Category: Articles

Do you wish you practiced more? Do you ever feel frustrated by your lack of progress? Do you sometimes think “maybe I just don’t have what it takes”? Are you about to give up?

If you do, then the chances are that you are in a Toxic Relationship… with your music. Yep, It’s not you, its not your guitar, it’s the relationship that’s is the problem! And guess what, this is actually good news! Why? Because you can’t change who you are, and you can’t change your guitar (much), but you CAN change the relationship with your instrument.

And once you change this relationship, all your music problems will melt away like butter on a hot griddle.

So let’s get started fixing this, and let the healing begin…

First, in case you aren’t sure if you are indeed in a toxic Musical Relationship, let’s go over five common “red flags” that can indicate a problem:

• Red Flag 1: You always feel like you never practice enough
• Red Flag 2: You are not happy with your progress
• Red Flag 3: When you think of your instrument, your feelings are negative, not positive
• Red Flag 4: You compare yourself to others (and generally feel like they are better than you)
• Red Flag 5: You continually change songs, instruments and goals; you have “musical ADD”

Another symptom of being in a Toxic Musical Relationship are beliefs that limit you, that you probably acquired early in life. Here are some examples:

Limiting Belief: I need to practice a lot, like every day, to get any better

Limiting Belief: I have to learn to read music to play an instrument

Limiting Belief: Some people are naturally talented, but I am not

Ring any bells? Well don’t worry if it does, because we’re about to show you how to free yourself from these problems and create the Positive

Musical Relationship that you deserve. And the first step is to realize that this relationship is all in your mind. It has nothing to do with how well you play or how much you practice, those are just the physical things. The important part is how you are thinking and feeling about this. You know, in your mind 🙂

And it is in your mind that you will make the first huge step forward: learning to Let Go! Let go of what, you

ask. You must let go of fixing any of this, let go of fighting it, let go of winning! This may sound contradictory, but it is as true as the laws

of physics. Until you let go and give yourself a break, you will not have the clarity and presence of mind to follow the steps we are about to show you.

So, take a deep breath and LET GO….

Now, we’ll need you to do the following: Agree that you are now taking a break from your musical struggles, and putting it all on pause. Yep, we are going to be starting over. And not just continuing what wasn’t working, but instead starting with a clean slate! This is the first noble truth of a healthy Musical Relationship: Taking time off is just as important as time spent practicing! Yes, if you don’t give your brain regular periods of down time, it will get overworked, overwhelmed and frustrated.

Now that you’re OK with taking a break, and your stress levels are down, let’s address those Red Flags and Limiting Beliefs we mentioned earlier:

• Red Flag 1: (You always feel like you never practice enough) = Yes you do! It’s not about “how much” you practice, but “how fun it is!”
• Red Flag 2: (You are not happy with your progress) = That’s because your expectations are too high! Lower them and have more fun
• Red Flag 3: (When you think of your instrument, your feelings are negative, not positive) =  That will change when you follow the “relationship Rules” (see graphic below)
• Red Flag 4: You compare yourself to others (and generally feel like they are better than you) = That will change when you follow the “relationship Rules” (see graphic below)
• Red Flag 5: (You continually change songs, instruments and goals; you have “musical ADD”) = Guess what: this is just fine! Follow the Fun!

Limiting Belief: (I have to practice a lot, like every day, to get any better) = Nope. You can practice for 15 minutes a week and get better

Limiting Belief: (I have to learn to read music to play an instrument) = Nope. Some of the best musicians in history didn’t read music (Google it!)

Limiting Belief: (Some people are naturally talented, but I am not) = Nope; There is no such thing as “talent”, just desire, time and patience. 

Take you time to digest all of this, we know it may seem controversial. But we have seen hundreds of students achieve their musical dreams simply by improving their Musical Relationship. So let’s give you the magical “Ten Commandments” of a healthy Musica Relationship, here we go…

Your Musical Relationship – the Ten Commandments

I. Take Breaks! This is probably the hardest to accept, because of our conditioning. When you are frustrated, take a break. When you think “I’m not practicing enough”, say “I’m just taking a break, I’ll be back eventually!” Seriously, brain science has proven that we need time away to assimilate new information, so ease up on yourself and take more breaks.

II. Joy Over “Progress” This means you need to start prioritizing having fun over “serious practicing”. Ya we know this sounds sacrilegious, but it’s true. Think of it this way: If you enjoy your practicing, you’ll want to do it more, and progress will happen naturally. But if all you think about is progress, then you’ll kill the joy. Yes we know there are times when you need to have discipline and challenge yourself, but that should not be the majority of the time. So, shift your practice time to the songs that excite you and bring you joy, and you’ll see more progress!

