White paper on organising jam sessions

This white paper is a result of the 3rd European Bluegrass Summit, Bühl, Germany, 18–20 February 2011

Members of the working group: Peter Hrubý, Pierre Bastide, Danilo Cartia, Rick Harris, Carol Hawkins, Richard Hawkins, Ruth Iseli, Bruno Sperber, Péter Tölgyesi, Jindřich Vinkler.

1. What is a jam session?

In a private, closed jam session, attended by people who may all know one another, the form of the jam and what happens in it can all be established by mutual agreement, with no direct impact on anyone other than the musicians involved.

However, musicians or listeners who go to an open event advertised as a „bluegrass jam session“ may have little or no idea of either

what to expect, or
what is expected of them.

Experience shows that it is important for anyone attending a jam to know what kind of session it is, and what rules apply to those taking part. This paper therefore concentrates on the organised „open“ jam session as

the basic building block of a bluegrass community,
the point of contact between bluegrass music and the general public, and
a learning environment for playing in a band situation.

2. Jam formats

A jam designed to achieve these purposes may take several forms.

(a) The Rome Bluegrass Jam, established for about three years, combines elements of show, karaoke, and jam session. At a recognised music venue, a „house band“ of about ten good musicians plays with PA on stage, where other musicians join them. As bluegrass is not widely known in Italy, good musicians from other genres of music are invited so as to introduce them to bluegrass and to attract their own fans to it. Further ideas for making bluegrass more widely known include:

a brief explanation of bluegrass, given from the stage during a regular show;
an explanatory leaflet on bluegrass that can be made available to the audience;
a video that can be played before concerts.

These ideas could be also applied in a jam session open to the general public.

(b) Similarly, in Switzerland several organised jams are held in restaurants or other public places, usually led by local players or bands. These are publicised in the Swiss Bluegrass Music Association newsletter and on the SBMA website. The holding of a slow jam in a private place is being organised.

(c) In Northern Ireland, the Dangem company (selling musical instruments) holds a „bluegrass get-together“ every month in a local civic centre. Those attending contribute to the cost of hiring a room. The proceedings include a warm-up, a banjo class for beginners, and a general „sing-song“ and jam.

(d) In France several formats are used, and it is therefore important to make clear what kind of jam is being held (slow, open, closed, etc.).

A regular jam is usually held in one large circle, but if there is not enough space beginners or less advanced players sit in an outer circle.
A slow jam is primarily an instructional class under a „director“, who can stop the music at any time and analyse any errors in playing.
An annual jam may consist of up to eighty people, in as many as four circles. With good organisation and leadership, this works well.

Where advanced and less advanced players are both taking part, a good system is to seat them alternately.

A workshop for ideas on how to organise jams has been held for the last forty years. Jams are an important part of every bluegrass festival.

(e) The Czech Republic has had a lot of jamming activity, but most jams were not open; attendance used to be mostly by invitation only, and several shortcomings could be identified:

the difference between closed and open jams was not recognised;
jams were not advertised;
numbers of participating musicians were restricted by reluctance to include more than one instrument of each type;
there was poor acceptance of newcomers and beginners, and smokers gave no consideration to non-smokers;
English lyrics were not always accepted – partly because of a great wealth of Czech lyrics, and partly because older players were less familiar with English;
In some places, the organisers of different jams were not on good terms with one another.

Peter Ruby is currently developing a project to create and maintain one regular central jam in each regional city. This has already been done in Prague, Brno, Hradec Králové, České Budějovice, Turnov, Ústí nad Labem (Chabařovice). Also, in Prague and Ústí n/Labem there are functioning two separate slow jams.

3. Keys to successful jams

The open jam is the best building block for informally organising bluegrass at a local level.

In order to function properly, it should be held regularly (at least once a month).

Besides of inherent fun, it should also be a matter of principal responsibility of local bluegrass community towards their current and future members.

An open jam should be publicly advertised through all possible channels: a dedicated Facebook site, regularly updated; a Google calendar; internet sites such as folkjam (see below); local media (newspapers, local broadcasting, leaflets at the local cultural centre, etc.); bluegrass magazines and other locally used media; sms reminders if possible.

For assured and continued success, the jam needs a leader.

4. The jam leader

By whatever title this function is called, the jam needs at least one person with responsibility for seeing that it works well. A deputy leader is desirable, in case the regular leader has to be absent. People who are asked to take on these roles may be at first afraid of overloading themselves with the responsibilities. But in fact the leader's duties are basically simple and straightforward:

Venue-related duties: the leader books the venue, prepares it for the jam, leaves it in good order afterwards, and keeps the jam members and potential newcomers informed of any changes in the regular schedule (for instance, if a pub or restaurant has to close or to accept a more lucrative booking).

