Re: [Harp-L] Re: [HarpTalk] Playing at Jam Sessions



Well,
to be honest I don't know why there is all this hate about the jam sessions. For me a jam session is a good place to be at. You meet a lot of musicians (who cares if they are good or they are bad?) and people with the same passion. Ok, you have to be careful about how to play. You play FOR the music, or you should do that, everytime, but specially when you are at a jam session. You have to listen whatever is happening in every moment, and do the right things with your instrument. You try to play together and find a kind of interplay with the other musicians everytime. There you can improve yourself and see how good you are, not as musicians (being a good musician is a walk that you have to do by yourself), but as player who is standing on a stage. Everybody can be a great musician with his/her own band. You know exactly what's going on when you are playing with your band and it's easy to do the cool stuff when you know where you are with the music and where you are going. The hard part is do the right stuff (not the cool one, but the right one) when you are playing with somebody that you don't know (and you don't know his/her style, etc...). That's the thing that can be yourself a better player giving you a better interplay that you can use with your band too. But remember: a musician HAVE TO PLAY FOR the music, not to show how good he/she is. If you think like that, you should change the approach or leave the music alone.


That's my opinion.

Riccardo Grosso
www.rgband.it
www.myspace.com/riccardogrossoharmonicaplayersinger

----- Original Message ----- From: "Derwood Blues" <Derwood.Blues@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "harp-l" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 5:35 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: [HarpTalk] Playing at Jam Sessions



Here was the best quotes so far:

"Otherwise, it will sound like a blues jam..."  "Rick Davis" <
bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>

and the second:

"Jam Sessions? - Forget it. Unless a group of seasoned players hit the
stage, it's every man for himself. YEEHAAW"  IcemanLE@xxxxxxx

Is not the point of a Jam session to Jam, Try something, See if it works,
Impress you friends, Impress that girl at the bar, Pretend you are good,
play your instrument ...

Now sitting in or playing to back someone up at an open mic is different. If
you are good enough to be self-righteous about players at a jam get yourself
a band and don't go to jams.


Derwood
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