III. Baby Steps This phrase is a bit cliche, but nonetheless very true. Here’s the deal: if you try to learn too much at once, you will get frustrated and quit. If you try to learn material that is above your level, same problem. You need to have small goals, like “learning a G chord”, or a new strumming pattern, you know, Baby Steps! Don’t try to take on Bohemian Rhapsody 🙂

IV. Have Low Expectations In addition to limiting yourself to Baby Steps, you should also not expect too much from these steps! Remember, learning music is a lifelong process that takes time, and you are in this for the long haul. Dont be demanding of yourself, instead be happy with whatever results you achieve. Accomplishing one small thing that make you happy is always better than trying too much and getting disappointed.

V. See the Big Picture Unless you have an upcoming concert (and we get the feeling you probably don’t), then relax… you have the rest of your life to get ready! You are on the slow track to success, and you need to have trust that you are indeed getting better, over time. Just like a tree, you are growing slower that you can see, but you are indeed getting better over time. Learning music is not something you accomplish, its something you add to your life, like a puppy or a garden. Think of how much better you’ll be in several years from now, IF you stick with it and take your time. So relax and enjoy the ride!

VI. Follow the Fun This is a continuation of II, “Joy over Progress”. Now that you have accepted the truth that your instrument should bring you joy, you’ll want more of that! How do we create that? You simply have to identify the kind of music or musical activities that are fun for you, and seek them out. Let’s say you go to a Reggae festival and have a great time, well then why not learn to play a Reggae beat?! Or maybe your friend brings a guitar to a party and next thing you know there is a rousing jam session. Why not learn some of those songs and jump in next time? So whatever music you think is FUN, follow it.

VII. Don’t Compare One thing you learn after years of making music is this: you are always in the middle! There is always someone better than you, and always someone note as good. So instead of comparing, why not simply help those who are below you, and learn from those who are further down the road? Comparison is the sister of self-judgement, and a joy killer. Just be happy exactly where you are at, and everyone will become your ally.

VIII. Frustration = STOP We often think that frustration is a necessary part of learning, but in fact it is a red flag. Think of it this way: if you were doing it correctly, then you would not get frustrated! Frustration is just a symptom of an ineffective method. If you are trying to learn material over your head, or guilt-tripping yourself for not practicing enough, or trying to play for too long, or not taking breaks… guess what. You’re going to get frustrated! And this is actually a good thing, because it is a red flag telling you to stop and change your approach. SO when you get frustrated, please STOP, go over these commandments, and start again.

IX. Have a Good Teacher We could have worded this “Don’t have a crappy teacher!” but we wan’t to keep it positive. However that is also true! The problem with many (even most) music teachers os that they are mired in old belief systems that steal your joy. if you have a teacher telling you to “practice more”, or “be more disciplined” or waiving a ruler at you, you are in the wrong place! Get out of there, quick. A real teacher will inspire you, will help you to find your own musical path and thereby enjoy the process. So, if you or someone you know has a less-than-optimal teacher, politely discontinue your lessons and come study with us here at JamAlong! (We always offer a FREE Zoom lesson to newbies, click HERE to redeem that).

X. Share With Friends Can you imagine a hobby that you never discuss with your friends? Even if it is knitting, you still want to show your finished scarf to someone, right? The more you tell folks about your musical adventures, the more support you will receive, and maybe even get others to join you in paying music together! And once you start “jamming” together, your playing will take off like a jet plane and you wont need to “practice” at all… because you’ll be playing all the time! So whether its just talking about different types of guitars, or planning a SUnday BBQ and jam sesh, harness the power of musical friendships to take your playing to the next level…

Starting to learn music is no problem. Here at JamAlong we’ve see literally hundreds of people begin their musical journey, full of enthusiasm and confidence.

Armed with a new banjo, or perhaps a free lesson offer, they are the picture-perfect student. They take copious notes, schedule regular practice hours, and usually come back to the next session with an impressive array of accomplishments.

And then, maybe three months down the line, maybe even a year, suddenly they drop out. All of that ardent devotion they displayed, all of the inspiration and discipline…gone, like the hollow streets of a ghost town.

Yes, Starting music lessons is no problem at all, anyone can do it. But continuing them, for the long amounts of time necessary to become good, well that is a different story altogether.

So if you have begun the journey yourself, or are considering it, please take this article to heart. It may save your musical life! We would hate to see you join the legions who have begun and then fallen away, all of those who could be happily jamming today, if they had not fallen prey to barriers that stop progress.

And there are four or them. You can think of them as four monsters, who stand at the gates of your musical future, and unless you can find a way to overcome them you are likely to join the ranks of the quitters.

So let’s get familiar with the enemies, the Four Barriers. They are Time, Money, Life Issues and Equipment…

Continue reading The Four Barriers – Why People Quit

Just like many areas where science and art intersect, there is a preponderance of theories and formulas in Music Theory. From the classic Theory that you will learn as a music major in just about any college, to the more obscure theories that you have to know to play jazz, music theory has many branches.