Visitor-related duties: the leader collects contact data from participants, keeping in touch by e-mails, Google calendars, or (if possible) by sms messaging, etc. A basic jam promotion leaflet can be issued to all newcomers, giving contact data for the leader(s), with a tear-off section where the newcomer can enter her/his own details.

The leader should also gently, rather than forcefully, guide the jam in the desired direction; keep an acceptable degree of order and an atmosphere of goodwill and mutual respect; ensure that everyone attending has enough playing opportunity; and ensure that certain basic rules and practices are observed. The Ten Jammandments (see below) are a generally accepted code of conduct. They have been, or can be, translated into whatever language is required. They should be taken as a basic requirement by all jam participants, and if someone does not comply with them, the leader should let her/him know.

However, some degree of friction, tension, or contest may be unavoidable. This is part of life, and so long as it does not lead to the collapse of the jam it may be acceptable.

5. Further recommendations

The group recommends that all organisers of festivals, concerts, and similar bluegrass events should advertise any jamming facilities, as part of the regular promotional programme for their event, as this would be an added attraction for an appreciable number of people. The suggested slogan is „No festival without a jam“.

6. Resources

Finding an open jam and getting orientated:

www.jam.bg4.eu – Peter Ruby's jamming resources: find anything related to jams, add your links, articles, etc., even in your language! Also on Facebook: www.facebook.com/apps/application.php

http://www.folkjam.org/– Scott's and Shawn's site dedicated to making jam sessions easy to publish and find.

http://www.drbanjo.com/new-jammers.php- jamming page of Pete Wernick

http://www.bluegrassmusicians.com/jam-europe.html – a list of jams in Europe, very incomplete at present

Motivating articles:

Tom Barnwell, „An introduction to bluegrass jamming“

English: http://users.ece.gatech.edu/~barnwell/roles.htm
French („Le boeuf en bluegrass“): http://www.france-bluegrass.org/boeuf.html
Czech („Úvod do bluegrassových jamů”): http://www.jam.bg4.eu/index.php/cz/bg-jamy-clanky/78-uvod-do-bluegrassovych-jamu.html

Pete Wernick, „A new direction for teaching and learning bluegrass music“

English: http://www.drbanjo.com/instructional-anewdirectionforteachingandlearningbluegrassmusic.php
Czech („Nový směr ve výuce bluegrassu“): http://www.jam.bg4.eu/index.php/cz/bg-jamy-clanky/78-uvod-do-bluegrassovych-jamu.html

Pete Wernick, „Bluegrass jamming pointers“: www.drbanjo.com/instructional-bluegrassjammingtips.php

Nicole Solis, „Get into a real jam: 25 ways to enhance your jamming experience“ (Jan. 2011 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine (#217); online with video and tab at http://www.acguitar.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=26120

Appendix: The Ten Jammandments

By Robert Rosenberg, Jamming Juris Doctor and Moral Arbiter; edited by Charlie Hall, user of the English language

Thou Shalt Tune Thy Instrument – There are too many good, cheap tuners around not to do this.
Thou Shalt Listen – if you can't hear the lead instrument or vocalist, then consider yourself too loud.
Thou Shalt Pass – when handing off an instrumental solo, try to follow a pattern either clockwise or counter-clockwise. If you want to skip the next solo or pass it off to the next picker, be sure that the next person is aware of the handoff. No one wants to start their solo in the middle of the song.
Thou Shalt Welcome Others – open up the circle if others want to join. The jam can not be too big if people are polite.
Thou Shalt Share in the Selection – Open the choice of songs to the pickers around the circle. Take turns. Don't monopolize the jam.
Thou Shalt Try New Stuff – once in a while a participant may suggest original material or one that is out of character with the jam. This is OK (refer to Jammandments 2 and 4.)
Thou Shalt Let Others Know When Thou Are Not Jamming – bands may sometimes be rehearsing and may need to exclude non-band members from jamming. If so, an explanation would be nice.
Thou Shalt Not Raid – don't interrupt an active jam by calling musicians away to begin another jam.
Thou Shalt Keepith Thy Rhythm Steadyith – Errors in rhythm are most difficult to overcome. Avoid adding or dropping beats. Play quietly if you can't keep up and pay attention (refer to Jammandment 2).
Thou Shalt Not Speed – do not start a song too fast for the others to play. Once everyone has had a turn at the lead, the one may announce that the tempo is about to increase.