Going to jams and getting my ass musically kicked is a good thing.

Midnite Zephyr

Platinum Member
It's funny some of the crap you guys have to go through. My whole experience with open jams, in a nutshell: they wanna keep me there drinking all night and when I do finally play, it's only two or three songs before the house drummer pulls me because I'm musically kicking his ass. :)


Silver Member
yeah open jams are an "interesting" experience. I always find I know every song all night, until I get up for my 3 songs, and then they are 3 I've never heard of, and I come off like an idiot. lmao.

and some might as well be a closed group. But if you can find a good one, with some cool people, it can be great fun and great for making contacts in your local scene. Plus if you don't have any stage experience, its great for that too.


Well, you're in good company--Tony superimposes 4/4 over most of the tune on the classic Miles Smiles version (he starts in three, but eventually goes into a fast four, so that Ron Carter's bass line sounds like it's in half note triplets). Maybe you were channeling that...
yeah.... I've listened to those Europe live in '67 discs so much that it is just what came out of me I guess

everyone dug it.... but if I am honest it was completely unintentional


Senior Member
My worst experience has been auditioning for a guy who wants to do a heavy blues type band, where I had to audition songs Ball & Biscuit (White Stripes), Just Got Paid (ZZ Top) and Numb (Gary Clark Jnr). This was before I had any residential space to practice before hand so I went in virtually blind.

It was terrible. I;d just got back into drumming and there I am one month in playing a genre I hated many years before, with a grade 8 guitarist who had all the gear and some idea to go with it. Other than Ball & Biscuit I could not keep up with anything. It was embarassing.

That inspired me to get a rehearsal space of my own sharpish so I could play through stuff, and then further on I started charting stuff where necessary. I've tried to get back in touch with this guy as he is still looking for a drummer and despite my assurances he does not want to give me a second chance. Still, were it not for him I could have ended up down a really bad path musically.


Platinum Member
Just going up from the crowd to play songs I've never or rarely heard, with people I've never played with before.
One week, we advertised our jam night as follows: "Come and play songs you've never heard, with people you don't know." It hasn't been going long, maybe 6 months, and it started off pretty slowly, but it's grown and grown and most people come back.

I would never have thought I'd have the confidence or ability to do that, but I've surprised myself. There have been some gut-wrenching disasters but equally, there have been times when I've played with complete strangers and we've held the room in the palms of our hands. And there have been plenty of times when I've thought "Gosh, I had no idea I could even do that!"