What is unfortunate as is that the majority of how Music Theory is presented is often not useful to the performing musician. While standard Music Theory is great for passing a test or impressing a fellow music nerd,  rarely does it help when the rubber meets the road. This is where “Street Theory” comes in, our term for the Music Theory we have learned over the decades in the process of actually playing music on stage and in Jam sessions.

Street Theory is the stuff that will get you out of a pinch when you have to transpose a song last minute, or when you are presented with a tricky song at a jam session and need to be able to guess the chords, or even when you are composing your next hit song and not sure of what to strum along under your vocals. This is the stuff that you want to know, and this is the stuff that JamAlong’s Street Theory will teach you. Let’s roll up our sleeves and get going…

Continue reading “Street Theory” – Where Chords Come From

Few subjects in music have the same ominous portent as the phrase “reading music”. Sadly there are many of us who have nothing but bad memories on the subject, like a spectacle wearing piano teacher forcing us to memorize “every good boy does fine”. Or being in highschool band and having to sight-read awful marches from pages stained with the tears of former members.

And to be truthful, there is an unfortunate cast system separating those who can “read”, and those who don’t. The music-readers often look down their noses at those who don’t read music, and the non-readers sometimes feel inferior. Or in many cases, non-readers actually feel that they are more authentically musical by this very fact. There is an old joke where a jazz musician is asked if he can read music, and he replies “not enough to hurt my playing!”.

The truth is, you can be a great musician whether or not you read music. And if you don’t, we encourage you to continue having a great time creating music by ear! However, if you’re this far into this article, the odds are that you are someone who does indeed wish to learn how. And the odds are also that you’ve had the impression that learning to read music is an arduous process that can take years. Well, we have some good news for you: it isn’t!

Here’s the deal…if you approach it in the right way, using clever strategies and keeping the process fun, you can be reading music inside of a week. Ready to start? Let’s do this!

Continue reading Learn to Read Music the FUN Way!

Often the last thing we think about when learning an instrument is our posture. In the excitement (or torment) of practicing, our attention is drawn to “battle zones”: aching fingertips, bad sounding notes, difficult passages that we are struggling with, and so on. Posture and form go out the window, and understandably so.

Here at JamAlong we teach Musical Posture early on, because we believe it is very important not only to the playing ability of our students, but also their long-term physical health as well! Think of it this way: if you hold your body in a position that is a strain on your muscles, over long periods you could cause minor damage, or in the least make your playing experience less comfortable. So let’s start from the beginning, where the rubber meets the road…our chair.

(brief disclaimer: there are folks that play and practice standing up, and we certainly don’t discourage this, if you are one of these types these types just skip over the chair part, the rest of this article still applies to you!)

Continue reading The Science of Musical Posture

Unlocking scales on the banjo is the secret to breaking out beyond bluegrass, and being able to sound great in all kinds of new music. Let’s say you are a decent picker, and can play in Scruggs Style and know how to play backup and lead. Perhaps you even have some melodic style fiddle tunes under your belt, or some hot single-string licks. But your playing still sounds “bluegrassy”, and there are times when you lay awake at night thinking “what else is out there? Why cant I play more blues, or rock, or jazz on my banjo??”

Well it all starts with re-thinking the role of the banjo. In the traditional bluegrass model, we follow the Gospel of Earl Scruggs: play Boomchucks for backup and then use Rolls and Licks for lead playing. This gives us that classic banjo sound which is great for bluegrass and country music. But this doesn’t always work when we apply it to other forms of music, as many of us discover when we stumble into a non-traditional jam and end up getting mauled.

So how do we break out of the Scruggs Style mold? We do this by changing our role from playing bluegrass licks to treating the banjo more like a guitar, and learning to play different scales and rhythms. Think of it this way: a traditional bluegrass player will comp along and then when it is time for their lead, they will launch into a flurry of Scruggs Style roll-based licks. A more modern picker (think Bela Fleck or Ryan Cavenaugh) will lay back and keep a low profile, but then when their lead comes around they will instead play actual “melodic phrases”. This means that instead of using Rolls, they will play out of scale positions, creating note-for-note melodies instead.

Continue reading Unlocking Scales on the Banjo

Practice does not make perfect…only proper practice does! Yep, it’s true. You can practice all you want, but unless you are doing it the right way, you will not see much results. Knowing what to practice is not as important as knowing how to practice, and no matter what musical instrument you are learning to play, these savvy practice tips will help you to triple the results of your practice sessions…

Continue reading A Dozen Tips for Proper Practicing

Memory is often a big issue for jammers, because so much of playing music involves memorizing stuff! Whether you are trying to recall a lyric, or what chords go with a bluegrass fiddle tune, being able to memorize these elements will make your music-playing life so much easier. Yes, there is a time and place for sheet music or TAB, especially in such musical styles as classical or trad jazz, but for most of the music we encounter in jam sessions, the more you can play by memory the better.

So, how do we learn to commit more of our music to memory, and stop relying on piles of TAB so much? Well, the first step is to learn a bit about how our memory operates, so we can stop doing things the hard way. The very word “memory” comes from the Latin “memoria”, meaning mindful. So, if we pay attention and open our minds to knew ideas, we are on the path to a more effective memory.

