aright, so ive been having some troubles jamming with my friends. not that they suck, or i suck or anything. but hers whats going on:

i picked up a guitar an year ago. i taught myself how to play it, but majority of my practice happend either in my room, or infront of the computer. so just me soloing and fretting everything. some 8 months ago, i started making my own songs, and started making up the bass and the drum lines in my head. so basically i had the drums and everything set around my riffs. yet every time i go over to my friends place(they have a band) and jam with them, it just doesnt work. for a few seconds, the drummer can keep upwith me, and then he gets lost becuase i change my riff and start becoming all random on them(sort of like romeo from symphony x, just no where near that good!).

at first i thought that the reason why it doesnt work is becuase i tend to play more folk/classical/doom metal songs. they usually play progressive metal. in other words, they play much faster stuff. but then i played some song by Haggard(if you dont know, its a classical metal band) that had some relativly fast drums, and the drummer was sort of lost in that too.

then i thought that those guys know how to jam, and i dont. reason being that they picked up those instruments some 3 years ago. and at the time, both their guitarists, their bassist and their drummer were noob. so they always practiced together, and they can do random shit, and are always backed up by atleast two of the other members.

sure, i can keep up with them with power cords...for a few seconds. maybe im doing something wrong, or soemthing else is going on.

and i do wanna get into a band, just the thing is that if i cant jam, the band wont really be any good. becuase im sure that the drummer and the bassist wont really like me bossing them around and shaping them around me.....so yeah

If the drummer gets lost, then either you lose track of the rhythm or he does (I hope it's the former, because it's easier to fix). I recommend you practice with a metronome, and I recommend that to the others as well. It's good for keeping time.

Then, as long as everyone can keep the rhythm, you just need to learn to sort of read each other, and that only comes with a lot of playing together. Also, if you're improvising a jam, try to agree on a key or something before you start, so the melodic instruments don't start dissonating too much

But, to reiterate, play with a metronome to keep the rhythm, and just play together _a lot_. I hope this helps

As Ur-Nammu said practice with a metronome.It will help you.
The fact that you hear something in your head doesnt mean it's musicaly currect and from a drummer point of view rythemly correct.

As you said romeo doest crazy riff changes and stuff like that.But he alywas stays at the same time(for example a 4 on 4 means 1234 1234 1234 and so even when he changes the riff it's still on 1234 1234 so for the drummer it doesnt matter).And even if changes the time it's in a certain palce and the drummer knows about the change so they do it together.

If you have something in your head and you wanna jam with it you got to have a certain pattern that repats.
It's exactly like asking you a guitar player to do a solo on some riff progression with no scense you wont know what scale to use when to change and in the end it will be wrong muscly and will sound like crap.

Take a metronome or use groove agent at cubase...and take a drum beat...and learn how to keep up with it and dont loose it.

Good luck

i have the same prob only ive never had the priveledge of jamming with metalheads actually iv never had any probs with the drummer (YET) i have all my problems with other guitarists its a disability for me i literally just cant play music with another guitarist....... my music/english teacher at school always said the most common problem to over come was playing to technical he said that people usally find they have to play more simple to make the band work i dont no if this true i reckon it would depend on the people i reckon if i meet people with the same vision and taste as me ill be a metal god one day i can dream man

A metronome is great to use!
Why don't you try writing music and/or tab if some one doesn't understand the riffs your trying to teach them, that works that best for me and my buds.

@ExoTear, yea, when jamming you have to start simple, no matter who it is that you play with, in order to find a common flow, to get on the same page with the other guys. When you get the hang of playing together you can start elaborating, but even then, when working with melodic instruments, you should agree on a key or keys which to stick in, and some guidelines.

Why don't you use programs such as Guitar Pro etc. to tab your songs? That way, you can easily keep a track of the tempo/drum tabs/bass tabs/notes etc. etc.
It works when I go jam at my friends place most of the time.

guitar pro is just too advance for me. on top of that, theri drums dont make much sense to me. sure the program is made for guitar, but the drum notes are at some really high numbers. like all their notes are at 40's on a 4 string bass. i dont know..it doenst make much sense to me.


humm, even if i do post the tabs, it wont help much, coz you guys wont know how fast, slow or what im doing. so...umm... add me:

raven_was@hotmail.com. i have a few stuff recorded on my computer, and i can just transfer over through msn or soemthing

The numbers on the drumtrack dont mean the same thing as on the melody/harmony tracks, the numbers on the drum track just represent the numerical names the software designers gave each part of the drumset in order to avoid writing eg snare drum on every beat, if you go to "View" and the "percussion" youll see all the numbers that they gave for the different parts of the drum set. its really nothing to freak out about.

How to jam? Well -the first thing to remember is to not have a plan. Come to think of it, that's the last thing to remember aswell.

Thinking about music only goes and messes up the feeling of music -and that, is the source of really great sound.

