What's your definition of a Jam?

Tootler · Oct 18, 2012

I see lots of mentions of Jams and I have a fairly good idea of what it is but as a (UK based) folk musician, it's not a term that's used much among the people I play with. I am used to

Singaround - go round the room, taking it in turns to sing a song or play a tune - usually solo if it's a tune. A bit like an open mic but less formal and no PA.

Session - people playing tunes together on whatever instrument they happen to play. Sometimes someone will sing a song and will often say what key it's in so people can join in with accompaniment.

To me a Jam sounds more like a session than a singaround, but I am interested in what goes on in your Jams.

glass · Oct 18, 2012

I have been to more sessions, but have been to a few with singarounds after the session.

Wooville · Oct 18, 2012

All the jams I've been to and the ones that I host would fall in the "sessions" catagory.

Wooville

Tootler said:
I see lots of mentions of Jams and I have a fairly good idea of what it is but as a (UK based) folk musician, it's not a term that's used much among the people I play with. I am used to

Singaround - go round the room, taking it in turns to sing a song or play a tune - usually solo if it's a tune. A bit like an open mic but less formal and no PA.

Session - people playing tunes together on whatever instrument they happen to play. Sometimes someone will sing a song and will often say what key it's in so people can join in with accompaniment.

To me a Jam sounds more like a session than a singaround, but I am interested in what goes on in your Jams.

lennymac · Oct 18, 2012

I'm in the UK and my understanding and experience is that it's more of a session than a singaround, pretty informal and may not even be based around songs as such - sometimes just a jam baased around a riff or chord sequence. I've not participated in any uke specific jams though.

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters · Oct 18, 2012

For me, jamming means playing music with other people. If I'm singing a song to group and no one's singing with me or playing along, I'm not jamming. As soon as someone helps out, it's a jam. Whee.

flyingv8 · Oct 18, 2012

The jams that I have done with other musicians on guitar always started with everyone noodling about until someone hits on something cool. Then the other players go along with him until some other idea pops out, then everyone enhances that. The idea is to try to make the music sound as cool and interesting and different as possible without losing it or taking control of it. The musicians have to be good at improvising. Some people cannot jam because they need to know exactly what they are supposed to play. This is like freestyling, letting it flow and seeing what happens. It's hard to find people who can jam like this. My brother and I could do it easily. We had that connection. I sure miss it!

Lalz · Oct 18, 2012

For me it just means playing with other people without an audience other than the people who are playing. Some have a specific music genre some don't, some are improvised some aren't, some involve singing some don't. It's a very broad term. I use the words jam and session interchangeably though, as they both mean jam session IMO. The term session musician however is a bit more specific in that it involves more specific genres of music, "English folk music session musician". At least that's how I interpret it.

808boy · Oct 18, 2012

2 or more people enjoying each other while playing or singing or both. The more the merrier. Kanakapila, Hawaiian style............................BO....................

ksiegel · Oct 19, 2012

808boy said:
2 or more people enjoying each other while playing or singing or both. The more the merrier. Kanakapila, Hawaiian style............................BO....................

What He Said.

-Kurt

000Kanaka000 · Oct 19, 2012

A jam session here means getting together with other musicians and playing
for the fun of it. Nothing is preplanned.

Sporin · Oct 19, 2012

Tootler said:
I see lots of mentions of Jams and I have a fairly good idea of what it is but as a (UK based) folk musician, it's not a term that's used much among the people I play with. I am used to

Singaround - go round the room, taking it in turns to sing a song or play a tune - usually solo if it's a tune. A bit like an open mic but less formal and no PA.

Session - people playing tunes together on whatever instrument they happen to play. Sometimes someone will sing a song and will often say what key it's in so people can join in with accompaniment.

To me a Jam sounds more like a session than a singaround, but I am interested in what goes on in your Jams.

The ones I go to are probably 90% Session, 10% Singaround. I think that generally folks prefer to all play and all sing. The "solos" seem to be when folks play something obscure or that they wrote themselves.

Jcollazo · Oct 19, 2012

I like the answers jennymac and Lalou gave. A jam is one of those nebulous concepts that different things to different people. After some gigs I have met up with other musicians in a club and "music broke out". It was spontaneous, unstructured and the only rules followed were the rules of music theory.

other times, a number of folks will meet at a BBQ and the next thing you know we've been playing every blues tune we know... for four hours.

Some people enjoy deep, meaningful conversations until the wee hours. My conversations usually start in the key of A.

pulelehua · Oct 19, 2012

Is nobody going to make a really bad joke about jelly and preserves.............................?

Pundabaya · Oct 19, 2012

I was going to. But you went and ruined it.

MisterRios · Oct 19, 2012

Pundabaya said:
I was going to. But you went and ruined it.

You could still make a joke about marmalade. Oooops.... sorry.

Cooper Black · Oct 19, 2012

In the US we have the Jazz/Bluegrass tradition of passing solos around the entire circle. Does this happen in Singarounds and Sessions?

Mandarb · Oct 19, 2012

Jam - what you would call a session.

Uke Whisperer · Oct 19, 2012

MisterRios said:
You could still make a joke about marmalade. Oooops.... sorry.

I was thinking more of being "between a rock and a hard place". Oooops....sorry too.

Tootler · Oct 19, 2012

Cooper Black said:
In the US we have the Jazz/Bluegrass tradition of passing solos around the entire circle. Does this happen in Singarounds and Sessions?

Not normally but folk who are into bluegrass do it and I imagine jazz musicians will to when they are jamming but I am not really into jazz.

The norm with a singaround is each person in turn sings a song, solo. It is customary to join in the chorus, though, if there is one - which there often is as people will often choose to sing songs with a chorus as it gets people joining in.

With sessions, it's mostly all playing together and solos such as you get with bluegrass are not usual.

OldePhart · Oct 19, 2012

pulelehua said:
Is nobody going to make a really bad joke about jelly and preserves.............................?

Pundabaya said:
I was going to. But you went and ruined it.

MisterRios said:
You could still make a joke about marmalade. Oooops.... sorry.

Actually...I was going to burst into song...

"I like bread and butter, I like toast and jam..."

John

What's your definition of a Jam?

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