Continue reading Improve Your Musical Memory

When most of us hear the term “composer” we see a dude with a white poofy wig holding a quill pen, etching notes onto a parchment, usually by candle light.

And even if we have a more modern image in mind, we think that surely we would need to be able to read and write music notation before we could ever compose music. How else will we get the music onto the page?

Well, prior to Thomas Edison inventing the phonograph in 1877 this was certainly the case. In other words, before the advent of recorded music, the only way to preserve your composition was indeed to get it onto paper. So either you had to fill up your quill pen and get to work scratching out notes, or hire the poofy wigged guy to write them out for you while you played your new cello sonata over and over again, note for note.

Not a great way to make friends with the folks in the cobblestone hut next to you.

But now that we live in the technological age, and thanks to Thomas Edison, there is a new way to compose! We call this “audio composing”, or composing by instrument. Put simply, you just make up the melodies on whatever musical device you are most comfortable with (including voice), and then record yourself! Yes, you will be actually composing, using your trusty tape deck or computer to capture the melodies that come out of your fingers or vocal chords. It’s easy and it’s fun, and you can take all the time you need to get it right.

Continue reading You Can Compose Music!

Imagine if you could show up to a jam, sit down and play along with every song…without knowing them!! Imagine if you didn’t need charts, but could listen for a few minutes and then jump in, hitting all the right chords…is this possible? Absolutely.

In fact all of our instructors here at JamAlong Music are expected to be able to do this, you can see an example of this with our instructor Brae teaching Wagon Wheel “by ear” on YouTube HERE. And yes, you too can be this quick!

This can be done when you know how to “play by ear”, when you’ve learned to follow along just by listening and you don’t need to worry about having any music, or pestering the guitar player to tell you the chords. And if you want to learn this awesome skill, we have some good news and some bad news… First, the bad news: learning to do this does take some time. Now don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be years, in fact if you follow our Backing Track Ear Workout it can take only months. Seriously. So, the bad news isn’t really all that bad. Now, ready for the good news?

The good news is this: You don’t have to go looking all over the interwebs for “ear learning methods”, or struggle to play along with YouTube videos and work yourself into state of psychosis anymore. No, those days are over. We have created a simple, fun and effective training method for you to learn how to play songs by ear, and by the end of this blog you will know all the Jedi secrets. But first, we need to understand some basics of how “playing by ear” works…

Continue reading How to play songs “by Ear”

One of the most mysterious and misunderstood elements in Folk, Bluegrass and Country music is the “Lick”. Explained simply, a Lick is a short phrase of music, usually composed ahead of time, that is used to ornament the song that you’re playing. No, it’s not a scale or arpeggio, it’s like a miniature composition that is designed for a specific key or to highlight a particular technique. Most Licks are two measures long, but there are also scores of Licks out there that are one measure, or even four measures. For the record, when a Lick gets to be longer than four measures it is generally considered to be a “run”, or a combination of smaller Licks.

All good players end up collecting Licks that they like, often from the playing of musicians that they admire, or made up using a certain technique on their instrument. We can then use these pre-learned Licks to spice up our playing at a jam session, or to work our arrangements of songs that we like. As any Google search will show, there are swarms of Licks out there for the taking, and more than enough lessons and courses on “hot licks” guaranteed to make you “sound like the pro’s”. Although it is always useful to learn new licks, the problem is that if you don’t have a proper way to learn how to use these licks in real life, they are just wasted brain space. We’ve looked at a bunch of these types of courses over time, and although there are certainly good licks there, they all have the same problem: there is never any follow-up training! This would be like getting a video on how to swim, and practicing in a parking lot. Learning the lick is only the first step, then you need to have a way to get ready to use the lick in real life (as in, jamming!)

Furthermore, you need to understand the various types of Licks that exist. There are at least four distinct kinds of Licks in common usage, and unless you know the difference you won’t be able to use them effective in a real jam session. So let’s start here, learning the four species of Licks that we will be using…

Continue reading Understanding “Licks”

Improvisation: the Final Frontier for every jamming musician. Now that you have reams of TAB memorized, more hot licks than you know what to do with, and piles of scales and arpeggios ready for battle, how do you make that leap to actually “saying something” when you improvise? It is one thing to be able to keep a stream of notes emanating from your instrument, but another thing entirely to create solos that have personality. One of the things that we notice when we listen to the greats play improvised solos, is that every solo they take is different from the previous one. Each solo sounds like it was written ahead of time, it is so smooth and logical. How do we develop this same ability?

