RE: [Harp-L] San Francisco/Amateurs and pros

["MLeFree" <mlefree@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Smith, Richard wrote:
> I was at a jam last week, and was up to play with an organist,
> bass guitar, and myself and another guy playing guitars.  Well,
> the other guitarist was calling the song "The Sky Is Crying".
> The drummer was a beginner, and couldn't seem to get the beat
> quite right.  The other guitarist started and stopped the song
> 3 times, trying to coach the drummer to play the right beat.
> In my opinion, this was probably embarrassing to the drummer.
> Instead, why not adjust the song to the drummer?  Who says
> that "The Sky Is Crying" must always be played the same way?
> I could have been very interesting and "fresh" played in a
> new beat or tempo.  However, on the other hand, the drummer
> wouldn't have learned anything from the experience.  Which
> way is better?

I remember well being corrected a time or two on stage at a couple of my
early "biggie" jams.  Yes, it really happened!  ;)   Wasn't fun, but
learning a good lesson often isn't.  I for one appreciated that the jam
leader knew enough and cared enough about the music going down as well as
caring enough about my budding musicianship to take the time to stop and
share some hard-earned advice with me.  I was there to learn and did.  And,
even though he later told me he'd worried about hurting my feelings, I told
him it didn't one iota.  In fact as I found out later in talking to the jam
leader there were other newbies on the stage on other instruments who were
screwing up worse than me, but he didn't figure they'd listen to him, so he
just let them muddle their way through their set hoping for the best (and
not getting it).  So, I felt sort of honored and the fact that that my
criticism came from a jam leader who is a seasoned touring pro made it
pretty easy to "swallow".

Oh yeah.  Guess what my offense was?  Playing too much.  ;^)   (Still
workin' on that'n.  :)

So I say, if someone is screwing up at a jam, the leader ought to tell 'em.
Otherwise, they're sort of defeating the underlying purpose of participating
in a jam--learning to play with other musicians.

At least that's the way I see it.

Michelle