11 Reasons to Find Regular Folks to Jam with, or a Band

7 minutes read
A couple of dudes jammin' in San Francisco, California. I took this one in August 2014.
A couple of dudes jammin’ in San Francisco, California. I took this one in August 2014.

If you are here, you probably love playing guitar by yourself, but do you ever let yourself expand your musical horizons by jamming with other people? How about finding a band to play with?

Even more than the occasional jam, when you are regularly playing every week with the same musicians, whether you call yourself a band or just jamming regularly for fun, you will reach new levels of joyfulness and musical skills that you just can’t reach by yourself.

Here are a few ways in which finding people to jam with can be of a benefit to just about everybody who’s holding a guitar in his hands.

11 Reasons To Find Regular Folks To Jam With, Or A Band

1 – You See Live Music in Front Of You! And YOU Are Part of It!

That might sound odd for some of you, but if you were used to mostly play in a room for a long time, suddenly having a full set of musicians in live action in front of you can be very exciting.

2 – You Will Start Developing a More Complete Approach to Music

Before I started to regularly meet with my buddies every Tuesday, I was never really around a bassist. Now, I see a bass guitar in action every week, I take notes of the bassist approach to the songs, see what he’s focusing on, and can see him playing.

Same goes for the drums which are also very exciting to watch from up close and when you just play by yourself you never really have the opportunity to play with a full rhythm, which also really develops your time keeping skills.

Jammin' with my brother thaught me a few good lessons about reed instruments. For example, did you know that these instruments are tuned one step below the guitar? That means your G is an F for the sax guys, so you gotta keep it in mind.
From jammin’ with my brother I learned a few good lessons about reed instruments. For example, did you know that tenor saxophones are tuned one step below the guitar? That means your “G” is actually an “F” for these guys, so you gotta keep it in mind to avoid wrong notes shooting across the room.
3 – You Will Have a Ton More Motivation to Improve!

You might come to a first session and realize quickly that you are lagging behind. And you might be even the worst player in the room. Is that a reason to go home and cry the night away? Hell no! It will make you bust your ass to catch up like nothing else can! And even if you are at about the same level, you will still want to keep improving. It’s a band and everybody is trying to slowly push their envelope to allow improvement as a whole.

4 – You Will Be Inspired and Moved in New Musical Ways

Nothing’s better to get you out of a rut than getting together with other people, observing the different styles, and playing music and tunes that are different from the ones you are used to playing all the time.

Taylor 150e review
My friend Ron always teaches me a couple new tricks when we get together with the guitars. Lead guitar is his specialty.
5 – You Will See First Hand Action of Other Approaches to the Guitar

YouTube videos or even live shows just can’t compare to a guitarist who’s right in front of you and is playing in a totally different style than you are. You can learn so much just by looking and listening. The way the other guitarist approaches a solo, how he looks at the fretboard, which special chords he is implementing, which effects is he using and how, etc.

6 – You Can Dump the Backing Tracks and Play Lead Guitar with Actual People!

Woo-hoo!

7 – It Will Make You More Humble

Being humble is important when playing music with other people, and there’s no choice but to accept that when you are playing with a bunch of other people, it’s not all about you anymore like you are used to from playing by yourself. You learn to take a step back and watch other people take the front, and when you do get your “front time”, (for example when it’s your time for a solo) you will appreciate it much more and learn to strive to get the most out of it.

guitar life changers
Click the picture to check out the article about the 7 biggest guitar Life Changers:
8 – You Get Access to a Lot of Cool Instruments and Equipment

The first time I played a bass guitar was in a rehearsal with my friends. Same case with the first time I set in front of a drum set. First time I played A Stratocaster with a full pedal board at my reach, and much more. These were all cool and refreshing experiences that showed me different point of views people have on the same music. This is even truer if you are able to play multiple instrumentsand it can also inspire you and help you decide which second instrument to pick up.

9 – It’s a Great Opportunity and Source of Motivation to Work on Your Music Theory

Music theory is the main language in which you can communicate with each other in the practice room, so by joining a band you can make sure that you are putting your theory to practice. If you’re looking for a great place to start learning guitar theory easily and effectively, click here.

Not to make funs of bass players or anything... But
Not to make fun of bass players or anything… But
10 – You Can Get Feedback on Songs that You Write Yourself

Whenever I happen to write a song that I think is good, I play it at our weekly meeting. If the guys like it, I teach it to them and we play it together! That’s a great source of pride for me to listen to full band compositions of something that I wrote and I feel like I am getting an honest and immediate feedback – if the song’s no good so no big deal, we just won’t play it again.

11 – You’ll Be Constantly LEARNING!

More than everything, I feel that jamming with people is about constantly vibing, connecting, and LEARNING with like minded people. If you wanna reach new levels in your playing – find people and do it.

So Where Can I Find People to Jam with / Start a Band with?

If you think that you are up for it, no problem. The world is full with millions of great musicians and I bet that within a very close radius of where you live there are at least a few people with whom you can connect musically and can have a blast with, you just need to find them. So here’s where to look for ’em:

  • Word of mouth: If you have friends who are musicians so they can be your go to. If they are not down to meet weekly, maybe they know other people and can hook you up together.
  • Facebook groups: If you will look it up, it is very likely that you will find a group in the name of something like “Musicians Looking For Musicians In *Your area’s name*”. You can post there.
  • Craigslist: In your local Craigslist (or any similar board that is popular where you live) there’s usually tons of ads by musicians looking for people to jam with and bands looking for new band members.
  • Music store ads: In local music stores (usually the independent ones and not the big franchised ones) you can usually post an ad and browse for relevant ads on a board, though this is a bit out of date in 2015 and the internet will usually have more options.

Hope you enjoyed reading,

What do you think is the #1 biggest advantage of jammin with a band? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks!

start a band
Jammin’ with friends we couchsurfed with in Oregon, USA
Alon Cooper

Alon Cooper

Hey! I'm Cooper, and I hope I can be a helpful friend on your musical journeys. I'm a music artist based in Austin & Amsterdam, playing venues with a band / solo, and trying to learn with the most inspiring musicians wherever I go. In the last 8 years I've lived in Australia, northern Europe, the US and more.

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The Guitar Campfire Songbook

I hope this list has given you some great ideas, and if you want to have another bunch of song ideas in a fancy PDF songbook form, then feel free to download the songbook in this link.

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