Well, the answer is twofold. First, the “bad news” is that, you guessed it, many hours of wood-shedding are necessary to be able to “speak” freely on your instrument. You have to get to the point where you don’t have to think about your hands anymore, and instead your focus is on playing what you feel. Yes, this does take a bit of time, but it is worth every grueling hour spent practicing. So, don’t slack on your practice sessions, and keep taking lessons and jamming with other folks. This is the path. (And best yet, sign up for some lesson on “how to improvise” here with JamAlong, we specialize in teaching this! Email or call us and mention this blog and get a FREE 45 minute Live Online Music Lesson…go on, do it!)

But then there is the good news: we have a very cool trick you can employ, that will power-boost your improvisation and make you play things you would have never played before, without spending years bent over your fingerboard…we call this the Mental Menu. Let’s get started.

Continue reading How to Improvise Better with a “Mental Menu”

It is one thing to go to a jam session and play along, but another thing entirely to actually offer up and successfully play your own song. To ensure that you have an enjoyable experience doing this (and get asked back to the jam!), take some time to study these important rules of jamming etiquette…

Continue reading How to Play Your Song at a Jam – The Rules of Effective Song Leading   

Ever since the first caveman heard his buddy thumping out a rhythm on a mammoth bone and had to stomp along, jamming was a part of our very humanity. Wolves howl together, and city dogs cant resist chiming in whenever a siren wails in the distance. From the cro-magnon era to modern kareoke bars, folks have always wanted to play music with one another. It is as natural as getting up in the morning and wanting coffee.

And if you could ask most of our folk music heros, like Doc Watson or the Carter sisters, they would probably say “well shucks, I just learned by sangin along!” Many of these folks never had music lessons, or often even read music, and developed their talent by singing in Church or jammin around the cook stove.

So it really is a silly notion to assume that the only way you can learn music is my “studying”, by taking music lessons with a serious teacher who admonishes you to practice long hours by yourself. Sure, sometimes you have to sneak off to the woodshed and get something worked out, but for the most part the learning process does not have to be all by yourself. In fact, more often than not it is better to learn music outside of the vacuum of personal practice, and instead just “play along”. Whether it is a buddy with a guitar, or the radio, or a slightly inebriated potluck jam, just diving in and learning as you go offers many rewards.

Continue reading Playing to Learn

As Linus once told Charlie Brown, every baby should get a banjo! Here at JamAlong Music we believe this to be true, if for the only reason that it is impossible to play banjo and be in a bad mood! (disclaimer: your roommates and loved ones may very likely end up in a bad mood shortly, but the actual operator of the banjo remains in good spirits).

This blog is intended for those of you lucky enough to have just acquired a banjo, and to you we say: congratulations and welcome! Now, before you go running off and buying instruction books, or worse, YouTubing “how to play banjo” and end up trying to learn Possum On A Gum Stump by the guy wearing suspenders and nothing else…hold on! There are some basic survival skills you need to have.

Continue reading When You’ve Had Your Banjo Less than 24 Hours

Every form of music has its ways of exercising. Classical music has “etudes”, compositions designed to focus on a particular technique, and jazz players are fond of musty books full of arpeggios and bebop phrases. Aspiring rock guitar players spend hours obsessing on the licks of their musical heroes, and piano teachers delight in inflicting scales on their students.  And yes, all of these techniques eventually help one to learn how to play guitar or piano, but often give music lessons a bad name. Why?

Because all of these practice approaches focus on mere exercises, that are only useful in the practice room. Sure you can play a Carassi etude at your guitar recital, but it still tends to be more stressful than fun. (Yes we know there are classical music teachers out there who will fly into a rage when they read this, and we invite them to call us up and set us straight ????)

But if you want to learn music, and don’t want to get stuck practicing scales or slogging through music theory, there is a way…Fiddle Tunes!

Although Fiddle a Tunes are generally associated with bluegrass and folk music, they can be played on any instrument, and are available for anyone from any musical style.

Continue reading In Praise of the Fiddle Tune

When you are starting out learning to jam, there’s lots of scary things going on for sure. You can break a string moments into your first G chord, or maybe you ended up right next to a really grumpy banjo player, who keeps stabbing your eardrums with his twangs. Or the person who is supposed to pass the tune around to you is a fiddle player who seems to be engaged in a life or death struggle with their instrument, and you keep getting pulled out of time by the tortured noises emanating from his fiddle. Yes, it’s often a free-for-all, and the best you can do is just try to stay in time and keep a straight face.

But probably the scariest part is when you hear your name, preceded by the phrase “pick it!” Or in other words, it’s your turn to take the lead! Oh sh**. Yep, this is where everyone is suddenly playing chords and there is an expectant hush over the jam, and through your red mist of adrenaline you realize that this is supposed to be you playing. And if you haven’t been training properly, or learned the art of passing the lead on to the next picker, chances are you are caught off guard and find yourself spewing out a jumble of unrelated notes that have nothing to do with the song being played. And after what seems like an eternity the cruel experiment is over and you finish the rest of the song in a state of shock, while fantasizing about where to sell your instrument and what you’ll buy with the money.

Continue reading Virtual Jamming!

