the Freeze

Studying and jamming are two separate things as you already know. Studying's great, increasing knowledge, chops, all that, but you have to know when to let it go, and that's usually when you're jamming or sometimes, even when you're playing live in some other situation. Performing, jamming; it's from a different part of your brain almost and after awhile you get used to the difference and appreciate each as its own thing; one can't really be pushed into another.

That said, after your study period where you're working intensely on something, add a little free time to the end of practice. Just leave the metronome and CDs off and sit there and get a connection going with your instrument. Don't even play it if you don't want to. Just hold it. And if something starts singing or playing in your head, in your 'mind's ear' so to speak, see if you can play it.

Another thing that might be profitable for leaning how to jam (if not just fun), is to turn on the radio, or if you have cable television, switch to the digital music channels. Just tune in - or surf to - a station or channel with a different kind of music than you're used to playing. Put on a reggae stream and just sit back and try to jam along with it. The song list is pretty long so you most likely won't hear the same tune for a long while, so it's all up to you to just follow along, add things, play along. Then go to the easy listening or rap or oldies stations and spend half an hour or so on each, just trying to come up with things; maybe trying to quickly learn the main riff or melody, but maybe just playing a line of your own, trying to get the key, the chord changes a little bit. All off the cuff sorta stuff. Then keep going through the different styles, country, rock, 'cityscapes' or New Age, folk. Just keep going, not trying to memorize or solidify anything - but just see what you can play to it. With so many styles and songs going by, you wind up actually listening to your intuition and trying to play it or play along with it. Doesn't have to be perfect, just keep going from song to song, trying out different things. Even if you come up with something brilliant, forget it for now and just keep going. Makes you more 'in the moment' rather than 'trying to remember'.

That sort of thing.

Hope this helps.

good ideas. I think you gave me some good insite to remember.

I'm not so sure that you can hear anyone jam these days, so we have nothing to campare to.

I have heard a few famous guitarists jam and wasn't impressed until I recall how I sound.
Blues are an exception because it is a very simple formula, and most play learned phrases, which can be quite long.

I'm reminded of Bruce Lee when he said that it's extremely rare for people to do anything truly creative.
Most people repeat what they've learned.
He also said that we could be truly creative, but it would take a lot of effort and preparation.

I think that the preparation involved with guitar is with theory and song structure so that you know what to play when.
You can spend a lot of time learning rules, which tends to destroys creativity.
It's a catch-22.