Bluegrass music is participatory… and making music with others is more fun than picking on your own.
All levels of pickers are welcome. Bring your guitar, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, dobro, bass or ukulele and come pick and sing Bluegrass, Classic Country and Old Time music with us. Acoustic instruments only please.
What is a Bluegrass Jam?
For this bluegrass jam we use #3.
- Open Mic – a group of musicians back up anyone singing or playing for an audience.
- Open Stage – typically individuals or small groups taking turns playing one or two songs for an audience.
- Bluegrass Jam – a circle of people playing music together. Bluegrass circle jams provide the opportunity to enjoy your instrument and voice without performance pressure. Each picker adds their instrument to songs led by others and can choose to lead a song or not. You choose how you want to participate. Some people some play rhythm and follow chord changes on their instrument; others lead a song; some sing harmonies during a chorus, some lead an instrumental tune or take an instrumental break.
- Bring a chair or stool
- Music stands, binders, fake books, tabs and/or iPads are welcome. If you’ve committed song lyrics and chords to memory, great. If not, no worries, bring something so you can lead your songs with confidence.
- All players manage the volume of their instrument so singers and instrumental breaks can be heard.
- Leading a song moves left around the circle.
- It’s ok to pass if you don’t want to lead a song.
- Breaks (the instrumental lead played by one instrument) also passes to the left. It’s ok to pass and not take a break.
Bluegrass Jamming 101 – We’re friendly. Come pick with us. More info about participating at a bluegrass jam.
Look here for some bluegrass songs to start playing.
Strum Machine is a great app for working on your jamming skills. It really is better than other other music practice apps we’ve used.