why cant jam

[Pendragon]

went to a jam session tonight and stood there like a lemon when someone said play something we can jam along to ,
how do i do it an what do i play if someone asks me to play something the rest of the band can jam along with

Same suggestion as Barney, play a Blues shuffle. Easy to play and opportunity to improvise. Also, learn a popular Beatles song; Rolling Stones Song; Bob Dylan song and, maybe, a David Bowie/T-Rex song. This will give you a starting reprtoire which should be acceptable to most jams.

[bigdawg]

learn the rhythm aprts to a few hendrix tracks (watchtower, hey joe etc...) and freebird then they can noodle till their hearts content, and theyre dead easy to learn too...

[flanging_fred]

Learn "Erotomania" by Dream Theatre. Everyone can jam along to that little ditty.

Or not.

[frankus]

My advice is AVOID 12 bar blues. It's a musical form: not a song.

I played 12 Bar blues at a jam night and wondered why the band looked a little deflated about it. When I went to IGF I understood jam night == 12 bar blues night - as a listening experience it is less than wooo! Hardly any vocals and mostly people getting over playing on stage which is really important and really good to see, but would be so much kinder on the ears if it involved predefined melodies - I think the temptation is to fantasize being the new gunslinger in town when it might be better to start from humble beginnings

I'd say pop-songs are the way forward because even if a good musician doesn't know the chords they'll remember the melody and work it out from there.

[Mike.L]

Lynyrd's That smell is just Am and F chords. Leads are based around the Am pentatonic between the 5th and 8th frets.

[bj]

some suggestions on this thread

http://www.musicradar.com/forum/show...408#post597408

[longi]

Play Slayer's "Angel Of Death" then pack up and run away as fast as you can before the ensuing carnage unfolds!

[ianpdq]

Pick 2/3 chords. Play consistently. Randomly change to "chorus" - 2/3 different chords in same key.

This and hope everybody joins in

[smush]

yeah i think ive been trying to hard really to do full on hard stuff when a few simple songs that everyone knows and is easy to play along to would be much better ,
i did do slayer dead skin mask as i was setting my gear up and got rised eyebrows from the drummer

[willemhdb]

went to a jam session tonight and stood there like a lemon when someone said play something we can jam along to ,
how do i do it an what do i play if someone asks me to play something the rest of the band can jam along with

The trick is to 1) play something that is harmonically simple enough for other people to play along even if they have never heard it before and 2) to make it sound good.

To nail the above two, I find that playing 2 or 3 simple chords Hendrix-style usually does the trick. Have a look at this post to find out how to do this, including an example video http://www.theloneguitaristblog.com/...rhythm-guitar/.

Hope this helps,
Willem