Just joined yesterday so not yet. Not sure if anyone is local, Brisbane
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Hi, I was very lucky to play my first Jam session yesterday and would like to share my experience in case anyone finds it helpful.
I found the jam group online on a meetup site. They have a quite unique and perfect concept for me:
- Up to 18 people sign up.
- They are shared an online spreadsheet where they can suggest songs in beginner or advanced categories.
- People sign up to sing or play an instrument for the songs they like.
- Once a song has a full line-up, it is “locked in”.
- A week prior to the jam, song suggestions are no longer allowed to give people time to practice a stable list of songs.
- On the day, people meet at the studio and the jam starts. They go through and play each song. At the end of each song, the hosts ask if anyone would like to swap for an instrument or sing. If anyone else wants to play or sing that song, it is played again with the new group.
For me, this concept is perfect because:
- Although it is a jam, there is an audience - the people who are not playing that song - but the audience did not pay for entertainment so they won’t judge you.
- I was able to only sign up for (or suggest) the songs that I am comfortable playing. I can sign up as few or as many as I like.
- I know exactly which songs I need to play. I do not need a lot of musicianship skills to adapt. So I could go as a beginner.
So I signed up. I checked what kind of music was on the sheet and suggested 2 songs (Talking Heads - Psycho Killer and Olivia Rodrigo - Good 4 U) that fit the theme and I already knew how to play. I also listened to all the other songs and signed up for 2 more (Mike Oldfield - Moonlight Shadow and Amy Winehouse - Stronger Than Me) that looked quite simple and I thought I could learn in time after checking how they were played.
I practised as much as I could (which unfortunately is only a few hours), printed chord charts for my songs and went there on the day.
I was impressed by how well the hosts were running it. They were quite friendly and welcoming, yet they kept a strict structure and ran the thing like clockwork. They clearly knew what they were doing. It started and finished right on time. I listened to other songs and tuned my guitar while waiting my turn. Everyone was above my level. That made me nervous.
When it came to one of the songs (Psycho Killer) I signed up for, my name was read and I got up to the stage. I knew the song well so I started playing exactly like the original but the vocalist started to sing earlier than where that normally is! I panicked a little, and stopped playing, but could start again from the correct place. It was OK from there. I could play the correct parts of the songs but my playing was not clean at all. I could not do most of the things I thought I practised well. I messed up arpeggios and timing, there was a lot of buzzing in chord changes etc. Then we did not know how to end the song and it awkwardly went on much longer than it should but at some point, the drummer stopped playing, and so did everyone.
The other songs went similarly, but it was not only my songs that the structure was not perfect, so that was reassuring.
My takeaways:
- On stage, half of my skills go out of the window. The things I thought I practised well - well, no, I did not. I was only able to do things that I already could before practising at all.
- I learned about a lot of my shortcomings that I would not be able to discover otherwise.
- Neither the drummer nor the bassist knew or practised how to play Good 4 U. When that song came, they wanted to listen to it so the original recording was played once. Then they briefly spoke to each other, swapped instruments, went “are you sure?” “yeah”, and they started and played very well to the end! That showed me what difference being good musicians make. It is not just the physical skills, it is also the ability to adapt.
- There was a very good keys player - much better than me. After the jam, I asked how long he’d been playing and he said two years. I could not believe it. He said he had a keyboard and played a bit before but he has been taking it seriously for the last 2 years. He said what made the difference for him had been to join the jams regularly. He did more than 15 of these. I do not know how much he practices etc. but I guess that shows how important playing with others is.
Hope this helps someone.
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Wow! That sounds amazing, Serhat! Congrats on going along and performing, must’ve been a great experience! Would love something like that where I live! 
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How big is your garden Toby? I could visit you with the caravan next time I’m over in France. 
That sounds like a lot of fun - notwithstanding the glitches - and a great learning opportunity. Thanks for sharing!
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Hats off to you. It sounds like not only an amazing experience and the ability to learn but such a neve racking experience. Not sure if I could have put myself through that with total strangers, also having people who can play makes it it challenging but good as you know they will bring you along, if you can hold your neve your skills should improve and as for stage craft anybody who has not tried an open mic will suffer on the first attempt so bravo and thanks for sharing.
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