Summer Jam Sessions 2011

During the summer break, Dom and I ran a series of Jam sessions for Musiclab adult students. We decided to use this time to take the students out of the comfort zone to make them more confident with their instruments. The first week of the jam sessions, we used a simple 12 bar to allow the students take it in turns soloing. Dom introduced a system called "trading 4's, each student took it in turns soloing for 4 bars each. We then tried to mix it up a little by changing it to "trading 2's" and "trading 1s!" Although this was very tricky (and proved a challenge for both Dom and I too!) we had a lot of fun with the concept.

 

During the second week, we changed the genre of music to a more "funked" up kind of feel and continued playing around with Soloing and Lead sections. The new genre meant that the guitarists had to learn 7th chords (most common in Jazz and blues) and the drummers had to create lead breaks. We also added a little bit more pressure by changing the key signature half way through the song as the students were playing it. Everyone handled it very well and improved a great deal as we went along.

 

As the students progressed I noticed the lack of eye contact between each student (most important thing in a band situation is to look at each other and be aware of what everyone else is doing). So to keep them on their toes I decided to give them some musical direction using only body language. So not only did they all have to solo, but they had to focus on me as well.