Jam Session 101: 22 Dos & Don’ts

A jam session can be a great way to gain performing experience. Plus, if you play it right, you’ll be introduced to other musicians who may want to work with you someday! Ready to go onstage, meet and play music with others?

Be aware that certain sit-in behaviors can influence your reputation in a positive way, while others may be highly off-putting. Of course, sounding good on your instrument matters, but it’s not the entire story!

Learn the unspoken (yet understood by the pros) protocol tips for sitting in:

Do come with a friendly spirit.  Do have 2 tunes in mind you know quite well, also bring along a flexible attitude. Do show up during the earlier side of the session, (so you can make it on the sign up sheet if there is one), plus you’ll want to look like a team player by showing support for the other musicians. Unless you are already a famous highly respected musician in town, don’t come waltzing in the final half hour expecting to be featured! Do support the club by enjoying food or beverage; maybe bring friends to cheer you on.

If you are invited to sit in, assume you will play 1 tune. Do make sure to look at whoever is taking a solo (no need to keep staring at your music stand when it’s another player’s turn).  Do thank the house band, say an encouraging word or a nod to other musicians playing with you, then make like you are going to sit down. Don’t hang around the stage unless the band or jam session organizer asks you to stay up there and play another tune. (It’s embarrassing to be told to get off stage, but I’ve seen some pretty clueless sax players and guitarists not take the hint, crowding out other musicians who rightfully deserve a turn.)

Here are skills (listed by instruments) to keep in mind for successful jamming:

Singers: Do know your preferred keys for tunes. Know how to communicate your tempo/feel. Know your tune forms such as how to come in at the top or B section (bridge). You might want to hedge your bets and bring several copies of charts in your key for other musicians, especially if you don’t sing standard tunes in standard keys the standard way. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, be sure to bring charts for piano/bass/guitar). Do know how to cue the ending to a song with physical gestures and/or musical indicators.

Horns (Brass/Woodwinds): Do know several blues heads in various keys (like C, F, & Bb) along with some standard tunes. It is helpful to know how to solo over Bb Rhythm ChangesDo have a spirit of cooperation – the jam session is not normally a cutting contest, nor is it a chance to abuse the rhythm section by “warming up” with 17 choruses. If you can’t say something by the second chorus, it’s probably time to let another player have their turn. Don’t noodle all over the vocalist while they are singing the melody! If you don’t have the experience or enough skills to phrase around the singer (or the lead horn player) by all means just stand there and try to look like you are into the music.

Pianists & Guitarists: You both are melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic instruments. Do know how to provide an intro (you’ll be called to do that especially if there is a singer – usually the last 4 or 8 bars works). You will be spending most of your time comping chords. Remember the word “comp” comes from accompany, so provide a supportive background for whoever is soloing: Listen, React, Inspire! Don’t overplay, and if there are both a guitarist and keyboardist in the band, don’t step all over each other. There are ways both instruments can inhabit the stage, but that’s a whole ‘nother lesson.

Drummers: Do know how to use brushes, rods, or jazz drumsticks in addition to regular sticks & play dynamically in various styles and tempos. Know how to trade 4s and cue a band back in, whether you take a solo over the form or play an open extended solo. Keep alert about how to interpret endings (and how to cue them with your gestures). Don’t drown anybody out by overpowering them if you can help it. Have you ever heard anybody say “Fine, but I wish the drums were LOUDER!!”? No, me neither. But it’s understandable you’ve got to be let out of the cage now and then, so go for it during your featured solo time!

Bassists: You are the backbone of the group, and deserve respect! You must be constantly on, responsible for holding the pulse and entire band together. Maybe you do want a solo, maybe you don’t? Let your feelings be known.

Example Of Typical Jazz Tune Format For Jam Sessions:

Countoff: by Session Leader or Person Playing/Singing the Melody (or)     Intro: by Pianist/Keyboardist, or maybe Guitarist

Head: (Melody) by Singer if there is one, if not by Horn Instrument(s)

Solo Order:  Jazz solos are usually improvised over the tune’s chord changes, and may consist of once down the tune’s length to several times (choruses). Usually a horn player jumps in first, followed by the next horn down the line. After horns the pianist or guitarist jockey for their solos, moving onto perhaps a bass solo (if desired and the club energy/dynamic feels appropriate). Then, if someone holds up 4 fingers trading 4s will follow, starting with the first soloist alternating 4 bars with the drummer’s 4 bars. This is done over the tune’s form. Ex: Trumpet/Drums/Sax/Drums/Piano/Drums/Guitar/Drums = 32 bars

Head: Melody recapped by Singer or Instrument(s) who originally played it

Ending: There are about 10 typical ways to end a tune. Hopefully all onstage musicians can intuit which one to do and end convincingly together! Don’t all fight to be the one who gets to play the last note. (See my book “The Aspiring Jazz Pianist” pages 100-102 for common endings jazz musicians play.)

Do have fun at your next jam session. Each time can be a great learning experience!

