Trouble with Jamming + Chord Changes

For me, I find the secret to jamming is to already know the song very well. For example the Dead played "Darkstar" hundreds and hundreds of times; they weren't just making it up as they went along! Each time you learn a new song for your jam band, don't just learn the studio version, but also learn a couple of live versions. Note for note. This will build your "musical vocabulary" of ideas you can call upon when you jam on the song.

Or if you are talking about jamming on songs you've never played before, and you are hearing for the first time... that is difficult for anyone! The two skills you need to survive those situations are a large musical vocabulary and a good ear. A great way to train your ear is to jam along with the radio. Just sit out and listen to the first verse, and then try to join in on the second verse. Bonus points if you can predict the chorus and bridge ahead of time. For example if the song is in C Major then often the bridge is in A Minor (the relative minor). The great part is by practicing this skill at home, there is no audience to hear your mistakes, so you don't have to feel embarrassed. If you can learn songs slowly by ear, then good news, you are not tone-deaf. With practice you will be able to learn songs quicker by ear, until eventually you are learning them in real time as you jam.

 

Keep at it. Learn some more theory. Use the two together. The more you apply yourself, the faster you'll get better.

 

Yeah, everyone's going to flounder a little bit if the changes are random. That's more like noodling than improv, so just play with confidence and act like you meant to hit that minor second.

 

If you're like me and you don't have perfect pitch, nothing makes up for it like experience. Like @bholder says above, keep at it and study up on some theory. It really does help. If what you're jamming on is basic I-IV-V blues structures, listen for the changes and when/where they occur.

One of the things that helped me the most with this was a "sightsinging" class I took in college eons ago. The big takeaway from that was learning to hear and identify the differences in intervals between two notes (or root notes of chords). Learn to hear the change between a I and a IV, IV and V, and I and V. Those are probably the easiest to hear. Once you get comfortable with those, work on the rest and they will start to fall into place.

Another thing to do is to just keep at it. Even if its painfully bad at first, keep trying. Don't get frustrated. Notice your mistakes and think about why what you tried didn't work, and see if you can now take an educated guess as to what might be a better option.

 

Yep ear training helps. After a while you can tell the key just from hearing it. I can usually tell the key on recordings just from hearing it. Some people have perfect pitch, the rest of us have to learn the best we can.

 

Study up on chord progressions. If you're just making up stuff on the fly, someone should be calling out the chord progression. For instance, guitar calls a 1 6 2 5 in D. That automatically tells you that the chords are D Maj, B min, E min and A Dom. Focus on the chord progressions that ya'll use most and know which chords are Maj, Min, Dom and Dim. This wil get you though quite a bit . . .

 

Knowing the chord shapes on guitar helps a lot also.

 

Don't be afraid to ask what the chord (or chord sequence) was you missed when it came around.
If I miss something while playing, i just lean in and ask. Most are willing to help you out to keep the song going.

 

Definitely helpful. Also, if you play any guitar, learn the inversions and the CAGED system. Then you can identify on the fly.

 

No Shame in asking what the chords are, if you aren't picking it up by ear.

 

Also easier if they are in standard tune and not using a capo!

And a big piece of it is knowing the key and the chords in that key. If they start on Gmaj what would be next? Cmaj, Dmaj, Bmin, Amin, Emin are logical choices. (Assuming your other players know at least a little theory.)

 

If all else fails lean in to the guitarist and ask "What key are we in?" Half the time he'll tell you, the other half he'll shrug his shoulders and mutter "I'm not sure!"

You should be able to find some harmonic center that you can play off.
Play simply.
Make sure you can hear yourself properly.
Lock into a rhythm with the drummer and don't worry about the other stuff so much.
Listen real hard! No, seriously! Listen, relax and go with the flow.

Also, are you "jamming" or "Improvising?" Jamming implies that you are playing off of a song or other structure so there should be some order to it.
Improvising is not "play whatever you want" but there will be less, if any, formal structure so try to be in the moment. When you are in the zone (like a great athlete) you'll know it. Everything seems to slow down (not a literal tempo change) and become clear (clearer?) to you. When it is really working the whole band will seem like they are all moving in the same direction.

