds like he's only looking for future band members of a higher quality than me then, I'll leave it at that.

Cheers!
John
 
#2
1) Why should that be intimidating? He's not competing for your job as bassist. Music is a team sport. Imagine you are a baseball pitcher, and your team trades for a catcher. Do you worry, oh no he will take my job as pitcher, or do you say, yay we are a better team now with a good catcher!

2) Ideally, you play the correct notes to the song, because you know the song. Usually in jam sessions, people will compare lists of songs to find overlap of songs that everybody knows. If however a song comes up that you don't know yet, then don't panic, use your "musical vocabulary" from similar songs to fake your way through it (and then when you get home, learn the song). Not knowing your skill set, it is hard for me to recommend the best way to do this. If you have a good ear then your ear will guide you through the jam; if you have a good eye for fretboard patterns then watching the guitarist's hands will guide you through the jam; if you know a lot of music theory then music theory will guide you through the jam; if you have a good memory then your knowledge of similar songs will guide you through the jam; or if you have good search engine skills then quickly looking up the chords on your smartphone or tablet will guide you through the jam. If you want to impress this guitarist with your preparedness and leadership, then print out some chord charts and lyrics for a few songs that you know well.

3) It's like swimming; sooner or later you have to get in the water. Don't second guess what this guy's motivations are, or whether you are going to let him down. Your only goal should be a selfish one, and that is to start doing something you've been thinking about for a long time. 3 1/2 years is plenty of time. You are ready.

4) Be confident. Never apologize. Never sell your talents short or point out your self-perceived weaknesses. If a particular song is beyond your ability, then just say something like: I don't know that one, how about Freebird?

Hope you don't mind the friendly, tongue-in-cheek tone of my response. I'm feeling a little punchy today. ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jonathan Eliot, Raw N Low and BOOG
#4
Mushroo said:
1) Why should that be intimidating? He's not competing for your job as bassist. Music is a team sport. Imagine you are a baseball pitcher, and your team trades for a catcher. Do you worry, oh no he will take my job as pitcher, or do you say, yay we are a better team now with a good catcher!

2) Ideally, you play the correct notes to the song, because you know the song. Usually in jam sessions, people will compare lists of songs to find overlap of songs that everybody knows. If however a song comes up that you don't know yet, then don't panic, use your "musical vocabulary" from similar songs to fake your way through it (and then when you get home, learn the song). Not knowing your skill set, it is hard for me to recommend the best way to do this. If you have a good ear then your ear will guide you through the jam; if you have a good eye for fretboard patterns then watching the guitarist's hands will guide you through the jam; if you know a lot of music theory then music theory will guide you through the jam; if you have a good memory then your knowledge of similar songs will guide you through the jam; or if you have good search engine skills then quickly looking up the chords on your smartphone or tablet will guide you through the jam. If you want to impress this guitarist with your preparedness and leadership, then print out some chord charts and lyrics for a few songs that you know well.

3) It's like swimming; sooner or later you have to get in the water. Don't second guess what this guy's motivations are, or whether you are going to let him down. Your only goal should be a selfish one, and that is to start doing something you've been thinking about for a long time. 3 1/2 years is plenty of time. You are ready.

4) Be confident. Never apologize. Never sell your talents short or point out your self-perceived weaknesses. If a particular song is beyond your ability, then just say something like: I don't know that one, how about Freebird?

Hope you don't mind the friendly, tongue-in-cheek tone of my response. I'm feeling a little punchy today. ;)
Click to expand...
Not at all @Mushroo ! I was really happy it was a vet like you that responded first. I have read many of your past posts and gained a lot of knowledge. So, I will read and reread your advice and insight and put it into practice. Thank you!
 
#5
Spent said:
Just be yourself and play; there are plenty of people better than you and you are better than a lot of others. As a public school administrator, I've hired a lot of teachers over the years. The best advice I ever got was "don't hire the best person, hire the right one." If you're the right one, everyone will know it.
Click to expand...
Very true and agreed on both points.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Spent
#6
By the way, a good way to psychologically prepare yourself is to put the radio on the classic rock station, close your eyes, and imagine the guitarist on the radio is this guy you're going to jam with later in the week. Not knowing which song is coming next, it will be a wild ride for sure, but maybe the exercise will give you a little more confidence going into an uncertain situation. :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bondobass and BOOG
#7
Mushroo said:
By the way, a good way to psychologically prepare yourself is to put the radio on the classic rock station, close your eyes, and imagine the guitarist on the radio is this guy you're going to jam with later in the week. Not knowing which song is coming next, it will be a wild ride for sure, but maybe the exercise will give you a little more confidence going into an uncertain situation. :)
Click to expand...
Good idea and good reminder. I tend to listen to a slew of genres and focusing on one for a few days will get my rhythmic sense tuned in better.
 
#8
Jamming in my neck of the woods.... The key may be called, if so assume a I-IV-V in a blues 12 bar progression and hang on.

