Rules of the Jam

The jam. It’s the word that every non-musician and quasi-musician uses to describe that moment that they have seen when musicians get together and play. It seems so magical. Musicians sitting in a circle, playing music, soloing, having a good ol’ time. A mystical land of pentatonic scales and blues chords where talent flows like milk and honey. 

The word “jam” is the word most commonly used to describe this occurrence. Far too often, well meaning musicians (a good portion of whom are worship leaders) armed with acoustic guitars and four chords, with delusions of grandeur in their sights, set off in pursuit of the jam. The bright star in space they are aiming for where those glorious moments take place. Where they can sit around and look cool playing the latest song together, impressing those around them with their new variation of the G chord.

Jamming happens when musicians leave the musical lay of the land and begin charting their own way through the landscape. Some are talented enough to do this, the rest of us just look dumb. If you’ve ever been skiing, you’ve seen the skier who chooses to leave the well used run and ski through the trees. I admire them. They’re adventurous, and they are charting a new path in their journey. And when you see an experienced skier doing it, you often get inspired to do the same, which inevitably means if you are not a talented skier, you’ll be wrapping yourself around the trunk of a tree at some point and embarrassing yourself. 

So I would like to inject a dose of reality into the situation. This magical land of jamming does not exist. At least not in the form most think that it does. The jewel in your figurative musician’s crown that you are pursuing is much further off than you might imagine. One doesn’t come by it through simply knowing a few chords and having an awkward acoustic version of the latest Coldplay song to play on the street corner.   

So I’d like to take a moment to set the record straight, and provide some much needed insight into this world. Maybe even save some naive musicians some embarrassment. I’d like to introduce you to Chris Freeman’s Rules Of The Jam.  

Chris Freeman’s Rules of The Jam

The rules are just one more tool to add to your musician’s tool belt that will give you discernment into your own musicality and into musical situations so that perhaps you might save yourself some embarrassment.

1) Have self awareness. If you as a musician have a healthy self awareness, then Chris Freeman’s Rules Of The Jam, will not apply to you. You are already well on your way to a healthy and fruitful musical experience. Self awareness allows you to know if your musical chops are up to parr or not, which helps you to make healthy, well informed decisions about who you choose to play with when you choose to do so. 

2) Never say the word, “Jam”. Seriously. No respectable, working class musician says, “jam”. The only exceptions to this are blues players, bluegrass players and Jerry Garcia, and he’s definitely not jamming anymore. Using the word “jam” is a dead give away that while you say you want to jam, you couldn’t actually jam your way out of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As a matter of fact, don’t give it a name at all. It doesn’t need one. Let the action speak for itself. It’s called “playing together”. Properly used in a sentence it might sound something like:

 

“John Mayer came over to my house today and we ended up playing our guitars together for a little while.”

Notice that the word “jam” is never mentioned. There was no need to add a label to the obvious. That’s it. If you are using this word at all, then take it as a sign that you probably aren’t good enough to jam.

3) Jams are not requested. You never ask to jam. It’s not an invitation. If you ask someone to jam, it may imply that you’re desperate. Desperate to show off your mediocre guitar skills to someone else. It means you have something to prove and almost always means you think that you are better than you really are.

4) Jams are not planned. They are spontaneous. It’s not something you schedule on your calendar. Good musicians never say, “Hey, we should get together and jam sometime.” This is a dead giveaway that you spend most of your time memorizing the order that Chris Tomlin plays G-C-D-em on his new hugely successful worship mega hit. 

Rather, what you refer to as a “jam” occurs when two talented players located in close vicinity to each other, both with instrument in hand begin playing and a magical mind-handshake takes place, and the players go from playing separately two different things to playing the same thing. Often trading solos over a guitar riff or lick that someone started playing.

5) Never jam in public. If you insist on using the word “jam” and insist on scheduling a jamming appointment, please never plan to do so in public. There are a couple of exceptions to this rule, including: 

• Live shows. When good musicians get together and play, it may often be in front of people. This generally happens on stage when a band is doing a show. 

• Hippy sing-alongs. This is when a group of bohemians and vagabonds with dreadlocks-a-plenty choose to gather on a street corner and sing songs about the outdoors, free love, bi-annual baths, and how they choose not to rely on their parents money (unless things get really, really bad).

Other than that, any sort of public display of musicality is off limits. This includes, but is not limited to: guitar sing-alongs, spontaneous worship song sing-alongs, drums circles and percussion items that are passed out during charismatic worship services. This is where your own self awareness should kick in. Feeling the need to jam in public is the musicians version of showing-off. And nine times out of ten, the showoff is never really as good as they believe they are. This is the guy at youth camp who knows how to play Green Day’s, Time Of Your Life, or the guy who can play the opening piano riff to Coldplay’s, Clocks. These are the guys looking for full frontal hugs from the girls at the end of youth camp. They are not great musicians, and just because two or more gather they certainly aren’t jamming.

In conclusion of Chris Freeman’s Rule of the Jam, I should add that this is not meant to say people shouldn’t get together and play. Playing together is how musicians get better. It’s often how songs are written. But there is a difference between playing together and jamming. Instead, perhaps you should focus on becoming a better musician (which all of us need to do). If you find yourself with the desire to venture off of the musical beaten path, be it on a street corner or in the city square, please take my advice. DON’T DO IT.