Everyone loves mountain climbers. Or explorers, or rugged captains who sail the high seas and discover new continents. We all worship large accomplishments, big leaps, and any kind of victory. But rarely, it seems, do we applaud the small steps. Or even notice  them for that matter. But the truth is, all of these big conquests have humble beginnings. The climbers impressive journey up Mount Everest is actually the result of thousands of steps, and each one equally important to reaching the top.

In the famous words of the sage Lao Tzu, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.”

As musicians (or those still learning to be) it is a similar process. We hear great compositions and yearn to play them, like a child gazing up at distant snowy peaks, and often become intimidated by the distance that lies ahead. But there is a secret path we can find, one that focuses our attention on our feet and keeps us from getting distracted. We can climb any musical mountain if we do it one note at a time!

Continue reading One Note At A Time

Yes, yes, we know, we’re always bugging you here at JamAlong to get out there and jam with folks. “It’s the only way to learn!” we say, “It’ll get you there quicker than music lessons” and the the like. And although it is true, to be completely honest there are a few problems with this idea as well. For starters, not everyone has a gaggle of jammer friends they can call up whoever they feel the urge to play music.

And, if you’re a beginner, sometimes it’s hard to convince your more adept pals to put up with your painful guitar strums or banjo plinks. Yes they’ll try to sound excited, but you can hear it in their voice: “hey, um, sure! That sounds….fun…” And you know they’re just thinking “jeez why can’t this kid just take some guitar lessons like everybody else!”
And to tell the truth who can blame them, when that last time you invited yourself over it took 45 minutes to get through Wagon Wheel.

Or maybe you DO have friends that play music, but they’re too far away. Like, if you live way out in the boonies.
Or, it could be that you’re just not ready to subject yourself to real live human beings with guitars and banjos, and you want to learn how to play in the safety of your own comfort zone, your happy spot. Because the last time you attempted to go to a jam you made it half way through You Are My Sunshine and then forgot how to speak the English language, and spent the rest of the session in the corner pretending to text.

This is totally understandable! You are normal to feel this way, especially if you just started learning how to play guitar, or have only a few music lessons under your belt. You’re sposed to be nervous right now, that’s your job!

So how then can we “jam”, and not annoy folks, drive all day, or get PTSD? Well, we have an idea….let’s call it “Virtual Jamming”. And by this we mean using technology to create ways to play along with “other” musicians, or even yourself, without anyone else ever hearing you.

Continue reading How to Play in a Group When No One Else Is Around

If we learned to swim like we learn to jam, we would have one lesson and then be pushed off a cliff into a stormy sea. It’s true. There is a ton of material on how to operate your given instrument, and then plenty of chances to attempt what you learned in a group setting and watch it fly to pieces, raining down burning shards of your expectations.

And that’s one of the primary motives for our study of jamming, is to get a clearer picture on where we are in our jamming  abilities, as well as set goals so that each jam becomes a learning experience for us. In other words, there is a big difference between showing up and struggling to get through the chords to a song, or being able to have fun while playing them and add your own licks and tricks. But the question is, what exactly is this difference?

Well, beside simply countless hours of practice time (and that doesn’t sound terrifically fun) the secret is this: having a clear map for your progress in the art of jamming, and knowing where you are on that map.

We have such a map, designed specifically for those of you starting out on the path of jamming, and we call it the Jammer’s Journey.

It will take you from those first mind-numbing experiences when you attend your first jams, and end up clinging on to any chord you can find and  praying for the tune to be over with, to the full realization of Jam Guru, where you are hosting and leading your own pickin sessions, and are hopelessly hooked on this delightful pastime.

Let’s look at what this entails…

Continue reading The Jammer’s Journey

The idea that sound is an essential part of the universe, and of our very self awareness, is not new. Humans were in fact fashioning musical instruments as far back as Paleolithic era, as evidenced by the discovery of bone flutes in southern Germany that are over 40,000 years old. Yes, we humans have been fascinated with sound and music making for quite some time.

One of the oldest traditions involving the mystical nature of sound is Nada Yoga, an Indian metaphysical system teaching that the entire cosmos, including human beings, consists of sound vibrations, called “nāda”. These teachings are found in the Rig Veda, an ancient religious text going back three-and-a-half thousand years.

As is often the case, it is fascinating to note that modern quantum physics is now echoing this same view, centuries after the yogis first observed it. Much of how quantum physics describes our world could be boiled down to “at it’s core everything is simply vibrating energy fields”. Once again, science has finally caught up with mysticism!

What is even more fascinating about Nada yoga is that its practitioners were taught to listen to these “quantum” sounds, by learning to tune in and listen to the internal world.

