This is less of a question than encouragement for new folks out there to participate in jams.
My 10 year son and I have been taking lessons for a little over 3 months. Our instructor recently encouraged us to participate in an upcoming recital. Between the three of us, we arranged an instrumental version of Warning by Green Day (sounds really good!). The recital is next weekend.
Though I've taken guitar lessons in fits and starts over the years, I never stuck with it. I am enjoying the lessons now more than I did when I was younger... probably because my son and I practice, jam and learn from each other. One of my goals is to jam or play with more people this year and see if the playing finally sticks. Quite a few folks that work for me and with me play guitar so I am organizing regular monthly jam nights after work.
We had our first jam last night. Five of us brought our guitars (and my son showed up too). Somehow word got around that my son was coming in and we were going to play our recital song. Yikes! We had over 20 people sitting there just to listen to us!
Well... suffice it to say that my son and I did fine (we played through the mistakes and apparently not too many people noticed). We got a very large round of applause and lots of compliments ... and a few people were surprised we had only been taking lessons for 3 months. It was great to play in front of a group of people before the recital and get through some of our nervousness. The other guys played a number of songs too. After the crowd broke up, the guitaritsts stuck around. Most of the other guitarists are self-taught so my son and I showed them some of our exercises and lessons, which they thought was cool. The other guys showed us some of their chops and some songs.
All in all, a fun 90 minutes. I look forward to doing more of these (as does my son). I highly encourage everyone to find someone or group to jam with. It was a lot of fun and I think everyone learned something too!
