I mostly compose and record on my own or with people on only the sections of songs I need them on but now I have some people who would all like to play together but I don’t know how to run a session like that. The primary goal would be for all us to get some practice and hone our technique on our instruments. Kinda like a workout club.
Do any of you do any kind of warm-up or exercises when playing with others?
When I practice an instrument I usually run through chords and scales and work on my finger exercises. I just met a drummer who can’t practice drums at her house so she’s going to come over here to play so I thought it would be cool to have some exercises lined up that don’t involve us knowing the same songs. Most of the people I’ve played with in the past just want to make noise at the other people playing and aren’t trying to build something together. I’d like exercises that help us form a tighter group so we can be better when playing whatever songs we decide to play when the time comes.
One thing I thought of initially was to play the same scale practices on the other instruments while the drummer does paradiddles or whatever. Thinking it would be starting at 50 BPM and building up to 180 BPM and then holding that for as long as we can.
Another idea was to only play one note at a locked tempo but vary the dynamics in way that is determined by a vocalist or one of those hairy potters waving around a wand.
If someone invited you over to something like this would you attend or would you run away? I can see how it might seem boring but I’d like some kind of structure to our sessions to get us going.
Just jamming on a beat started by the drummer should be fine. Then each player gets an 8 or 16 bar solo. That way, each player has their time to stretch and freesolo. If all your past experiences of free jamming are people just wanting to make noise, then they aren’t good musicians. Actual good musicians play for the song and the other members, not for themselves. If the group can easily get into an improv groove, then you know you got the chemistry down. Scales and paradiddles should be practiced individually at home.
In my last band, the only one I ever led, we’d start by locking in a groove, something one of the players would (usually spontaneously) come up with, usually 4, 8, or 12 bars. Nothing too complex most time, although my bass player had a thing for weird time signatures.
We’d try to get super tight on just this loop until someone came up with a complementary set of changes/rhythm, then we’d play until we locked that in too. We had a few times we would record this live, and it would become the backbone of a future song.
We’d usually of repeat this until we were board, which usually happened around 20-30 minute mark, or someone shouted our safe word for too long solos, Freebird.
(Warming: this would sometimes devolve into us playing weird covers of Freebird. Trust me you, do not need a reggae or bluegrass Freebird cover.)
This is not exactly like everyone warming up to scales/crazy licks/pyrotechnic playing like you envisioned, but I think it helped us lock in tighter in our “real” songs.
Ahem, I do need a reggae cover and a bluegrass cover of “Freebird”
Sorry haven’t played in 15 years, and it sucks. Be the bluegrass/reggae you want to see in the world!
I played solo and then in a band for a few years and tbh I would recommend either jamming or picking some songs to play together. Play the songs again and again, make the effort to listen to each other, and try to have fun with it. It’s the only way imho
I guess what I don’t get is what jamming is. Is there a process for that? When I produce something I’ll start with drums, then add bass to determine the chord progression then fill it in with the other instruments.
What advice can you give for someone to be prepared to show up to or host a jam session? Should I have charts ready for people or should is it more improv? I’m probably overthinking it but I’d like for everyone to have fun and feel comfortable.
I would, but only because the people i jam with don’t bother. I’ll run thru scales after setting up and quickly go through the parts we have already, like a practice speedrun while waiting for them to stop wandering around.
