no jams these days

[a_goodlett]

ok i dont quite know where to put this in a forum, but this one seems alright i guess. alright i'm a recently-turned-15-year old guitarist. I've been playin for a about a year and a half & i consider myself to be learning alot faster than most people(although i have had other extensive musical instruments). i play tons of led zeppelin and a lot of the zeppelin solo's. but now i'm wanting to play my own solos. i've been doin improving for probably 3/4 of a year now and i've run into trouble. THERE'S NO ONE TO JAM WITH! all the kids i know that play guitar dont know how to jam. jamming with my self gets kinda, well not really old, but unfullfilling i guess is a more accurate description. do any of you out there know any way to make it more "fullfilling"? cause playin by yourself just wont ever beat the real thing

please give me your thoughts on this

 

[hixmix]

Maybe you're just to damn good for everyone else.

 

[Hard2Hear]

When I was younger, I used to go to Barnes and Nobles and get Guitar One magazine out of the UK. It always had one or two CD's with it of popular songs with lead guitar parts left out. It was always a hoot to play with, and I could change what I wanted in the song and play it how I wanted to. Taught me alot about guitar playing and songwriting.

Suggestion #2. If you are that good...find some older guys to play with. You'll have to prove yourself to them. If you're up to the challenge, seek them out. Look at the local guitar shops, CD stores, bookstores. They're everywhere.

H2H

 

[Roel]

I had the same problem a few years ago... Nobody to jam with. Some guys knew a basic blues lick, but couldn't get them to play that for 10 minutes. (They had no idea on how to play variations on it, so it WAS plain boring...)

Anyway, try broadening your horizon. Get some jazz theorie under your wings and fly... I'm serious. Learning to understand chord progressions will allow you to compose and 'backup' yourself while playing on your own. With this background, you will also be able to play with anyone... Go play with a bluesband, rockband, funkband, whatever, with enough jazztheory you can play it all...

Look around for clubs that do jam-sessions. Maybe get a teacher untill your good enough to join the more experienced musicians, organize your own jams...

I've been even offering free lessons to anyone that was willing to jam with me... But I scared the hell out of 'em with my maj7 chord-fingerings.

 

[GT]

a_g,

Get a drum machine, if you don't have one, man these is fun.

Also maybe get a bass, and learn that. This should keep you way busy untill you can find someone to play with.

Also any number of people right here would love to colaborate. Just go to the mp3 forum and ask. I've done this myself, great fun, very exciting.

With a few simple changes here and there music will never get boring for you.

Best of luck

GT

 

[Roel]

Learning bass is a very good idea... When playing bass with a band, you've got greater freedom than when playing guitar. And learning it the right way (listening to different styles, how 'they' play...), it will add to your guitarplaying too... Good idea...

 

[BBB]

Yeah GT, a drum machine helps. The DR-5's even better because it supplies a rhythm section. A bit of a pain to program though.

Even better, use MIDI files for backing tracks. Mute out the stuff you don't want to hear and jam away! Good practice until you find someone to jam with.


Me