Stage hogs. I'm sure there's no cure. But still,

2 hit wonder

2 hit wonder

Junior Member
Long ago I mostly gave up playing at an informal jam due to the issue. Patience, I said to myself. Maybe it'll change some day when I've paid enough dues. As soon as I sit down with a good guitar player here comes 1 or the other guy asking to take my spot. "I've only played one song", I once said. The guy replies that he hasn't played any songs.

It's just life sucking. If you've been playing drums for 50+ years, isn't there time that you can actually just wait your turn and not be a pest?
 
Yeah. No sign ups though.

I'm working at just that thing, moving to bass.
 
I normally don't like open mic jams but sometimes they can be fun. It seems that the best ones were the ones that were "managed" with one guy clearly in charge, and directing the operation.

Bringing a mic and some hand percussion is a sure way to guarantee some stage time. Most drummers aren't really in to hand percussion. Drummers kinda look down at percussionists the way guitar players look down on bassists! :D
 
A J said:
I normally don't like open mic jams but sometimes they can be fun. It seems that the best ones were the ones that were "managed" with one guy clearly in charge, and directing the operation.

Bringing a mic and some hand percussion is a sure way to guarantee some stage time. Most drummers aren't really in to hand percussion. Drummers kinda look down at percussionists the way guitar players look down on bassists! :D
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There's percussion stuff there. It doesn't interest me. My hands also can't take it.

Most of the issue is the overly competitive motivations of a couple of drummers. To move past it, earlier this year I started bringing an acoustic guitar and collecting players and jam watchers to a diff part of the place. It worked in kind of resetting attitudes. Oh, you guys are jamming out here? Otherwise translated as, Oh, there's people not watching me in the main jam room? You play guitar and sing?
 
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yet, another reason why I steer clear of jam nights....unfortunately, in my experiences, there is just too much cringe involved....
 
I rarely do these things although I've seen lot's of open jazz jams and..
- they usually have a list of names and the band leader who calls people up based on the list
- usually the people coming up will have a few tunes they want to play, or a brief discussion with the leader on the fly
 
At some Jam I went to (hosted by Sam Ash) they had sign ups, but these group of guys all signed one after the other and basically played together for their entire time hogging most of the time from other players. In order to prevent that I think everyone should be limited to one song, until the rotation started over and you only get a second spot if time available, otherwise it becomes their jam only, which is what happened there and why I stopped going. Sometimes you had to watch the whole thing and didn't even get to play (not minding watching the whole thing if they could actually play but they were not that great).
 
Xstr8edgtnrdrmrX said:
yet, another reason why I steer clear of jam nights....unfortunately, in my experiences, there is just too much cringe involved....
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Jam nights have their benefits, nobody expects anyone going on stage to be able to actually play, if they are able then bonus. Now if you are charging a place for your "services" then you better be able to play. Much higher expectations there. For those amateurs, an open jam can be their first experience with other musicians, and with an audience.
My first experience was a bar with over 200 people.. It was a little intimidating, but once that first song finished and we didn't get our asses beat of the stage, I relaxed and had a great time. ( That opening song was "I want out" by Heloween which I sang and my friend drummed to, I drummed to the rest of the set).
 
I only went one thing like this; it was a local acoustic society thing one December. I left my guitar in the car just to check it out first. In the middle of hearing "Christmas in Dixie" for the third time, I left. My guitar never made its way out of the trunk.
 
Lol, we don't have too much of that. Because it's a filtered jam.

This is an invite only jam and tons of fun. The goal has become to put together the best of the musicians at some point for a best jam set. I'm a late comer compared to most of the players so I stepped back in eagerness.

For a while you played in rotation of when you arrived. Then some, including me, started trying to finagle jamming with the best players for a best set. It got out of control and I pushed away from the table letting the squeakier wheels get the grease. I'd still like to play 1 out of 4 jam nights on 1 decent set without being pestered to give up my seat.
I seriously don't even play many nights thinking that the other guys will eventually get enough to satisfy themselves. Been waiting for that for many months now.
 
