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#1
11-20-2023, 01:31 PM
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The jam is everything.
Going out to share my music and play with others is my motivation. The Sunday jam, playing at the Friday night bon fire this fall while everyone is having a couple beers and singing sixties folk songs, busking with my friends at downtown festivals and farmer's markets, jamming at bluegrass festivals, it keeps me going. If I couldn't go out and share it, I don't think that I could keep going. I'm not judgemental about people who never leave home to play, I'm just saying, for me it is everything.
__________________
Please don't take me too seriously, I don't. Taylor GS Mini Mahogany. Guild D-20 Gretsch Streamliner Morgan Monroe MNB-1w https://www.minnesotabluegrass.org/ 
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#2
11-20-2023, 03:49 PM
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Fair enough!
What I like is playing with people. Paid or free, it's fun. Playing solo, paid or free, is okay but not the same as making music with another person or people.
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#4
11-20-2023, 05:06 PM
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I'm one of them "never leave home to play" people (introvert). I'm 72 and after so so many years of 4-6 nights a week playing in honky tonks n juke joints...a recluse is an understatement or as Howlin' Wolf said "I dun had my fun if I don't ever get well no more" but I play at home by myself 7 days a week
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#5
11-20-2023, 05:18 PM
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It’s way harder for me and the wife to practice than perform. We get a rush playing for folks. Even if it’s just one person. Agreed, if I just did it at home, being I’ve done plenty of that, I would loose interest for sure.
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#6
11-20-2023, 10:23 PM
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Quote:
Some weeks I have 4 jams plus a farmers market gig. REALLY looking forward to my first summer of retirement and ALL the bluegrass festivals!
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#7
11-21-2023, 05:58 AM
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Went out last night to an open mic, played with my wife and our friend Bob - same tonight.
D.H. 
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#8
11-21-2023, 06:20 AM
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Jams for me have never really worked. I spend so much time rehearsing, and learning music, that I don't hear other musicians doing.
Yes, I love playing with other musicians. That said, I like every musician on stage to know how the song I may be doing goes. I can only stand 1, 4, 5, blues progression songs for so long. Have had to play solo for the past 5 years. And that was different. But lately, I have had the pleasure of working with a woman singer/guitar player, who not only likes the same music as I do. Her ideas for songs is both surprising, and challenging. And she has a drive for the work that goes into learning, arranging, harmonizing, and performing, more difficult pieces. I couldn't be in a better place, at this point in my life.
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#9
11-21-2023, 07:11 AM
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Quote:
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#10
11-21-2023, 08:52 AM
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To me the music and its purpose are different between the two options. Playing for myself is about playing music that comes out of my mood. It's all about me. Playing for others is about altering their mood, entertaining or getting their buy in.
__________________
Waterloo WL-S, K & K mini Waterloo WL-S Deluxe, K & K mini Iris OG, 12 fret, slot head, K & K mini Follow The Yellow Brick Road
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#11
11-21-2023, 08:53 AM
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Good to hear other's experiences. I've often thought a typical AGF member was an older person with multiple expensive guitars who sits at home and plays alone.
Playing music with other people is the thing I look forward to most in my daily life. Playing a public performance (a real paying gig, open mic, impromptu bar jam, etc.) is, however, a very different experience IMO than a social jam/song circle/festival campground jam. I've played 100's of public performances in a variety of settings over the decades. The goal of these is to provide entertainment for an audience. It's a bonus if the players also have a good time and maybe even get paid something. It's not something I do very much of anymore. The gigs I do now are primarily to spread awareness of and raise funds for our bluegrass association's annual summer festival. The jams and song circles I participate in are something different. They exist to provide joy and enjoyment for the players. There's usually no audience. Nobody's getting paid. There are no amps, mics or music stands, typically no ego or bs. Just playing for fun, socializing, learning new songs. I don't mind playing for an audience, but it wouldn't bother me not to do it anymore. I still enjoy playing and practicing alone too. I'll always do that as long as I can. But the main joy for me is getting with friends to play music for ourselves.
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#12
11-21-2023, 08:56 AM
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I am also an introverted guitar player who played alone for 50 years.
After retirement we moved, so I forced myself to attend a local jam to meet some locals. All i can say is i should have done this a long time ago. Jamming has opened up so much joy and fun in my life that i am astonished. I've met many wonderful people, I've improved my playing, and my singing is making fewer people cry LOL!!! Introverts should give it a try. Stretch and grow.
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#13
11-21-2023, 09:29 AM
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It's not everything for me, but jams are an important element. I go to a bluegrass & country acoustic jam every week, and get together with buddies to jam at someone's home about once a month. It is fun to share music with others, and I have learned a lot of new songs that way.
Back in the 90's and early 2000's I gigged quite a bit. It is fun to perform for others, but it turns into work (a true four letter word) quickly. I learned to loathe the load-in and load-out part, and working with PA systems, but enjoyed the time on stage. The audience sees you having fun, but never sees the work behind the show. Kids, don't let your hobby become your job.  My repertoire consists of fingerstyle ragtime and Piedmont country blues instrumentals, which an audience can only take for so long. I also play Hawaiian slack-key fingerstyle, again a limited instrumental option. What most people want to hear is the familiar singer-songwriter and classic country / pop stuff from my youth. I can do a couple of hours of that material from memory on demand. Most of my practice time at home is spent keeping that stuff all under my fingers and ready to go.
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#14
11-21-2023, 11:48 AM
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I went to a jam on Sunday..... and came away with a band!
 It was a jam session held at the venue where I have a duet gig booked for the 22 December. The house band were at the jam. And now it looks like we are going to have a full band (drums, bass, electric guitar, backing vocals) for the second half of our set! It should be a fun night.
__________________
I'm learning to flatpick and fingerpick guitar to accompany songs. I've played and studied traditional noter/drone mountain dulcimer for many years. And I used to play dobro in a bluegrass band.
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