The Importance of Jam Sessions

No, students, it won't boost your GPA.

I spend approximately 100 hours a year hosting a weekly jam session. Given that it does not count toward my teaching or service requirements and none of our students that participate are graded for their efforts, why is it important?

Jam sessions have always been an exciting chance for artists to meet face to face to create in the moment. The most legendary jam sessions in jazz history happened at Minton's Playhouse in the late 1940s and included Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Parker, and others. In these late night sessions they pioneered the bebop style. That was then, but what is the importance of a jam session today?

Here are some ideas of what musicians gain from participating:

• A chance to hear other players. We have to support other musicians. We cannot only exist to be heard but to also hear others and celebrate their accomplishments.

• A chance to play. Specifically a chance to play the music that has been in the woodshed for hours all week.

• A chance to connect with other musicians. Some would call it "networking" but it can be personal and musical. Sax players talking about mouthpieces and reeds, drummers compare cymbals, etc.

• Gain perspective. Hear other people and how they approach improvisation or gain perspective by playing with other people

• Embracing the challenge.

  • locking in with new players--can you find the groove?

  • playing “cold”--it's hard to jump up and play without warming up!

  • playing someone else's tempo--you don't always get to count off your own tempo

• Remembering tunes. Sometimes you play things you have not practiced recently

• Gauging your own playing

  • Are you practicing the right things?

  • Are you focusing enough on groove or making chord changes?

  • Are you forgetting the importance of playing and connecting with other people?

Here are additional things that jazz students get from the sessions:

• Learning repertoire.

  • having common repertoire that you know and can play with others

  • hearing the tunes and being immerced in the style

• Augmenting or reinforcing material learned in lessons.

  • tunes

  • technique

  • harmonic approaches

  • rhythmic approaches

• Using academic knowledge in a practical environment.

  • connecting school with the outside world

  • realizing the value of jazz education in the classroom as it connects to the bandstand

• A jam session is an environment that is:

  • real life-=not a formal concert and is sometimes noisy

  • public--not just playing for friends and family

• A means of building a jazz community

  • connecting with others

  • celebrating the musical progress everyone is making

  • cultivating a non-musician audience

  • knowing fellow students and being able to connect in musical and personal ways

• Learning how to "hang" and interact with other musicians

  • it is extremely difficult if not impossible to have a musical career if you are disconnected with other people

  • it is very important to be able to have positive working relationships with other people

Jam sessions are a fun and rewarding way to be motivated to want to practice and get better.