Continue reading Stop, Children, What’s That Sound – “Nada Yoga” and Conscious Listening

I’ve been teaching music for quite some time now, and although there have been highs and lows and challenges of all sorts, there has always been one beacon of consistency: I was teaching what I knew! In other words, I knew each student fairly well and made a point of preparing for each lesson so I could be confidant that every student was getting what they needed. Lesson prep was my savior, and having songs ready to go made the sessions run smoothly. And yes, there was a certain sense of control there too, after all I was essentially creating the curriculum and setting the course for each of my underlings. Sure I would gladly take suggestions and always encouraged students to pick songs, but in general folks seemed to like being led along, and so it went.

All that changed when I began the Custom eLesson program with JamAlong.org. It all started with a caffeinated conversation with some of my music teacher pals while hanging out at Old Towne Coffee.

Continue reading We Don’t Strum It Till You Order It

It seems that most folks learning a new hobby find numerous ways to make the process more difficult.

I was no different. Not long after I had mastered the “baby steps” of the banjo, I made the dubious decision to tackle harpsichord music from 17th century composer J.S. Bach. I’ve never been able to explain exactly why, but for some reason the labyrinthine complexity of Bach’s melodies fascinated me.

So of course I had to learn them on the banjo.

Now this was no small feat. First of all the range of the harpsichord was four times that of the banjo, and, there were completely separate parts for each hand. But I stubbornly invented fingerings measure by measure, even though many parts were physically impossible.

Teeth clenched, sweat beaded on my brow, I would hurl myself against the music over and over again. One particular phrase giving me grief was a five fret stretch somewhere around the 11th fret, during one of Bach’s many key changes.

Eventually I realized there was no humane way to play this section. But instead of abandoning ship and finding another project like any reasonable person would have done, I battled onward.

Continue reading Practice Makes Perilous

Everybody wants to jam, but nobody wants to sound bad. Yep, and that’s where the rubber meets the road for beginners, or even folks who have played for quite a while, but perhaps in classical music or other solo styles that don’t place a big emphasis on jamming. It’s one thing to play Malaguena or Stairway to Heaven perfectly for your cat, it’s another thing entirely to pull off the same performance in a circle of ten other strummers! And as anyone has discovered who has dove into a jam session for the first time, it’s kind of like jumping into a washing machine. You start out OK, but then the next thing you know you’re upside down and backwards, and have a hard time knowing what chord everyone is on, or even if you’re in time with the rest of the group. It’s often chaos, pure and simple.

So how to reduce the amount of trauma for those just starting out, the ones who decided “oh what the heck, I’ll go down to the cafe and see what this jamming thing is all about!”, or brought their banjo to a bluegrass festival and then found themselves surrounded by inebriated strummers who stumbled into their camp and engaged in a full on sing-along. What to do, what to do?

Continue reading Anatomy of a Jam

As it is with many hobbies, there is a learning curve when we first begin (or are beginning again). This “curve” is filled with all sorts of obstacles to our sticking with it and many quit during this phase. Although there is nothing that can replace “stick-to-it-iveness” and patience, having some knowledge ahead of time can save you a lot of grief. So, before we even pick up our first drum or sing a scale, let’s learn about the bumps in the road that may lay ahead…

Although everyone’s learning journey is uniquely their own, there are some common patterns which most of us will experience as we dive into the learning (or re-learning) process. Here then are a half dozen of the more common issues you will likely encounter, as well as a suggested solution for each. I don’t offer “the” solution because there is no one solution, and you will discover your own as well. It is helpful to get out a journal here and write down your own issues and solutions (and be sure to add them in the comments below, we LOVE to hear from readers!)

Continue reading Beginners Blues – ½ dozen issues every learner faces

Why do I teach music? Well, for one, I have no other job skills. I mean, it’s not like I didn’t try. In fact, I tried as soon as I moved out and got my own place, and the next day walked into every business on my block filling out applications.

The next day my roommate said “dude, just apply at a fast food place, they’ll hire anybody”.

So I applied at Kentucky Fried Chicken, and got hired the next day. The manager was a rosy faced over-achiever with too much mousse in his thinning hair.

“I knew exactly what job you would be great at, the minute I talked to you..” he enthused, leaning toward me across his cluttered desk. “We’re going to put YOU, on the Assembly line!”

Continue reading Take This Job and ……(Why I teach Music)

Often in life the hardest things are the transitions. Sure, ice skating is hard, and rocket science is probably no picnic. But I am sure if you interviewed Nancy Kerrigan or Dr Robert Goddard, they would both agree that it was harder when they were getting started. Once you’re in the groove, things generally go your way, but getting up on that cold gleaming ice without face planting, that’s another story.

And it’s the same with playing music. As anyone knows who’s played an open mic, once you were walking off stage with that smattering of applause swirling around you, life was grand. But when you were waiting in the green room to go on, someone could have said “boo” and you’d have jumped out of your skin! But eventually you stumbled up there, and after a few terrifying moments that lasted an eternity, you launched your song and managed to get through it without any unintentional urination.

Continue reading The Dangerous Bridge – How To Practice Taking Leads With Tactical Practicing

As Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain On Music says, “It’s a shame that many people are intimidated by the jargon musicians, music theorists, and cognitive scientists throw around.”