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TOMANO said:
Guess I'm old and jaded. I show up when I'm getting paid. If I want to jam, I do it with friends.
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That's the goal of this jam. You can't just show up. It's informal.

At formal jams here there are really active gigging players always showing up. I guess it's to jam with friends and win potential fans.
 
2 hit wonder said:
Most of the issue is the overly competitive motivations of a couple of drummers.
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I'm the least competitive person there is & when I'm around those people, it's just confusing. I don't understand the adrenaline junkie mentality and when I meet one of these people, I'm lost.
Not that I give in to their needs, but I do what I need to and then they can have their time.

I'll do percussion at a jam meet just to be part of the group, but when someone tries to hog the set, I make it known to everyone that they are.
 
doggyd69b said:
Jam nights have their benefits, nobody expects anyone going on stage to be able to actually play, if they are able then bonus. Now if you are charging a place for your "services" then you better be able to play. Much higher expectations there. For those amateurs, an open jam can be their first experience with other musicians, and with an audience.
My first experience was a bar with over 200 people.. It was a little intimidating, but once that first song finished and we didn't get our asses beat of the stage, I relaxed and had a great time. ( That opening song was "I want out" by Heloween which I sang and my friend drummed to, I drummed to the rest of the set).
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From our lives beginning on, we are pushed in little forms, no one asks us how we like to be....

Love Helloween and love that song. 🤘
 
2 hit wonder said:
That's the goal of this jam. You can't just show up. It's informal.

At formal jams here there are really active gigging players always showing up. I guess it's to jam with friends and win potential fans.
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Hard to do when you don't know who you are getting to play with. I can adapt to most player's style but I have had people who can stay on tempo even with a gun pointed at them... not fun. But you say you know most of those players so that is different.
 
Super Phil said:
From our lives beginning on, we are pushed in little forms, no one asks us how we like to be....

Love Helloween and love that song. 🤘
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Hard to believe I could actually sing that song (that and Painkiller with all screams) no way I can do that now.
 
doggyd69b said:
Jam nights have their benefits, nobody expects anyone going on stage to be able to actually play, if they are able then bonus. Now if you are charging a place for your "services" then you better be able to play. Much higher expectations there. For those amateurs, an open jam can be their first experience with other musicians, and with an audience.
My first experience was a bar with over 200 people.. It was a little intimidating, but once that first song finished and we didn't get our asses beat of the stage, I relaxed and had a great time. ( That opening song was "I want out" by Heloween which I sang and my friend drummed to, I drummed to the rest of the set).
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yeah...I am sure that they all aren't bad....but all the ones aropund here are

in summary, jam night goes like this around here:
1. big wig guitar or keyboard player schedules jam night
2. musicians of varying - mostly mediocre - abilites show up
3. a short meeting happens explainging the way the night will run, with a list of the genres that will NOT be tolerated being discussed. This is an easy list: only blues and Americana are allowed
4. sometimes a list is made of who gets to come up when; if you are a bass player, you get the most stage time as there are usually just one or 2; if there is no list, it is sort of survbival of the fittest
5. songs get played, and the leader spends most of the time yellign at the drummers and bass players that they "have no sense of time"; sometimes that is the case, but often times it is also the leaders; if you are one of those bass or drummers, you then don't get any more stage time
6. the room empties out, except for the leaders friends who are on the stage for most of the night, playing to their significant others and bar staff

no thanks

would rather just stay home and play along to albums, or practice rudiments, where the time invested will have a return
 
Cmdr. Ross said:
I'm the least competitive person there is & when I'm around those people, it's just confusing. I don't understand the adrenaline junkie mentality and when I meet one of these people, I'm lost.
Not that I give in to their needs, but I do what I need to and then they can have their time.

I'll do percussion at a jam meet just to be part of the group, but when someone tries to hog the set, I make it known to everyone that they are.
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speaking of hand percussion, I prefer drum circles more than bar jams, but even in some of the drum circles I have been in, you get some people who are living some kind of "fame fantasy" and try to take over
 
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