Hate jamming

[bassyeah]

I like jamming to get ideas for bass parts then work it more at home... I don't like our drummer telling me to try this, then you do it and he says no like this then you do what he says again then he says no like this and finally he likes it.... and it was what you were playing in the first place! He'll learn

 

[SanDiegoHarry]

I hated this for years, but eventually came to accept it: The best music writing I've ever done with folks is to A) set up a simple recording device B) setup a whiteboard C) jam for 45 minutes D) listen to the jam while farting around E) decide if any bits are with fleshing out into a song.

I'm gonna guess this would not work very well for vocal music, but for instrumental / jazz it worked great.

 

[tZer]

I used to be intimidated by jamming. I was not patient enough to let something form. I was always wanting to create the perfect line and jamming made me too uptight about how long things were going and what was going to happen next.

Now, I am very much the opposite - but it took getting used to jamming - the telepathy - the eyes open, heads up nature - ALONG WITH - recording and listening to everything we do.

By doing all that each time you jam, you improve upon you last experience. If you jam in a vacuum, you run the risk of missing the great stuff that you need to do more and more, and only focusing on the stuff that hit your radar at that moment. Which I've found to be about one 100th of what actually went down.

And if you jam with the same group of musicians for a long time - the ridiculously amazing music you can create on the fly increases exponentially! But recording and listening is vital. If you don't, you literally are robbing yourself of a HUGE amount of information that you can use every time you play.

 

[ubone]

So you're basically saying you don't like being creative??
Coming up with interesting, complimentary, and totally appropriate bass lines to make a song near to perfect as you can serves to inspire everyone else in the band to improve they're parts as well.

 

[DudeistMonk]

I find there is stress in trying to write a bass line to a preconceived song, it feels too permanent and I think too much about note choices...only to change them later.

Jamming on the other hand....Its just fun, that feeling you get when it all locks in...nothing like it. Also I find my best stuff comes out on the fly (even when working with something pre-concieved). When I think too much I loose something and it all just comes out vanilla.

...I guess it all depends on the genre and the complexity of the song though too.

 

[Jake of Bass]

It's funny the OP says this cause in one band I'm in I prefer to come up with lines by myself, but usually happen in the band room.

In another band I'm looking to join the songwriter (whom I haven't met in person yet) just sent me a CD today to listen to so I can come up with some stuff, but as I'm listening to it I'm getting the vibe that I'd prefer to come up with stuff in the room.

I guess it's whatever works for you, the music and the people you play with.

 

[fdeck]

I enjoy jamming for jamming's sake, with good musicians, on the bandstand.

But... I hate being an unpaid rehearsal bassist for players who can only learn tunes by rote repetition or trial and error.

 

[pretaanluxis]

I find there is stress in trying to write a bass line to a preconceived song, it feels too permanent and I think too much about note choices...only to change them later.

Jamming on the other hand....Its just fun, that feeling you get when it all locks in...nothing like it. Also I find my best stuff comes out on the fly (even when working with something pre-concieved). When I think too much I loose something and it all just comes out vanilla.

I agree 100%

The music just seems to flow better if it's written in a jam where everybody can make small adjustments to make everything fit

 

[Sunn]

The thing about jamming is that there should be an obvious "song leader". I use both techniques in my band.

My girlfriend (first song leader for our band) spent the last year of the band's existence creating her guitar parts and recording them. The rest of us would take that and build from it. I opted to go with this setup because I wanted her to get better with playing guitar and composing songs. The songs inherently had a very clear division of parts in terms of verse, chorus, bridge etc.
Now, we are at the point to where she is able to play more comfortably on the fly, and we all can improvise the songs.
For this stage, I notice that the band is looking more to me (new song leader) to create the initial groove or vibe.
It is interesting because we always work in an efficient manner, but we have noticed that our songs are taking off into new uncharted, more organic territory.
the compositions are looser and feel like a "story" is being told through sound and mood.
Jamming and recording it and finding the cool stuff is good in a different way from working on separate parts

each way has its advantages.

 

[HashbrownCOBM]

I find it funny that they call it a "blues jam". You definately know what yer gettin into though. You WILL be playing the blues but say you wanna play a blues song that someone doesn't know and you try to just jam it out and they don't know how to jam all you are gonna hear is some wrong chords by the guitard player then crickets. I appreciate knowing the song (by heart) and then also being familiar enough with chords and modes that you can fake your way through a song if you don't know it. By no means am I a master at it but I can fake it pretty well. ;-)

 

[tegnoto89]

I like jamming, but IMO it doesn't make for good songwriting. But if you're good at jamming, you can derive a lot of pleasure from being able to just flow.

 

[ubone]

The key to successful jamming (with competent musicians) is listening. The point being, knowing when to lay back and support the groove, when to drive the groove, when to add counterpoint or accents to what's just been played. I would strongly suggest listening to the live version of Spoonful from Cream's Wheels of Fire album. The jam is amazing.
As far as jamming not being good for songwriting I couldn't disagree more. Bands like TOOL derive most of their material from long jams.

 

[HashbrownCOBM]

The key to successful jamming (with competent musicians) is listening. The point being, knowing when to lay back and support the groove, when to drive the groove, when to add counterpoint or accents to what's just been played. I would strongly suggest listening to the live version of Spoonful from Cream's Wheels of Fire album. The jam is amazing.
As far as jamming not being good for songwriting I couldn't disagree more. Bands like TOOL derive most of their material from long jams.

Ha-Werd.

 

[thudstaff23]

I agree that jamming can sometimes be a "go nowhere" scenario, but, I love to do it from time to time for one particular reason. To me, I've rarely experienced a better feeling among bandmates when you actually progress upon something magical within a 2-3 hour "jam." I also agree with the other posts that say non-verbal communication is a must in this setting. If not, you might as well not even be in the same room. But, there's something really neat when all 3 players, or whatever number is in your band, arrive at a point together when you all get that same feeling that you have something good.

That feeling will always keep me excited about the prospect of jamming.

 

[Floydian]

I LOVE Jamming, I could jam all day long. For you to jam, you need to have pure love the people your jamming with COMPLETELY otherwise there is no musical telepathy. Love for the people you are playing with is also important to having pure hatred, another aspect really important to jamming, you cant truly hate someone unless you love them as well.

Some days you can play the most liquid, greasiest, dirtiest funk stuff thats ever been played on this planet, and other days you jam sessions are just like a soggy marshmallow in a puddle.

Just play every note as if it were your last, and REALLY care.

you totally took that quote about love and hate from flea.

BUT anyways, I really do enjoy the whole jamming process and i think if you just figure out your parts alone not only are you missing out on the fun of hanging out with other people and jamming but you also have very little creative input to the song.