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Blues Jams forum: >
jam session repertoire: a must-know list
jam session repertoire: a must-know list
harmonica-friendly jam sessions
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kudzurunner
4176 posts
Jul 28, 2013
4:32 AM
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Please share your thoughts.
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cliffy
55 posts
Jul 28, 2013
6:50 PM
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Being somewhat authoritative (politely so, though) on the bandstand seems to be the key to blues jam success here on Long Island. Many songs are familiar to lots of jammers and house bands, but not everybody may know the same version by the same artist.
For example, say someone wants to do "Messin With The Kid". Whoever is going to lead the song has to decide (a) whether they're going to do it in B or in C; (b) if they're going to play the intro riff two or three times to start; and (c) who's going to cue when the song is about to end and you want to do the repeat of the V-IV-I.
This is less important if you are the only player up there with the house band, but if there are a bunch of jammers and there is less house band personnel on stage, whoever takes the initiative usually gets their way. If everyone's on the passive side about these things, the time between songs stretches longer and longer -- which means crowds lose interest.
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harpletunnel
53 posts
Aug 14, 2013
7:08 AM
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Keeping it simple is key. Oh and speaking of key, a lot of guitar jammers only know a handful of keys. Not F, Bb, Ab etc.. And I never tell the band the name of the song as most don't know the song versions anyway so I will simply say Key of G 12 bar blues everyone in on the I, 1,2,3,4. Also I let everyone know I am ready to start the song so that all the dinking around can stop. Like Cliffy said, you must take charge but be kind if you can.
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keep it in your mouth
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