To Jam Or Not To Jam

One of the things that attracts people to fingerstyle guitar is that it's self contained. You can play all of the parts. Why play with other people?

That's been my mindset for quite some time. But recently, I began going to a weekly jam session of Cajun and old time players.

The main reason at first was that I'm interested in adapting traditional Cajun music to the fingerstyle guitar.

Some people would have worked purely from listening to recordings. I chose not to do it that way.

I didn't think that recordings would let me feel the rhythmic pulse of the music in the same way that playing it would.

Some of the rhythms and song structures are starting to work their way into my head. But I'm also getting benefits that I hadn't expected.

One of the best of the unexpected benefits is meeting new people. Both from the social aspect and from what I gain from playing with other musicians.

There's also the factor of playing in ways that are different from the norm. I normally don't play with a flatpick. At these jam sessions, that's all that I'm using. So my playing is growing as well.

This may be old news for some of you. For those who haven't tried it, start jamming.

If you're ever in south Louisiana drop by the jam session. It's at Tom's Fiddle and Bow in Aurnaldville http://tomsfiddleandbow.com/

Speaking of interesting folk/ethnic music... I came across this link on Bob Brozman's website the other day http://www.cyberferal.com/UncleBob/index.html

Making more instruments available to more people has got to be a good thing.

New Lessons

A couple of developments regarding lessons.

First off, I'm recording a new series of lessons using Lou Manzi's Fingerstyle Method books as text.

We'll work through the lessons. If you get the book you'll be able to follow along with the video.

Look for the first series around the end of June. They'll be on the Free Lesson page https://www.learn-fingerstyle-guitar.com/FreeOnlineGuitarLessons.html

The other news is webcam lessons. I'm now setup to do webcam lessons. All you need is a Skype account, http://www.skype.com/welcomeback/, and a webcam.

Speaking of Bob Brozman, check this out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zv3rAGh4HLg

That's it for this month. See you in July.

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