playing loud in jam sessions

Buco · June 17

It's about practicing a good efficient technique where your right hand is "popping" the string and then you let the guitar do its job. Right hand can use the gravity from the wrist as the fulcrum or you see some good players with a very good tone driving the pick through the string pushing through with the thumb. Sam Farthing does both. But whatever technique you have currently, you should try your darnest to keep it the same in a jam. Easier said than done, I know.

Relaxed both hands, left hand pressing only enough to make the sound of a clear note, right hand only gripping enough so the pick doesn't drop out when your holding your hand out. This will change during the playing as these things are dynamic but it should be a default.

Jangle_Jamie · June 17

Thanks. Yes I find I become very rigid with my left hand (partly nerves!) so will make a proper effort to relax and see how it goes.

I have two gigs this week with a jazz quartet so will be using my Krivo - I can play softly and delicately!

lucky · June 18

Even two rhythm players can make a racket if they're really pounding the strings - it's hard to control noise with lots of guitars but if it's just two it might be worth asking them to play a bit more quietly, or experiment with where you sit so that you are not overwhelmed by the noise.

If you can't hear yourself on videos then picking technique could be a problem (maybe you can post the video?). I've seen players in jams who can't get volume out of their guitars and it's all down to how they are picking it. Part of the problem is that whenever anyone tries to explain this, the explanation is really focused on input rather than output - I mean what you do with the wrist rather than the sound you make, and that's tough because you can do everything 'right' and still not get the volume you need. There isn't just one way to make the guitar sing, when I've been round the campsites at Samois there are as many ways as there are players, and it doesn't even have to be restricted to rest strokes - it's about finding a way to unlock the sound of the guitar. When I'm showing people how to get the most out of a Selmer-style guitar I focus on on the sound, we just experiment but once the sound pops out - and it really is a different sound to what you will have heard from the guitar before - that's the technique you need to develop.

MikeK · June 18

We should all make a pact here to play rhythm very quietly at jams. It's really the only way to let the soloist's work come through. And we should spread the word to the other guitar players that frequent the jams. It ruins the night when the chunking is too loud.

Russell Letson · June 18

Acoustic environment and jam size both make a difference--there's a weekly jam (not GJ) in a big room with terrible acoustics and often nine or ten players, and for that combination the only guitar I can hear myself play is a National M-1 resophonic. The room sound is so bad that even with three or four of us, sitting closer, it's still hard to make out a soloist. My solution there is to bring my backing way down. The principle I was taught is that if you can't hear the soloist or singer, you're playing too loud. (There are other issues as well, particularly in the timekeeping department. Things can get sloppy without a solid bass player.)

In fact, too many players playing too loud is a common situation in jams, and I can't think of a solution that doesn't involve arrogating to oneself the role of leader and suggesting that backing players reduce their volume--or, worse yet, that some some players lay out during a solo. MikeK's pact would be a nice idea if there were a tactful way of promulgating it.

Jam sessions are generally good-natured, anarchic affairs, and the best of them *evolve* playing styles and protocols that accommodate everyone. But the urge to be heard, to strut your stuff, is strong.

Buco · June 18

One of the rhythm specialists at DiJ said that this has become a quiet genre in a lot of ways. I've heard similar previous years too. And indeed I've been in jams where rhythm players are so mindful of the soloist that the rhythm was whispering. Seems like, especially among the players on this side of the pond, the rhythm tends to have the right hand doing very short strokes. Which is fine, plenty of players sound great doing it. It's a tool that we should have in our toolbox. To be a good rhythm player, you should be able to pick a right approach for the situation.

It's not ok to overwhelm the soloist. But we also need to be mindful that we're all serving the music after all, not the individual. I know that everyone knows that. But it good to get reminded that it's about making good music. And that involves playing rhythm dynamically. Push when needed, dial back when needed also. It was probably the hard driving rhythm section that got me mesmerized when I first heard this genre. I see the jam as my band at that moment and I'll do my best to make it sound good.

Jangle_Jamie · June 18

Yes, great observations there. i will add though that the other two guitarists were excellent in tone ands volume with sensitive rhythm playing. It was really down to me thinking my soloing wasn't loud enough and trying to hammer it out, and failing because my technique and dynamics went very South!

voutoreenie · June 18

Gonzalo on playing rhythm with other players, as he stated with a serious yet somewhat sarcastic tone (paraphrased):

"If you can't hear what the soloist is doing, you're probably too loud"

eta: from his DC Music video

Buco · June 18

Paul took a really good angle of Joscho's right hand here. You can clearly tell that he's not putting in a lot of effort and he's getting a lot out of the guitar. A lot of energy goes into his picking but not a lot of effort. A lot of wrist rotation, a lot of throwing the weight of the hand into the string, it's as efficient as it's going to get.

https://youtu.be/dZlYR2hAomM

voutoreenie · June 18

Buco, very nice highlights from such a perfect vid and to add one more, note Joscho's picking angle as well, in particular how it's "angled" upwards or slanted directionally - that's one key concept of rest stroke that took me years to work on controlling before it finally started to feel more natural (the "fulcrum" of the wrist rotation from that picking angle, to be more specific).

Paul - your guitars look awesome and sound fantastic, love to see them so well-represented!!!