@Daibh, unless everyone in the band has excellent pitch and profound theoretic knowledge, I'd say it's a good idea to set up some sort of chassis for the jam, in terms of keys. That's what jazz musicians often do too.

all comes down to whether your lucky or not i suppose but you could do it the jaymes way and just fucken tell everyone what to play and when to play it................ if the rest of the band is a pack of girls nobs no wait heres a sweet idea just do covers until you figure every ones kinks and fantasys out

Written by [user id=1987] on 12.06.2006 at 23:36

@Daibh, unless everyone in the band has excellent pitch and profound theoretic knowledge, I'd say it's a good idea to set up some sort of chassis for the jam, in terms of keys. That's what jazz musicians often do too.

...ofcourse. If it is that manner of thoretical jazz you are wishing to play. Which is fine.

Personally...whether the music is destined to be technical or not; I still reckon it is better to just sit down and play. It has always worked for me.

When I and couple of my friends started to jam,first we made a decision that what we gonna jam,which bands,which songs and so forth.Usually it was something what everybody recognized and liked,such as old Black Sabbath,AC/DC,Mercyful Fate and like that

After that it was rather easy

i dont know. i sort of have this prepetual fear of being a cover band for ever more. sure, its nice to add in your twists in a covered song, but i rather not cover stuff. reason being that if you do cover one song, and become awsome at that, one song turns to 2, to 3 and so on. and then you would just be playing some other band's music. sort of defeats originality. i wont mind playing random riffs from random songs here and there. but not the whole song

i'm actually listening to techno and finding their beats sort of helpful. so i can keep up with their drums, or whatever the fuck they use. but the rest of the music is sort of off.

and though i am better with lead guitar, and solos while i'm all alone. but i find it easier to fuck around while im on rhythm. the drummer and the bassist can follow me on the rhythm. not that i like rhythm much

perhaps i need to develop an ear for it?

The way I usually jam is that after the drums pick up and the guitars are doing an arpeggio or soloing, by ear you chose the same scale or try to put in what youve learned in that instrument to add in the song in any way. Just what sounds good. Usually my drummer has a pretty basic beat, but its the other instruments for me that determine the way I jam.

aright, i recorded two things...well i have more. but those are covers, and they are fine with jams. but these two are my original stuff. still not done with them, as i need to edit TONS of stuff. but ignore the mistakes. and tell me where the fuck am i going wrong?! i can not jam! so let me know why. listen to both tracks


oh btw, since i dont have any other instrument, other than a guitar. i'm making use of stuff around me. like in 'battle ground' you can hear me hitting my mic over and over again to creat soemthing...i'm not exactly sure what...but yeah....

http://www.myspace.com/solilaquy

I don't think anyone has mentioned the importance of remaining in
the correct key, that is, the same Key as your bandmates. If you
guys are playing in the Key of G, and you swich to A, things won't sound right,
But it sounds to me that most of your troubles in your timing, so as most people
have perscribed, use a metronome.
Another way to help with your timing is the study of Time Signitures,
If you don't know time signitures it can be really easy to get off meter
so it's something I'd reccomend.

I personally wouldn't say that following key signatures is important...following a time signature would be much more important then that...it's basically all about listening to other people playing while you're playing and going off of what they're doing...I would say if you have a bass player, tell him to come up with about two or three notes; tell him to do this in sucsession then let everyone else kind of feel their instruments out from what the bass is supporting then voila! you have a jam session...the key elements of the foundation of music is the organization and duration of sound so to jam is about organizing your instruments properly together for a certain duration of time...

I fucking LOVE to jam
only some minor problems:
1.i have only an acoustic guitar
2.i don't know a drummer,let alone one who knows to jam
3.i don't know a bassist,same as above
4.i am quite a guitar noob
other than that,i love doing really simple palm mute and harmonics impro's
it really helps.also with scales it really improves your skills
and btw guitar pro is really simple

Written by Soliloquy on 08.06.2006 at 21:50

guitar pro is just too advance for me. on top of that, theri drums dont make much sense to me. sure the program is made for guitar, but the drum notes are at some really high numbers. like all their notes are at 40's on a 4 string bass. i dont know..it doenst make much sense to me.


humm, even if i do post the tabs, it wont help much, coz you guys wont know how fast, slow or what im doing. so...umm... add me:

raven_was@hotmail.com. i have a few stuff recorded on my computer, and i can just transfer over through msn or soemthing

I assure you that guitar pro is unbelievably simple.you just need to get over the "wtf?what's this?" mentality. also switch the format from 5 to gp 3 style and it's all a lot easier.there are so many things you can change. it's the only thing i use to write my stuff,and believe me it's worth it from here to canada.you might even try buying it.it's that good
the drums are quite weird,the high toms sound really stupid but you'll get over it by not using them

