Older beginning guitar player

[Munificence]

32. Jam buddies are great

but realize that their are "clicks" that are mainly associated with what level you are at in your playing.

A lot of folks aspire for different goals in playing guitar. Some like to sing and strum, others like to tear it up with a lead break....so your goals may not be the same.

With this said, realize the level you want to get to and your goals and find like minded folks, this will really help you progress along. But be warned that their are "clicks" in jam circles and folks on similar levels tend to find each other and may or may not invite you in to play. Just view it like you would say when you were 10 years old and trying to play back yard sports with the 15 year olds, you could not compete or "keep up" at their level but in another 5 years you could.

Jams are fun, especially when you get into folks that go the Americana, Folk, Hippie Grass, Newgrass, Bluegrass type of genre. But be forewarned that they are disciplined to a level where they want you and most other folks that are gonna take a lead break to be able to focus on the melody line. Most aspiring guitarists do not want to take a lead break and just flail a lead out, they want to follow the melody line and add in some of their own take on it when they have the space (rests) between notes on the melody line.

Melody lines and improvising over them:

Think of the song "happy birthday to you"....sing that line (Happy Birthday to You Happy Birthday to You), that is the melody line, now sing in the same time frame but add in other notes when you can.....that would be "Happy Birthday to You (your freaking so old) Happy Birthday to you" By adding the comment in between you have in essence retained the melody around the original song and added your improv in where you had a blank spot.

The level that one should aspire to get to in their lead playing is to be able to hear a song for the 1st time in their life and after listening to the 1st verse and chorus a single time through they should be able to then take a lead break and be able to play their break with taking into consideration the melody line and staying pretty close to it.

A good way to practice this is by simply picking say 20 popular songs (cliche' songs such as "Happy Bday to You", "Sailors Hornpipe (Popeye's song), Dueling Banjo's, etc) you can hum without hearing the music that are ingrained in your head and you should work them out note by note on the guitar without using tab, sheet music or anything else...transfer the note that you hear in your head to the guitar and output it there.

This entire process takes years to master and I am constantly workingoin it daily, but in 4-5 years of practice you start getting pretty good at it. I typically can turn on the TV and listen to the back ground music in a commercial or on the main show and within about 10 seconds be on the melody line and following it with my guitar. I watch TV a lot with a guitar in my hand and simply try and play along with the music or background song that is playing. This will help you immensely in a "jam situation".

Blues follows a "question and and answer" type scenario when doing a lead break and you can get by with a lot more and get off of the melody, bluegrass/Country/Folk/Americana hang on the melody and instead are "humming the song" through their instrument.

Just some food for thought.....I've lifted your curse of cramps from earlier....next time I'll tell them to break your stings!