Jam Class - The Art of Jamming - Pt III

Jam Class - The Art of Jamming  - Pt III  from Dr. Banjo's Certified Jam  Class Instructor Mark Miracle in Phoenix.

Read Part 2         Read about Jam Classes

Mark writes: 

This weeks Jam Class was a workout for everyone, including me. After more than a few minutes in discussion with my students, it became clear that each was going to have to work hard over the next 5 hours of instruction and jamming. All of the folks, however, showed a great deal of patients and willingness to overcome the hurdles that lay before them. In short - finding and successfully playing a melody.


Most, if not all, had never attempted to play "intentional" notes that actually sounded like the song being played. They were happy just fumbling through the few chords that they could recognize in a particular piece and never really gave much thought to taking a break or soloing - whether it was because they didn't think they could or didn't want to. In applying Pete Wernick's methodology, each student was walked through process of learning how to hear a melody and playing it on their instrument, note by note. As each one picked up on the process, I could see "lights going on" from the looks on their faces...very cool! By the end of the day, each one had taken a solo (not just one!) when it came their turn during the course of a song.

Dr. Banjo Jam Class

This also gave a few of the students the ability to focus more on tempos and timing, basically "killing 2 birds...". Hurried and random notes soon became a broken melody while not breaking time...yes, this too is very cool! It is progress in a positive direction and we were all amazed at what we had accomplished in just a few hours.

One student was even bitten by the "one more" bug, as he was scheduled to leave early for an appointment prior to the end of the session. "Just one more tune" became two more and so on...we've all been there, yes? He was only an hour late getting to his appointment...but you didn't hear that from me.

Onward,

Mark

Mark's posts are part of a series on The Prescription Bluegrass Blog to take us through the full course one week at a time.  We can hardly wait for the next installment to find out what happens after students learn to "fly on their own".