New Jam Class Down Under
Our friend and former camper Greg McGrath writes:
My First Official Beginner's Jam Class
July 7
Hi Pete and Joan,
After running beginner jams in my home for several years now, word has spread and I have been invited to host my first official jam session/class for beginners and newbies at this weekend's Redland Bluegrass Festival in Queensland.
http://www.redlandscountry.asn.au/bg.htm#intro
Thanks to you, I have the experience, the collateral and the confidence to do it, using the Peter Wernick handouts and notes from my NC Jam Camp experiences back in 2007.
I'll let you know how it all goes.
July 13
The workshop went extremely well.
It was surprising how many people had little idea that there were in fact some degree of etiquette in jamming bluegrass style. I put a little band together, guitar, mandolin, banjo and Dobro and we played a few tunes. The importance of the rules became evident as we demonstrated things such playing behind a singer, backing off the other instruments during breaks, especially the guitar, communication between jammers for breaks etc.
We worked through the Pete Wernick Rules for Jamming sheets and distributed about 20 of them to participants. We finished up by all playing together and putting our new found knowledge to work in a group jam. All in all a good result.
It was a good experience for me and I also learned a great deal more about running a workshop.
Thanks again for your encouragement and inspiration.
Cheers
Greg
Jam camp star 2007
editor@australianbluegrass.com