Here's a story that other beginning jammers might find funny I went to a Beginner/ Intermediate jam session and decided to play "Baby Scratch My Back" (I've been practicing the song with a jam trax)
So we're playing the song and it's sounding good I play the first two choruses, the singer sings two choruses, the guitar player takes takes a solo for two and I play the the last two choruses, done
Oops
The Band doesn't stop! I guess I'm supposed to signal the stop! So we go around again but I don't know how or when to signal the band to end (my jam trax always stops by itself!) So we do another chorus and the same thing happens again Then finally the guitar player steps to the plate and ends it thank god
Anyways after going on a two week drinking binge I'm finally over it :>)
P.S. Everybody is very supportive at this jam BTW I bought Adams ''Endings Lesson'' anyways and still need to get comfortable signaling an ending
Live Learn & Drink :>)
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Last Edited by on Mar 03, 2010 10:28 PM
good one. The first thing I had to get used to when i joined a blues band was the LENGTH of the ending itself! I thought, good grief, do these guys ever wrap it up? Needless to say, I stopped trying to hold the tonic for the whole length of the ending. It's a journey.
That's one tune I never solo in. I keep it to the original arrangement. For me that tune is complete the way it is. I'm surprised they could play it most guys don't have a clue what swamp blues is and think oh yeah a blues tune. Yeah we can do that. Did they do the chicken sounds on the guitar. LOL
my band had trouble ending 1 particular song. we would go over the ending several times, nail it on the next try and then muck it up from then until we went into another lengthy discussion. id tell them write it down- look at the note before we start. they'd still muck it up.
the last practice before a gig i just blew up. (long hard day at work) they knew they blew the ending again. so they want to discuss it once more. i refused. "from now on this song ends when the last player is done. everyone do their own ending and then wait patiently for the rest to finish. and i guarantee everyone here that i can sound crappy on the harp for an easy 10 minutes!!!"
from that point on, everyone ends the song like we discussed and together.
we decided to do a train-wreck ending on one original called "drunk and stupid." We found out it wasn't quite as easy as we thought it would be and our chaos sounded a little too organised. we finally figured it out, but it took a very loose approach...VERY loose.
I was playing Big River in Lancaster, PA at the Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre. We were doing a 9:30 AM show for some grade school kids. They used a sequencer for part of the band. We were doing the entracte and it messed up. That tune modulates twice for each stage musician and it didn't do it in the right place. What a train wreck.
if you called it off, you just have to take control. cue solos, do your parts, and at the end- where you perceive the end- YOU cue the band to take it home. i raise my left hand and signal, esp the drummer since he'll bring it to an end and everyone will listen for that. but i'm also not above just saying into the mic, "take it home boys"! there are several ways but the vital thing is to communicate with the band when to wrap it up.
our drummer is in charge of stopping the band. we all have a roundabout knowledge of when its supposed to happen, and often we can all tell by his "ending maneuvers" as it descends...two of us are positioned as such that were are in eye contact with him once it draws close... that's helped us more than anything... ---------- Kyzer's Travels
Last Edited by on Mar 03, 2010 10:28 PM
