JAMMING WITH OTHERS

Hi everyone,

Can someone explain how to start jamming with people.

Lets say the band says the song is in the key of "C"

How do you know what to play to join in?, and soloing is even more confusing to me!

I would LOVE to play with people, I know all the major, minor and 7th chords. But have no clue as to how to use them to just get up and play with others without memorizing the song first.

Kelly D

I can't really give you much help other than making a setlist of sorts before hand, When it comes to soloing I never start thinking about [u][/u]what key I'm in I just play by ear and 99% of the time it's right. just try that. Also avoid 110 degree tool sheds for jam sessions you'll sound terrible and have a heat stroke, worst idea I ever had in my life.

my experience with jamming was helped by having a number of percussion instruments. When I played with others, if I didn't know the song, I would play percussion. This helped my understanding of rythum and made me something besides another beginner guitar player. This led to musical friends and jamming opportunities.

I also had a serise of songs I could lead. But when others wanted to lead I could be a useful participant who added to the mix. Not another guitar player struggling to keep up with songs I didn't know.

I know you want to play guitar but, in my experience percussion was very useful in building a circle of friends to jam with

First of all you need to know what chords belong to which key, then most of the jam sessions will be with a 12 bar blues or rock chord progression, learn those to.

As for lead impro, make sure you can play pentatonic major and minor patterns and know with which key they belong.

95 % of the songs have one of the following chord progressions; learn to recognize them by ear;

I-IV-V ( 12 bar )

I- VIm - IV- V

I - IIIm- IV - V

Many bridges go up a whole tone to then go the the dom7 chord

example; I-IV-I-V then II (major ) and play some chords in the new key and last chord will be the IV 7 chord from the new key which happens to be the V7 chord of the original key.

So you see, without the theoretical knowledge you are not going to get to far.

One other tip; if you're not up for lead playing, there is no shame in telling that to the other people and just keep it with rhythm playing, there are more then enough people out there that just love to improvise for hours on lead instruments ( a little to much IMO )

Originally Posted by: kellydROCKo

Lets say the band says the song is in the key of "C"

How do you know what to play to join in?[/quote][p]You have to know:

1. The chord progression: which chords, in which order, duration of each chord.

2. The form of the song: verse, chorus, etc. & the chord progression for each.

This of course presupposes you have the physical skills to play the chords in the specific rhythms being used.

[quote=kellydROCKo]

But have no clue as to how to use them to just get up and play with others without memorizing the song first.

Learning a bunch of songs is how most people actually learn to jam or improvise. Once you can play a variety of songs, then you have a library of chord progressions & types of riffs at your disposal that you can mix & match as you desire.

So, learn & memorize a bunch of songs. Then mix & match the various parts. Now you are jamming!

Gary does some really interesting lessons on how to figure out songs or what notes to play when you are jamming.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=30479

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=29594

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=29495

Hope this helps!