Now to you playing with your new friend. If he does not call the key, ask him to do so. Yes to a simple R-5-8 right at first. Most of what we do here is 4/4 time so a R-5-8-5 will work. Start with just roots and when you two are grooving add the 5 -- root on the first beat and the 5 on the 3rd beat... When that goes well start adding more of the chord tones, i.e. the 3 and 7 or b3 and b7 if minor.

Brush up on what notes are in what chords. Chord Formulas

It is not rocket science. Go and have fun. Jamming is getting close, so you stumble a little, that's just jamming.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Low84 and BOOG
#9
Thank you @MalcolmAmos ! Chord formulas I am pretty solid with so I should be ok and hang with that.
The point you made about "getting close" and basically getting our instruments to communicate resonates with me and that's what I'm striving for.
The suggestion @Mushroo made to print out some chord progression sheets is one thing I am going to dig up and work on. Does anyone have a suggested website to easily pull those up?
 
#10
BOOG said:
Thank you @MalcolmAmos ! Chord formulas I am pretty solid with so I should be ok and hang with that.
The point you made about "getting close" and basically getting our instruments to communicate resonates with me and that's what I'm striving for.
The suggestion @Mushroo made to print out some chord progression sheets is one thing I am going to dig up and work on. Does anyone have a suggested website to easily pull those up?
Click to expand...

I usually go to Ultimte Guitar for chord sheets. They have a lot of bass TAB there too, which may or may not be helpful.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG
#13
Ask him for his set lists with the keys he does the songs in. Pick the ten easy ones you like. Learn them.

Go in prepared to play those songs and see how things go. Don't let it turn into a pop quiz. Tell him you've got these tunes ready, and play em. You'll know if it's got any chance of working within twenty minutes.

When somebody with that much mileage on says "we can jam" he means "we'll see if you can do what I need you to do" not, "we will explore new harmonic and rhythmic horizons".

Your average bar gig playing covers is three sets over four hours, so figure a total 30-40 songs per night. Some will get stretched, a few might repeat later in the evening. If he's the lead vocalist, he'll have have worked out what works for his voice.

The sooner you get started getting the material down, the sooner you can go out and make that $50-100.

Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG
#14
Be honest with your abilities. Everyone involved will be appreciative of you being straight-up. If you start to get lost, any jamming buddies would be happier with calling out chords instead of having someone try to fake it and destroy the jam. Ain't no big deal at all to ask them to yell out chords. :smug:

Watch the hands of the guitar player... see where he's going... that will help.

And look at it this way -- if you get in over your head, you're gonna come away from this knowing more than you did heading into it... and that is a plus.

Above everything, HAVE FUN!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG
#17
singlemalt said:
Ask him for his set lists with the keys he does the songs in. Pick the ten easy ones you like. Learn them.

Go in prepared to play those songs and see how things go. Don't let it turn into a pop quiz. Tell him you've got these tunes ready, and play em. You'll know if it's got any chance of working within twenty minutes.

When somebody with that much mileage on says "we can jam" he means "we'll see if you can do what I need you to do" not, "we will explore new harmonic and rhythmic horizons".

Your average bar gig playing covers is three sets over four hours, so figure a total 30-40 songs per night. Some will get stretched, a few might repeat later in the evening. If he's the lead vocalist, he'll have have worked out what works for his voice.

The sooner you get started getting the material down, the sooner you can go out and make that $50-100.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Totally agree with this - get more information on style of music he likes, artists that he thinks he's similar too, etc. Find a few Pandora stations that cover that stuff and just play along. Its hard to give you advice on "how to play" as an accompanist without knowing what style he plays.
 
#18
1. I get intimidated by players I perceive as "beyond my skill level" all the time. That being said I can tell you honestly I have had the best and most freeing musical experiences with people who are "better than me." As long as you can play together and sound good and agree that the sound is good, the difference in years of experience doesn't matter. Never sell yourself short.

2. This really depends on what music you are playing. Maybe the best thing would be to ask for a song list of tunes you could jam together. That way you can prepare yourself and based on the songs they send you, you'll get a better picture of what they like and feel comfortable playing.

3. If someone knows more than you about anything and are open about it then you can stand to learn from them. If they aren't open and willing to work with you then it's probably not a good fit anyway. Always try to learn things from other players, and not just bass players.
Be a good listener and you'll only get better faster.

Good luck!
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG
#19
BOOG said:
The suggestion @Mushroo made to print out some chord progression sheets is one thing I am going to dig up and work on. Does anyone have a suggested website to easily pull those up?
Click to expand...
Just ask Google for -- chords, name of the song -- and you will get the lyrics and chord progressions to just about anything you want.

Invalid Link Removed

Eagles - Hotel California (Chords)

Invalid Link Removed
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG
#20
I regularly jam with some guys with no song list. I am self taught with no theory training. I went in with expectations set low for them and me. since I play a bit of guitar as well, I simply follow the chords the rhythm guitarist is playing and play R-5-8, and improvise as needed. Playing mostly rock, this works out really well most of the time. I ended up playing a few tunes last week (really well I might add) that I have never played before. I surprised myself.

And yeah, always play with people better than you, its better to be the student than the teacher.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BOOG

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back