 

12 Key Improvisation Ideas For Piano: Just 1 Scale 7 Notes!

K-Pop, Early Classical Music, Contemporary Christian Praise Hymns, Folk Tunes, New Age Piano, Country & Western Music: When it comes to improvisation, what do these genres have in common?  Hint: Musicians will often sound “right in the pocket” by creating solos made up of just 7 notes (using only 1 scale) over the entire tune!

For the above genres of music (including certain even eighth note Jazz & Gospel styles), the 7 notes of the major key center scale work well for improvising over the whole piece. It’s an easy concept to keep in mind that may enhance your solos (without having to think of too many confusing options), so you can focus on building nice melodic lines with rhythmic variety. When we build solos upon one scale it’s called playing diatonically – which can sound good, provided the tune’s harmony doesn’t stray far from the home key. Continue reading “12 Key Improvisation Ideas For Piano: Just 1 Scale 7 Notes!”

Notes To Choose For a 12 Bar Blues (Easy RH Improvisation Tips)

By popular request I filmed this tutorial exploring my easy go-to ideas a pianist may play over a medium-up tempo jazz blues in the key of F:

The original tutorial shown below was meant to be simply a lesson on a LH device called The Bud Powell Shell. Many of you then asked if I could share what RH “licks” I was using on my video, Improvising 28 Bars of Blues.  Continue reading “Notes To Choose For a 12 Bar Blues (Easy RH Improvisation Tips)”

Add Jazz Pizazz To Holiday Hits: Play by Ear & Improvise Piano Tutorials

December is the perfect time of year to develop one’s ear training skills. We’ve been by saturated listening to Christmas & Holiday tunes playing all over the place since Halloween, and know those familiar jingles a jing-jing-jingling quite well by now, so well in fact we can’t seem to get them out of our heads! So you may as well face the music and do something creative with these tunes as long as you are hearing them over and over, right? Continue reading “Add Jazz Pizazz To Holiday Hits: Play by Ear & Improvise Piano Tutorials”

Arranging Tip for the Pianist’s Left Hand: Broken 10th & Variations

 

The Broken 10th device most likely got introduced during a Nocturne by composer Frédéric Chopin. It’s a very rich sounding accompaniment for the pianist’s left hand, made with only the root, 5th, and 3rd of a chord. (If you take the 3rd out of the middle of a close position triad and transpose it up an octave it is now called the 10th.) Pianists with large enough hands may be able to play the 10th solidly as a chord, but those with smaller hands fear not – the video below shows 2 handed “cheating” ways to play walking 10ths, plus some lovely ways to break up 10th chords in a variety of rhythmic patterns. Continue reading “Arranging Tip for the Pianist’s Left Hand: Broken 10th & Variations”

3 Easy Tips: Playing With Minor Chords

Bored with that minor chord? Don’t be! Making music in minor keys can be quite exhilarating with these 3 fun and easy tips. All you need is a bit of time to move around on a minor chord – then you can add colorful sounds to your arrangement.

The next 3 videos explain everything to start exploring the ideas. Apply the following tips to a tune of your choice in a minor key, or choose a piece which has a minor chord lasting 2 bars or longer. You may also elect to work on the many song suggestions demonstrated in the body of these tutorial videos: Continue reading “3 Easy Tips: Playing With Minor Chords”

An Experiment With ‘Rhythm Changes’ (Skeletons Dance at Midnight)

Ever wonder what would happen if you took Rhythm Changes and put them in a minor key? You just might get a spooky October surprise!

First, let’s define “Rhythm Changes“. (It has nothing to do with a rhythm changing or any meaning close to that. This jazz musician term is simply a shortening of the phrase, ‘Play the same chords (aka the changes) that George & Ira Gershwin used for their popular tune, I Got Rhythm’. Knowing how to improvise over Rhythm Changes (especially in the key of Bb), is an expected part of every jazz musician’s repertoire, next in line after being able to improvise over the 12 bar blues form. Continue reading “An Experiment With ‘Rhythm Changes’ (Skeletons Dance at Midnight)”

Got The Blues? Tips on How To Play a Slow Blues in G

It’s over 100º outside, we are all getting a bit bored with “socially distancing”, and let’s face it – today is a great day to learn to play a very slow, hot, blues.

This tutorial came together after giving several of my online piano students tips on the basic 12 bar blues, common blues endings/turnarounds, typical jazz blues substitutions – plus my “covid bubble hubby” music partner and I had just performed a live Zoom concert from our home studio to friends’ living rooms across the country in their own “covid bubbles.” Continue reading “Got The Blues? Tips on How To Play a Slow Blues in G”

8 Ways to Play 4 Notes: If I Had You (solo piano ideas)

If I Had You (1929) is a cute YOUtune that can be played various tempos; I chose to arrange it with a slow swinging ‘saunter through the park’ feel.  The tutorial part of this first video explores 8 different ways to harmonize the opening 4 chromatic melody notes in the main body of the tune. Watch the video all the way through, and you will get a bird’s eye view of many stylistic solo piano devices such as single note or octave bass lines, broken 10ths, soft swing bass, and the Bud Powell LH shell voicing using the root and 7th, which are all suitable for small hands. Continue reading “8 Ways to Play 4 Notes: If I Had You (solo piano ideas)”