Building on what Arian said- key is MAJOR. Though I myself don't know a lick of theory, my fellow band mates, and friends do. They shout "key of A," and they know just what to do, and can make decent music- from blues to jazz to metal. I'ts really cool, but since I'm just now learning, I stick to drums [eventhough I'm a guitarist/bassist] lol.

a few hints (two):

-Timing is very important,

-tell them what your doing, eg. you change, theyll know, if they dont theyll go "HUH???" and stop.

hope they help

Well, you dont have a problem with jamming, because you cant tell someone or teach someone to jam, jam is just sitting around playing with your friends having fun, i think that the real problem isint that you guys play diffrent types of music, or they have been playing longer then you, you just can to jam more together, morph your style to compliment with the drummers and bassists, and so you know how to play and when you play you can get use to how they play and jam right along with them, its some time for preparation, and of course i can never stress this enough, practice practice practice.

Me and this one drummer where built for each other, always occampanying each other while varying beats and fills. I love jamming in different styles too, like I had an oppurtunity to jam with a sax and a full band, twas jazzy to the max! Of course I actually prefer jamming with a funk because its just so much funner that way. Although, I usually always the person in my group to create a beat, but its not a bad thing. Gives me the chance to practice my slap/pop. I also jam with Rock, Heavy Metal, Indie, and Doom Metal ( also, alot of fun, especially when we are in the zone for over 10 minutes! ) Sometimes I switch to rythm guitar, its fun to make some crunchy ass chords to lead the way.

Im getting a keyboard soon, can't wait for that, honestly.

The main thing I love about jamming is that we have the ability to create music on the spot. And a pretty good way to practice ones performance in playing with feeling/intonation/ and technique. Usually most people with problems jamming close themselves off to the rythm of the music. As long as you start with a simple beat and conventional beat, then you can adjust and gradualy progress into arpeggios and fills that fit in to the beat. But always, always, be aware of what other people are playing and listen to each other. A jam session is going to nowhere if everyone is going to do their own thing.

Written by Arian Totalis on 09.09.2006 at 22:50

I don't think anyone has mentioned the importance of remaining in
the correct key, that is, the same Key as your bandmates. If you
guys are playing in the Key of G, and you swich to A, things won't sound right,
But it sounds to me that most of your troubles in your timing, so as most people
have perscribed, use a metronome.
Another way to help with your timing is the study of Time Signitures,
If you don't know time signitures it can be really easy to get off meter
so it's something I'd reccomend.

100% key is damn important, and so are Time Signatures.

Written by Sunioj on 17.01.2008 at 19:16

Written by Arian Totalis on 09.09.2006 at 22:50

I don't think anyone has mentioned the importance of remaining in
the correct key, that is, the same Key as your bandmates. If you
guys are playing in the Key of G, and you swich to A, things won't sound right,
But it sounds to me that most of your troubles in your timing, so as most people
have perscribed, use a metronome.
Another way to help with your timing is the study of Time Signitures,
If you don't know time signitures it can be really easy to get off meter
so it's something I'd reccomend.

100% key is damn important, and so are Time Signatures.

hehe, good to see that you're getting in some practice with other musicians. Yeah, key really IS damn important, but I think in that particular post, I didn't explain well enough what I meant. When I talk about switching from the key of G to A, I don't mean the whole band switching key, I mean like if the jam is supposed to be in G, and you switch to A, and the rest of your band is still in G, then you're probably gonna sound like shit (even though it's only one step up, it still wouldn't sound right. Now from G to C.....THAT would sound like absolute shit lol)

And yeah, the same thing goes for time signitures. If you're band is playing in 3/4 and you go to like, 8/16 or something, not gonna sound great. However, I could see some very creative music being written with two instruments playing in two correlating time signitures, like someone playing 4/4 and someone else playing 8/8 (which is essentially the same thing, except that you play eight eighth notes instead of four quarters, so I guess that would all be 4/4 lol)

Let me tell you how I usually jam... I call some musicians (I know much of them, because I play about 11 years), and we sit in a studio (we choose) and talk about we want to create (lyrics, for instance). Then we make lyrics, and after that we start to make music for it. I call it "one-hour song"). Actually, this is my own way to jam, I've never heard, that someone do it the same way. But it's great and interesting. Some musicians want to play with me again and again, some of them join my project.

Thats interesting, Ive always wanted to be able to explore what we can do with jamming, but I don't my guys are ready for that yet believe it or not. We sound great together, but they don't understand rythm signatures too well. Like if I said 'lets change keys every four measures' they would look at me weird. And recording... damn, that would be a dream of mine.

@Arian
I know what you meant about being in key though however I like switching modes and scales every once in awhile to get things interesting, some diminished scaling is good for middle eastern sounding stuff Imo.

If you want to jam, try and play some easier stuff. I play the guitar fairly ok, I'm friends with an amazing young drummer...our only concern is how to find a good bass player but someone always jumps in.