![]() Sometimes, as with many free-form jams, there’s no predetermined structure at all, and everyone just improvises based on what they’re hearing. For example, sometimes people get together to jam over existing songs (or song structures), or they may follow a chord sequence suggested by one member, and tabs or chord charts may or may not be used. So, what exactly happens at a jam session? This varies, depending on the situation. It also provides invaluable experience if you want to play in a band or other live situation – playing with others requires listening, improvisation and rhythm skills beyond those you’ll normally use when playing alone. After practising alone at home every day, it is great to get out and connect with some like-minded others. Jamming in a live environment with other musicians can’t be beat. So, now you have an idea of how to jam on guitar, lets take a look at the main situations in which you can practice your new skills, and how to make the most of them. Part II: Putting It Into Practice – 3 Jamming Scenarios If you’re playing an electric guitar, you can also experiment with adding effects at any stage in the process, if appropriate. You can keep them very simple at first, sticking with the notes of each chord, then get more adventurous as your skills and confidence progress. Step four – try improvising some solo melodies.These can be repeated with the chord changes, or varied a bit to make things more interesting. Step three – create some simple riffs.Step two – strum along, but rather than just using downstrokes, use upstrokes too to play more complex rhythms that blend with what the others are doing.Step one – assuming that you’re basing the jam around a song you know or a predetermined chord sequence, just strum along with one strum to each beat using simple downstrokes (or if the pace is too fast – try strumming every other beat, or on the first beat of each bar).Having determined the key, you can decide how you want to participate in the jam, depending on your skill and confidence level. First of all, you need to know which key the music is in – for simple pieces, this will determine the chords and notes that you will need to be able to play (more complex jams may involve lots of key changes and the use of more obscure chords – try to get experience of jamming with easier songs and sequences first!). ![]() You must find others that can play fluently on there own because otherwise you could be wasting valuable practice time Instead, you can develop your jamming skills gradually by using good quality backing tracks in the basic keys. Jamming is by its nature a relatively unstructured process, but if you’re new to it, you don’t have to jump in at the deep end. Scale practice is essential here, as is some basic theory, so you know which notes can be effectively played over which chords. ![]() But being able to improvise melodies is a key part of more advanced jamming, and requires some lead guitar skills. You might not want to do this straight away, which is fine – you can just strum along with the rhythm if you like. ![]() Being able to improvise lead melodies.For more advanced ear training, specialised courses are available. You’ll find that the same patterns tend to recur a lot (especially in popular music), and will eventually be able to recognise them instantly. Ear skills are vital for jamming – you can practice by recognising when chord changes happen in the music you listen to, and later by learning to identify the specific chords that are being used. The ability to hear chord progressions and follow along.Learn to listen closely to the bass and/or drums – this will help you to stay in the right place, and to avoid being distracted by nerves or other things going on around you. If you’re playing a solo, the rhythm must take priority – in other words, if you come unglued, it’s OK to miss out a few notes of the melody, but you must keep up with the beat. You don’t have to play complex rhythms if you’re not comfortable with that, but you must be able to keep to the beat. If you’re new to the guitar, start off with the primary chords in the more common keys (such as C, G, D, A, E, F etc), and progress from there. Strumming chords in a variety of keys, with the ability to change chords cleanly.You don’t have to be an expert guitarist to jam, but you do need to at least grasp the basics. This means practicing chords and scales in various keys, so you’ll be able to play both rhythm and solo parts while jamming. However, although you may not always be preparing to play any specific song or piece, you can (and should) prepare yourself by making sure you have a solid grasp of your instrument. A jam may be entirely free-form, or may be based on a particular song or chord sequence. Basically, jamming is improvising with other musicians – usually one or more people play rhythm parts, to get a beat going, and others improvise solos over the top.
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