Jam Proficiency:
The ‘Jam Path’ is really very similar to the ‘Pocket Player’ (In fact, I’ll be posting many of the same video lessons here to some extent). When I speak of the proficient ‘jammer’, I’m thinking of two things simultaneously.
• Garage band style jamming with friends
• Collective Improvisations at a high level
This path applies to both of these bassists, although the ‘higher level’ stuff will likely require additional studies more akin to the ‘Freelance Pro Path’ or ‘Jazz Bassist Path’.
The main differences in lesson content and direction will exist in the transcription section and listening recommendations. This is because, in my mind, the primary difference between the ‘pocket’ path and ‘jam’ path is that pocket players tend to be pretty specialized within a genre (but not always) and focused on a deep understanding of the vocabulary specific to that genre, whereas the idea of getting better at jamming or collectively improvising means that you have to be a little more broadly minded with regard to style/genre as well as focusing a little more on ear-training and transcription.
We’re essentially trying to practice something that allows us to improvise collectively, in the moment. This takes creativity, the benefits of having spent your time well in the shed, a dash of fearlessness, and the willingness to jump out on the ledge collectively and dance around. While maybe a bit scary for some at first, when the magic strikes, it has an impact and you’ll never forget that feeling of a collective, improvised jam going super-nova and something really happening (and it’s a feeling that you’ll hopefully be able to experience as often as possible!)
In plain English: You need to practice hearing something and finding it on your instrument as quickly as possible. Find that root motion… figure out chord qualities (at least be able to get a solid sense of ‘major-ish’ grooves, ‘minor-ish’ grooves as well as a few that might exist in between the two), learn to predict where things are going before they get there (based on your experience with song forms and musical tendencies), eventually be the one who might instigate changes of direction in the jam and drive that bus!
Really, the best homework for this path is truly to just learn a TON of music by ear and to play with other people as often as possible. Find the stuff you love and dive in head first… figure out those bass-lines note by note and paying attention to feel, tone, and the tendencies of your favorite players.
It is crucial that you learn tunes by ear! No Tab… honestly. If you want to get better at listening and reacting, you need to develop your ears and not rely upon someone else to learn the tunes for you and give you the cliff notes version. This approach is fine when you need to pick up a tune quickly for a gig or something but it’s not not the best way to learn how to come up with your own ideas. It’s just a way to be able to regurgitate someone else’s ideas, quickly. There are no shortcuts to actual learning (as opposed to memorization). Learning how to play a song that way is one thing, but if you want to learn how to do it yourself? That requires time, intention, repetition, struggle and breakthrough.
Basically… If you want to know how to come up with crushing lines on your own, you’re going to have to dig in, develop those ears, understand a basic (or better) level of harmony and get creative with how you explore your relationship with music… especially when improvising in real time with other musicians! Keep your eyes up, ears open and listen to the group as a whole. There’s no tunnel vision in a good jam… wide angle listening.
