6/13/25 The Power of Jamming

Often, when musicians think of jamming, they are thinking about “jam sessions”, where there is a band and various people taking solos on well-known tunes, often with an audience listening.

Jam sessions are often talked about as being such an important part of learning jazz and how to improvise. But some jams are better than others, and the difference is simple. The best jams for learning new things are always between yourself and one other player, with no audience.

As a string player, working with a guitar or piano player is probably the most useful because that person can play chords for you, and then you can switch and play chords for them.

There are a few reasons why this is such a great idea.

1) Less pressure
a. Under pressure, we all tend to retreat to what we know works. We will not tend to try risky things if a lot of people are listening. But if it’s just with one other person, we are much more likely to take that most important of learning steps—using new ideas in a “real-life” setting.

2) Play more, sit-out less
a. Often, in a typical jam situation, we may spend many tunes waiting to play at all, and then only to take a solo within that tune. When we are playing with one other person, we are always playing—either soloing or playing rhythm for the other person to solo.

3) Flexibility to isolate just the sections or tunes you want to work on
a. We usually don’t have the option to pick the tune, let alone the tempo and key. These are things we can do when it’s just 2 people. You can work on a tune you are working on in your lessons.

So find someone you love to work with and set up regular times to get together, because it sometimes takes a few sessions to relax and drop your guard so that you can really try things that are new and may not end so well. That’s how you learn—by not fearing mistakes.

Have fun and happy jamming!