 

active listening skills are very useful in improv/jamming situations. especially listening to the soloist, as s/he will most likely be soloing over some form of a chord or progression of chords. regarding the formation of tunes out of jamming, i had a buddy who used to name sections such as: the "A" section, and the "B" section, and so-forth.

thinking about a jam as a conversation rather than an equation or formula has helped a lot in my search.

 

Are the guitarist playing chord patterns or just throwing out random chords? If it's random chords, then you can't reasonably expect to anticipate which random chord they will play next unless you are a mind reader. If this is what's going on, then don't let them psych you out, because playing random chords in itself is not evidence of good musicianship.

Most music is made up of chord patterns that repeat in cycles. Songs typically have at least two parts to the form, an A section and a B section. For example the A section might be verse and the B section might be a chorus. So a song form may be ABAB, and you would just cycle through the form. Some songs have a third part called a bridge. The bridge is a new different part of the song. So you might play ABAB, ABAB, CB

Usually when you are jamming, the chords are relatively simple, but you might have a bunch of different sections or riffs that you cycle through randomly. Often you play one pattern until it gets a bit tiresome, and then someone throws in a new pattern, and everyone eventually follows their example. You might play over various 2 bar patterns, 4 bar patters, 8 bar patterns etc,. Blues is usually a 12 bar pattern and there are lot's of possible way to vary blues chord progressions. If you are just playing major |I|IV|V| blues you basically play dominant blues patterns over each chord. So it's sort of like you are modulating with each chord change in a way.

Commercial music may change keys but usually it doesn't change a lot within a section. So you might have a verse in one key and a chorus in another related key. Jazz on the other hand may change key continuously. If you are jamming over an actual song, and the chord progression is complex and modulates continuously, you need to know the chord progression in advance unless you are freakishly talented.

 

I like jamming whatever that comes up.

I practice very often with a Boss Loop Station that let me create and just create and solo and it is a nice way to create. Or with a keyboard I play some chords and then pick up the bass and improv

 

It all comes down to pattern recognition.

The more songs you play, and the more styles you play in, the better you will be at picking out the chord changes.

Learning theory is huge - as some people have suggested. If you are playing in jazz jams, you will see a LOT of ii-V-I chord patterns.

In blues you will see a lot of I-IV-V patterns. But there's a lot of variation, like in "All Blues" by Miles Davis, it seems like a standard blues progression, but the chord goes to a sharp 5 - or lowered sixth (Eb7) - when you are expecting it to return to the root.

The more you play different types of chords the more you will recognize.

Learn theory and work on your ear training. Sit down with a keyboard or a piano and play chords until they become easily recognizable by ear. A dominant chord will sound very different from a Major 7 chord, and those will sound very different from a half-diminished chord.

 

You need some type of foundation like: Next one is in G, blues progression, ready 1, and 2, and... Every jamming session I have ever been in the key is called. From that I know the I-IV-V chord progression that is going to work. Start on the I, go to the IV, throw in a V and repeat. The I or tonal center is safe, so is the IV. Vamp I's and IV's if nothing else. The groove is the thing. The actually chords are secondary to the groove.

Go find a jamming circle and take your bass. Wait on the nod and then pound roots if you have to, like has been said the more you jam the better you get at jamming.

Jamming is like horseshoes and grenades close is OK.

Happy trails.

 

theres some tricks to it.......sometimes, there are musical cues: i.e. a I chord going into a I7 / dominant7 chord usually means a change to the IV chord)...but the other thing is listening for 'telegraphs' from the other members, such as a guitar player or piano player going into a walk and you determining where its going (for example,if on I, certain walks imply II7, certain walks imply iii, certain walks imply IV, etc).......Sometimes,its not you but also how well the other members are aware that you are unfamiliar with the song and them doing their best to drop bread crumbs

for just on-the-spot improv, a lot of these paradigms imply providing the jam makes some kind of general sense...if jammimg an unorthodox arrangement of chords and structure,you need ESP skills and a dartboard.........