Coming To A Dance Hall Near You (especially if you live in Santa Fe)

A Northwest mini-invasion will hit Santa Fe this summer, with Seattle musicians playing for dances in July and August.  Allen Hart and Debbie Spiegelman will be playing for the July 11 Santa Fe dance, and fellow Seattleites W. B. Reid and Bonnie Zahnow will play for the August 22 Santa Fe dance.  W.B. and Bonnie will also appear at the Southwest Pickers festival August 28-30.  Watch for info on a house concert being planned for Wednesday, August 26, with W. B. and Bonnie in Albuquerque.

And coming from the West (Flagstaff), Traditional Blend features the husband and wife team of Bill and Patti Cummings.  They’ll play for the August 8 dance in Santa Fe.

Click links above for info and sound samples from all these folks.

Jam Etiquette

Bruce Thomson

The Boulder Acoustic Society (BAS) hosted a “jam with the band” session at the Albuquerque Folk Festival this year that was just terrific.  While they are a very creative young band that writes complicated original music, they are also pretty grounded in more traditional music as well.  In particular they’ve got a decent repertoire of well known two and three chord tunes that were perfect for a “jam with the band” forum.

There were a dozen or more musicians in the tent and the jam started off with “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” and cacophony reigned as everyone sang at the top of their lungs and played their best licks trying to impress everybody in earshot.  As the tune ended Aaron Keim (bassist & ukelele-ist in the band) gave a little lecture on jam etiquette.  He basically focused on two points.

Point 1 – If somebody’s singing or taking a lead break play quietly, very quietly.  If you can’t hear the singer/lead, you’re playing too loud.

Point 2 – Generally there should only be one lead player at a time, but make sure that everybody gets a chance to play lead sooner or later if they’d like.

There was an unspoken third point  that in my view is more important than the other two– Pay attention to what’s going on, be sensitive to the musical situation, and work to improve to the quality of the music.

Aaron’s points were delivered in the context of a directed jam session in which the group was playing songs and the leader (Aaron) was singling out folks to take lead breaks.  The Megaband format is different in that the whole group generally plays tunes in unison.  But the underlying message is the same – pay attention to what’s going on, be sensitive to the musical situation, and work to improve the quality of the music

Years ago I found and modified the 10 Commandments of Jamming.  We should all periodically review them  and try to follow them.

10 Commandments of Jamming

1.   Pay attention to what’s going on.  Sit so that you can see and hear the other musicians. 
2.   Keep the beat, do not rush, do not drag.
3.   Keep your instrument in tune and play in tune.
4.   Play extra softly if someone is singing.
5.   The musician who starts a tune is generally the one who decides when to end it.  Refer to Rule 1
6.   Be mindful of the banjo section; do not change keys more often than necessary.
7.   Do not practice licks on your instrument between tunes.
8    Do not come to a jam session expecting to impress others with your virtuosity.  Jam sessions are opportunities to share tunes and songs. 
9.   Play some tunes that everybody knows.
10.  It is never a sin to play too softly.

-The Golden Rule of Jamming:  If you don’t know what you’re doing, play softly.

Tune

Bil Linzie from Las Vegas, NM taught me “Little Whiskey” at the Santa Fe Traditional and Bluegrass Music Festival a couple of years ago.  The “B” part is only four bars long so you can’t play it for a dance, but it’s a cool tune.

ABC Notation

X:275
T:Little Whiskey
S:Bil Linzie
N:Alternate title - Give Me Little Whiskey
N:Transcribed by Bruce Thomson
R:Reel
M:4/4
L:1/8
K:Amix
|:"A"e6d2|cABA cA3|[E3A,3][EA,][E2A,2]A2|cABA cA3|
[E3A,3][EA,][E2A,2]A2|cABA cA3|"G"efgf e2d2|"E"cABA "A"cA3:|
|:"G"[g4B4][g4B4]|"D"[f3A3]g fede|"G"gab2b2ef|"E"gfed "A"cA3:|