Re: [Harp-L] Jamming Etiquette



I think Randy Singer runs abut the best jam I have ever witnessed. We run ours the same way. The open system. Whomsoever wants to play on a tune can do so. You just get in line. With us, it isn't a matter of getting 'teams' up in succession. The problem with that is that some players in a particular 'team' may not know the tunes. Then you get a bunch of people up there discussing what to play. Very amateurish. With the open system a player can decide if they can handle the tune at hand. AND you don't have a situation where musicians are up there for several songs which they can't do and then LOOSE their place to the next 'team'. Basically giving them NO chance to play.

I know, I know, people will say: "If they don't know any of the tunes, they don't belong up there". But sometimes a group of tunes will be played that a player doesn't know and THEN the next 'team' winds up with a group of tunes that this previous player DOES know..And possibly knows really well. There are a lot of good players out there and just because they may be proficient in some tunes, it shouldn't mean that they get left out in the cold because the tunes being played on THEIR set just happen to be not in their repetoire.

The main problem we have encountered is that some harp players have what I like to call "Harmonica-Tourettes". This is true of other musicians, Just substitute harmonica with THEIR instrument. Here in sw Fla. it's mostly 'Saxaphone-Tourettes". Guys who go all 'Chernoble' on you. Remember, if you can't add something, don't subtract. Tues nite, I happened into an Indian cuisine restaurant to meet a friend for dinner. There was a jazz band there (with girl singer). I knew all of them (from different bands). They asked me to sit in. But since they were doing fine without me, I diplomatically declined. (Psst..secret..I told them I didn't have any harps with me). THATS etiquette.

smokey-joe



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