First Jam

[Oldhat1]

Burton:

Another thing to ad when going to a jam:

Find someone that is just as serious as you are about playing and on about the same level and play with them from time to time. I jam from time to time but nothing is better than picking another day to meet up with 1 or 2 of the others and play the same song maybe 10 times in a row for each to work out their part/break. If more than 2 or 3 are there then it quickly turns into a jam, instead call this “practice” and limit it to 2-3 people, 2-3 people that do not mind playing rhythm for you 10 times or so in a row to help you hone your skills on your part, then likewise do the same for them.

Almost all of us were weak-knee’d and scared the first time or so, it passes with time.

Also learn the theory part of the major scale, this will tell you 90% of the time the chords that you could use at any given time. So for instance if someone says we are majoring in the Key of “G” then if you know the chords of the major scale then those are your options…in “G” they are: G, Amin, Bmin, C, D, Emin, and F# dim. The F# diminished rarely ever shows up except for a version of the D7 and I’d say that 80-90% of the players can’t even make an F#dim chord if asked to, so forget about that chord. So now you only have a few options of chords that you are going to. Most of the time it will be a 1-4-5 type progression with a turn-around using the same 3 chords. The “1” is the G, the “4” is the C, and the “5th” is the D.

There are exceptions to these rules, but for most standard tunes this will more than likely hold true.

In “western civilization” music there are some pretty cool rules that hold true 90% of the time, learn a bit about them in “theory” and in practice and it should help you a lot.

Good luck, I enjoy trying to help others as I was very limited in my resources growing up/when I started learning, most of it was by ear and repetition in years of playing, I then decided to attempt to learn scales and theory and then and only then did it all actually start making sense.

EDITED:::::Had my chords mixed up on the 1-3-5…should have been 1-4-5

[mswhat]

— Begin quote from "Oldhat"

Burton:

Also learn the theory part of the major scale, this will tell you 90% of the time the chords that you could use at any given time.
…

Good luck, I enjoy trying to help others as I was very limited in my resources growing up/when I started learning, most of it was by ear and repetition in years of playing, I then decided to attempt to learn scales and theory and then and only then did it all actually start making sense.

— End quote

^^^THIS

Totally agree with Oldhat…I’m new to banjo but have been playing guitar most of my life and most of that is self taught. I just sat down and learned a little theory (circle of 5ths, scales, chord prog, etc) a few years ago and it has made the light come on. So much of what I play, and why it’s played that way, makes sense now.

Ben has a few good videos on theory if you’re a gold pick member. Also, there’s a nice series on the circle of 5ths by Rob Bourassa on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/robbourassaguitarist/videos?query=circle I hope I’m not committing a no-no by posting this on Ben’s site but I think these are good, informative videos.

My parents had me taking classical guitar with I was probably 9-10 years old. I hated it and moved to another teacher who just taught me chords and songs, no music theory. Then I put down the guitar for many years, picked it back up again around age 18 and proceeded to try and learn as many 3 chord Jimmy Buffet songs as possible. How I wish I’d listened to my parents and stuck with the classical lessons!

[Oldhat1]

I wanted to add since I mentioned theory of a “monkey wrench”!

Over in “General Chit Chit” there are 4 of us working in a song “I know You Rider”. One will notice that the chord progression is G, F, C and we refer to majoring out of 'G"…and some may say “well wait a minute how can you be majoring in G and using an Fmajor chord in the progression verses an F#dim chord?”. Well in bluegrass we refer to that as an “off chord” as in it’s not in the major but we are gonna use it as a major chord verses in this case a diminished F#. Same thing happens in “Old Home Place”…If you are playing that one of the first times out of G major you will never see that B7 or A coming in the progression.

When “off chords” are in a song and if you do not know it then you will be lost, all you can do is ask “what the heck were you going to in that one part” and you just hope you remember that the next time you run into the song somewhere.

SO outside of the major chords in the major scale they can be substituted.