How to keep up with a jam group - Fiddle Lesson
Вставка
- Опубліковано 11 вер 2024
- At the FiddleHed monthly Office Hours, FiddleHed Sue says: I have joined a new jam group recently and they play really fast. They encourage me to join in but I really don’t keep up with them well. How can I keep up?
Six Things To Help You Keep Up In A Jam Group
1. Prepare
2. Just listen
3. Record the session
4. Learn to play chord backup
5. Play the anchor points
6. Find other “slow players”
Read the full post here: fiddlehed.co/H...
“Wait, what is FiddleHed?” FiddleHed is the fun way to learn fiddling online. I made a progressive fiddle course to help you on each step of your fiddle journey. Plus, there's a supportive community that meets on zoom for office hours, group lessons and small student groups 💃🏻🕺🏾
Go further on your fiddle journey. Sign up for a Free Two-week Trial here: fiddlehed.com
Let me know if you have questions, and thanks for watching...🙏
Now, go fiddle with it...🎻
❤️ Fiddlehed
I used to go to jams, the one I went to had like over 15 guitar players, they are were just playing chords. I know how to play guitar, so I'd look at their hands, that's a C, that's a G, etc. I made a cheat sheet that I made that has all 12 major chords for fiddle in a format I knew how to use, and they were in circle of 5ths order. So if a song came up in F I knew I'd be playing F, Bb and C. Even if I couldn't guess chord changes (and for gospel and bluegrass it was pretty easy) I could just keep an eye on the hands of the guitar players. This only works if a tune has the I IV V type chord pattern. Many do.
Beautiful. So insightful and practical. I've played only a year and have been keeping an eye on an old-time music group that meets weekly in a nearby coffeehouse. Their Facebook page looks great, but I don't want to walk in like a total doofus. This video will help me for sure.
First time caller long time listener, I love your jam advice videos! I've been dipping my toes into jamming recently and your soothing insights have helped me become a lot more comfortable in these spaces. Thanks!!
Love this!
Wise words. 👍
I have given up on my old time fiddlers group. I didn't want to, but here's the deal-- the rules stated there had to be a fiddler on the stage. I play old time mandolin and tunes nobody knows. We mostly had 5 or 6 fiddlers and 6 to 8 guitars strummers trying to bang out the chords. Nobody really cared to learn new tunes. They all wanted to play Cluck Old Hen, Old Joe Clark and other boring beginner tunes that I no longer care about. I have a few friends I can jam with when we have time, but not the main group -- they don't seem to care and their stage policies upset me, so I have given up
Dude you improvise the arpeggio of the songs… your advice is “to prepare” and “practice” ‘dodging the question”… are you kidding ?.. you are literally telling the violinist to be a joke of the band begging for help, and ask them to play slower… stop pretending to be the expert when you haven’t gotten a clue…. The key word is “DIMINISHED ARPEGGIO”: here’s the facts: 1). When play in the band, the violin cannot be the voice of the song, the singer sings the lead song. 2). Therefore the violin becomes an accompaniment , thus you play the improvised arpeggio of the songs… when you play the arpeggios you literally don’t need to know the songs. You just play along the keys of the song. Another word, you improvise the melody of the violin part to jam with the band. That’s right you have to do it yourself. Nobody or no sheet musics will give you that…
Thanks for this thorough observation. You've got some great insights. Glad you tuned in and shared this. 🙏🏼
We have a Guide available that you, or someone you know, may enjoy:
fiddlehed.com/blog/how-to-play-violin-an-illustrated-beginners-guide-fiddlehed/