All arts have this problem: the divide between the creation, and the description of the creation. Imagine the experience of gazing at the painting of the Mona Lisa, relishing the soft amber tints and her mercurial smile. And then imagine your experience of attending a lecture on the history of the painting as well as the chemical makeup of the canvas and paints used, in excruciating detail.

It’s the same with music. You can enjoy music washing over you without needing any technical knowledge at all of what key it may be in, or time signature or even who wrote it. And furthermore, you can MAKE MUSIC without any technical knowledge!

But, to understand the enemy is to be better armed, so lets dive into just a tiny bit of “music theory”, or as I like to call it, gobbledygook 🙂

Continue reading Music Versus Gobbledygook – Music “theory” demystified

Music is truly one of few activities that employs all of our brain at the same time. As musician and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin puts it: “Musical activity involves nearly every region of the brain that we know about.”

If you know even a little about brain science, you know that this is a big statement.

Complex behaviors such as walking, talking and making plans have general locations in our brain assigned to these actions. For example our “frontal lobes” handle our daily planning, and hearing what’s going on around us. And remembering all of this is the responsibility of our “temporal lobes”. Meanwhile, our “cerebellum” (or brainstem, which is the most ancient part of our noggins) keeps us moving and feeling.

Please note that these concepts come from a field of science that is murky and ever evolving, and the brain is much more mysterious and interconnected than these theories suggest, but it does appear that different parts of our brains light up when we do different things (according to the neuroscientists).

However, when we encounter music, it has been shown that our entire brain lights up; all one hundred billion neurons!

Continue reading Music makes your brain grow!

Besides the violin or perhaps classical piano, singing arguably has the most mystique surrounding how “difficult” it is to learn. This is perhaps one of the biggest fallacies in all of music education. Nothing could be further from the truth. Learning to sing isn’t the problem; the fact is, we all sing!

We most likely were emitting sing-song vocalizations before we can even remember, and sang along with our mothers or to cartoons as a toddler. And the majority of us have bellowed along with the radio or campfire sing-along at some point in our lives, whether or not we admit it. Or in the implausible instance that we never did, well then we could have, and still can.

The reason for this is laughably simple: it’s easy! All humans have a natural sense of pitch. Starting as small children we learned to recognize the inflection of our parents voices, because the pitch (before the words became familiar) determined mood, or approval versus reprimand.

99% of adults in society can hum or sing along with the happy birthday song, and most probably have many times.

So, the problem isn’t that you “don’t know how to sing”, it is simply that you have bought into the story that you are “just not a real singer”. This separation between “messing around” and “real singing” goes back to the societal divide between performer and audience, that began over 100 years ago in American culture with the advent of recorded music.

Somehow, in our national psyche, we took on the belief the singing around the campfire was inferior to opera, or church choir. Or that “professional” singers were better than the rest of us. We became relegated to mere Audience, and saw ourselves as different, and inferior, to the “stars” of the stage.

It’s all in our mind.

The problem with most of us who want to reclaim singing into our lives is not lack of ability, it’s just too much self-consciousness!
This sense of being overly concerned with what others may think of us limits our enjoyment of life in so many ways. It would take an entire separate chapter to analyze the reasons we feel this way, but some of the common causes are lack of self confidence, social trauma, ego, and conditioning from our childhood.
But whatever the cause, the results are the same: we are limited in our expression because of fear. Fear of “not being good enough”, or “sounding bad” and “bothering others”.

Fear of failure. Perhaps even fear of success.

While all of these fears are ultimately not helpful, and largely self created, we still need to be understanding and patient with ourselves as we work to heal these issues.

Upon closer examination, it becomes clear that the trigger for our self-consciousness is usually the presence of others. If there’s no one around to hear us, most of us are far less inhibited. Who cares what we sound like, there’s nobody there to laugh at us!

With this in mind, we will explore some ways you can free up the singer within you…

Continue reading A new approach to singing: 5 ways to better your voice

I’ll never forget Bob. He came to me some years ago to learn the banjo, and was a total beginner. He was also seventy two years old. A year later, he was playing half a dozen songs and going to bluegrass festivals every summer, and having the time of his life!

It can’t be said enough: It’s NEVER too late to learn music!!

Continue reading “I’m too old…I wish I had started when I was younger!” (The Myth of being Too Old To Learn Music)

Healing Your Musical Past – Jessica’s story

“…I’ve always wanted to sing and I remember the day that I stopped. I was about 10 and was singing my favorite Salt n’ Pepper song in the car. My brother turned around and asked “What are you doing!?” I said “Singing!” He responded with ” It sounds horrible. You have no clue how to sing. Don’t you hear yourself???” His reply broke my singing spirit and I have not belted with confidence since then. This book and what I have read on your page gets the attention of 10 year old me and thinks, “Maybe I can.”

Continue reading Healing Your Musical Past – Jessica’s story