[Harp-L] "I don't feel ready" to join a Jam

["John F. Potts" <hvyj@xxxxxxx>]

"In my world, the best place to start is always the melody."

Hard to disagree with this premise, but, I happen to think playing  
accurate melodies can be difficult and certainly very challenging for  
a beginner, especially at a jam where the tempo may be very brisk and  
the material unfamiliar.

IMHO, there's nothing wrong with riffing or vamping off the groove,  
even if  you can't nail the melody.  A beginner can manage to sound  
passable playing rhythm oriented licks, but if you don't nail a  
recognizable melody accurately, you won't sound any good whether you  
are a beginner or not.

Another thing:  Playing rhythmically does not necessarily mean  
playing chords. Try hard to KEEP GOOD TIME. Feel the beat! If a  
player who is unsure of what he is doing can cop the groove and not  
overplay, he can usually get by with reasonable success. LISTEN TO  
THE DRUMMER. If you've never played with drums before, it may be seem  
overwhelming, but relax--it's actually easier to play WITH a drummer  
because the drums lay down a rhythmic structure you can work around  
and off of which means you can actually play less and still sound ok.  
Simple repeating rhythmic licks are perfectly acceptable.  You can  
always go on to build from there as you gain more experience.

FWIW,

JP