Time For a Jam, Buddy!

I have a number of students now who are ready, and need, to get out and jam with some people. There comes a time in every new musicians life when you just WANT to jam with someone. I bet close to 75% of all new students I get say the same thing....I am not really looking to be jammin with people, just entertain myself. While that might be your true intention when you start, the natural progression of your improvement leads you in that direction. What happens is when you first start you get that thrill of making your first notes and chords, then after a while that is not enough, so you start pushing yourself to learning a bunch of songs you like. You jam on them for a while, cranking your amp and stereo as loud as possible. Your rockin out with your favorite bands. After a while that leads to you wanting more. Your not quite ready to be doing the whole band thing or not ready to play gigs maybe. That's when a jam buddy or jam buddies come in. Someone to take that step to the next level, someone to get that next musical thrill from. Once you get some people to jam with you can share ideas, try writing songs, show each other some new licks and riffs. Sometimes finding people to jam with can be hard, even harder if your a musician who does not yet have a drivers license. No matter what you got to find someone to jam with. Places like music stores, school, music venues bands are playing at and now a days, facebook are great places to look. I think Facebook is a great way for people to find like minded musicians to jam with. On my student page I have added all my students I have found so far to the group to try and help you guys find jam buddies. You can even find people in places like craigslist that are looking for people to jam with. In the case of something like craigslist where you are maybe dealing with someone you don't know, make sure everything is on the up and up and you are with someone safe before jamming with them. Finding a jam buddy and taking your playing to the next level is great and rewarding on one hand and agitating and frustrating on the other hand. Those are things you will always encounter when it comes to jamming with people.Many a great band started out as jam buddies in school or answered an ad to find ech other. Bands like the Rolling Stones, Pantera and MetallicA are just a few examples. Take that chance, find a jam buddy and get rockin!!!!