etiquette

Listen and follow the leader

david Blair — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:31:48 -0600

I love playing with others, beginners too, but become frustrated when the proper chord progression isn't followed and the player doesn't seem to know it. Eye contact with the person leading the song and listening is so important. If you can't hear the other players turn yourself down. Also annoying to me is when the song leader/vocalist is interrupted by another who either doesn't follow the song and verse structure intended by the leader, or worse deliberately derails the song, taking it somewhere else without so much as a wink or a nod of approval first.

passing the lead at jams

shawn — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 10:33:13 -0600

Hi all,

So here's an etiquette question that I grapple with from time to time...

When you are in a big circle jam, say more than 8 people, should
you still make it a point to offer the lead to each one in the group,
or should you spread it around between breaks or songs? This mainly
concerns 'bluegrass' format jams where you have pretty simple songs
and people taking turns on the lead. I know people who are adamant
that each person in the circle be offered a break during each
instrumental segment, no matter what and I've played with those

Etiquette in jamming

James Rathbun — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 10:52:30 -0600

There's a discussion on the dulcimers list about etiquette in jamming. Paul Goeltz wrote a great one and I saw other thoughts. Use the links to get them.

Jim

Here are links to several session etiquette articles on-line

http://www.eaglequest.com/~pgoelz/ettiquet1.html by Paul Goelz

http://www.voyagerrecords.com/arjam.htm by Vivian Williams

http://www.ink.org/public/kppa/p6a_jam_etiquette.htm by Ernie Hill from
the Walnut Valley Festival