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Part 2: What is a Jam?

 Part 2: What is a Jam? So what is a jam? It is a unstructured group of musicians who gather to play together. Or in other words, not a band. For my discussion, we will refer to the jam as acoustic instruments only. Why? Well, there are more acoustics out there (usually sitting in corners), Electric instrument players tend to play a little better (sort of), and finally electric players usually are going to play music that really can be played by acoustic instruments. An electric jam works very similar to an acoustic. If you watch the pros play in a set ending, everyone on stage, a lot of the same things are at work. There may or may not be a set list. There may or may not be a single leader (more on that later). There may or may not be a genre (more on that later too). Musical ability may vary as well. A jam can be in someones basement, back yard, around a fire pit, at a festival, at a location like a bar, coffee shop or store front and I guess on line, but I haven't tried it. An...

Part 1: Introduction to Mastering the Jam

Part 1: Introduction to Mastering the Jam For a few years, I offered an introduction to acoustic jamming in person. I had friends who could play guitar and liked music. I ask if they want to jam sometime and the answer I got was. Oh no, I'm not good enough, you're way better than me, I just can't. And guess what, there are a lot of people who want to play with other people, but just don't have the confidence. And that is something I understand. This pandemic has locked me and others away and music is the most fun you can have isn't available. So if you know a few guitar, mandolin, dobro, banjo chords, like G, C, D, A and maybe some minors, you can play. If you play bass, violin and can play along. You are good enough. We can't play together, but I can get you ready to play Pretty Maggie in G with breaks after the chorus starting clockwise, watch me for the nod (yeah, I'll explain all of this). For years, I was a family room musician. I started to realize tha...