Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Thank you Rich!

That's true about you need to play with someone better than you. So you will inspired ans encourage to play better. That's why practicing with backing tracks is not so great because no reaction from other side. Perform together with other is like conversation on one topic. That convesation can go many direction within the form / topic.

Not loosely to prepare! Prepare those two songs (whatever you choose) Practce chords, melkody, triad, prepare phrases that great over those chord changes. Plesae don't forget to record yourself! That's only way to impove yourself! Just jamming itself is not enough. Reviewing your performance deeply.

Don't worry! Don't expect anything.
If you think that way...why don't you practice only melody for hours and days!
How about this? Practce melody a lot and record yourself a few times as if you are playing in front of peope (with right pressure!)

In order not to loose your solo over chord progression.
Practice many times wiith R 3 7 chords so it is very difficult to get lost over chord changes
Don't worry about what others think. In order to improve, you need to drop any pride and expectation. Broadway.... a lot of triads!

Good thing to achieve.... nothing is easy so it's better to feel all positive and don't worry!
Please go out and play LIVE!

Please don't feel that way! You can prepare things much deeply so you can feel good yourself as a player.

Thank you for posting a great topic / thread!

PS, Practice like Kurt! Did you see this thread!
https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/forums/general/73188-practicing-with-tomo

Tomo

I also just went to my first jazz jam ever yesterday too and bombed really really hard!! I called Autumn Leaves and All of Me (both in the key of CMaj/Amin for my sake) and even then I was lost in a deep dark forest where the sun don't reach!!

I could feel the daggers from my more experienced bandmates as I struggled to find the key even with shell chords and blasted completely out of key and didn't even land on chord tones for like 70% of the 2-5-1 resolutions. I was completely lost in many parts, and resorted to just mute strumming at times. I'm pretty certain I played the melody a whole tone up at some points too. Definetly made people cringe because I played a note way louder than I intended to :D

I messed up the head to all of me (the first song I called) so bad that for autumn leaves, the horns insisted he would take the head hahahaa.

BUT I had a lot of fun!! I was grateful for the chance to play with other people too, because there aren't many where I am. My mentality going in was: no one is good the first time they do anything. I'm expecting that I will have 100 bad jam sessions before I have one that I am satisfied with, but that's how it should be right! If we were so good from the beginning, what journey would we have to enjoy :D

Also, I noticed that even the experienced players, when they were doing the sound check, sounded very comfortable and intimidating, but as soon as the song started, they sounded more stiff and textbook-like. For me that made me more relaxed, because I realized I don't need to "sound as good as I do in practice." If they have a harder time on stage despite their experience, of course I would too! I let go of the pressure to play well, and just tried to have fun (while of course focusing on the tune and opening my ears).

I hope you can celebrate your achievement just like I am celebrating my win! And sorry to answer your question so late into my post, but if you ask me, we should go as soon as possible. Because we won't get any better at playing live by waiting!

Confidence is important in jazz after all, so why don't we be our best cheerleaders :D If you won't be, I will be! You should definitely go again Richard! Playing Blue Bossa and Broadway on your first jam is extra gutsy. If you ask me that fits the mold of a jazz man! I'm looking forward to your post a few months later where you tell us you killled it :D

Thank you Kim Sun Ho for sharing your experiece.

Jam session (beginning) is a great place to make a lot of mistakes and learn how to prepare? How to recover from that experience. You just need 10-20 sessions to understand something.

Later years, you can jam with musicians that went through many jams and learnt their foundation and musical languages so they can speakl that musical language together!

Autumn Leaves.... Start Am7 or start C-7.... need to prepare both keys.
All of me is a great song! I would do practice R 3 7 Swing everyday!!

Don't practice with backing tracks! Practice with a metronome or by yourself while imagining the band & chord progressions. Learn more triad inversions too.

Record yourself and listen carefully when you hit a wrong note... how you recover? Make sure you didnot stop that chord progression (Train) going!

For jam session, I would show up there a few weeks and record each set so that you are familiar with song choices and you can prepare better.

Blue Bossa is good!
Broadway is awesome!

Thank you for your encouragement to Rich!
Have more fun!

Tomo

Thank you Tomo.
I feel like I have practiced the heads of those two songs probably 100 times.
I was actually surprised by my ability to still mess them up. I guess I underestimated the impact of playing in front of other people.
I really went in with some ideas of what to play and unfortunately they all went out the window.

Thank you Kim Sun for your positivity and for sharing your own experience.
It was a horrible feeling for me standing on stage after bombing. I wish I could have disappeared. But I think that shows how much I care about and love music. As much as I tried to tell myself to just go up there and play regardless of how bad I am…it still hurt to let myself down. I do need to have more fun. (Would be fun to feel like I was having a musical conversation with someone tho).

Thanks for responding Clay.
Your current situation sounds like a dream for me. I wish I had someone to collaborate creatively with.
I was recently in an ‘80’s cover band for about 5 years but I quit because I felt like I was just playing the songs exactly as they were written and I didn’t feel like I was creating anything. (Nor was it making me a better guitar player). We played ‘should I stay or should I go’ as well.
If I were to be in a cover band at this point in my life it would have to be one where we could take a song in a different direction.
But to be honest I don’t have the confidence in my playing to feel like I could even do that.

Thank you Clay for sharing ecouragement, your experience and very kind suggestions!

Tomo

I didn't know this song until this video. It's challenging! I now have an even deeper appreciation for Rich's courage.

Thank you Clay! This song is a great solo training song!

Tomo

That was some AWESOME comping.
Holy crap ~ I didn’t prepare like that!
I will make a video and share with you here just to prove (mainly to myself) that I CAN play the melody.

Tomo ~ after you played the melody the first time you played something different with much more space…are you imagining someone else playing the melody at that point?

Thank you Morey for encouragement and suggestions! Good job! Plesae enjoy more! Those are great fun songs!

Thank you so much for being a member of Guitar Wisdom!
Plesae don't forget to record your perforamnce! Make a few friends at jam session so someone can make videos for you.

Tomo

I made this video for you! Please leave your feedback on this video

Thank you.

Tomo

Thank you so much Tadashi!
I feel like I want to cry ~ everyone here has been so supportive and positive.
Don’t see that too much in the world anymore but you see it all the time on Guitar Wisdom.
💗💗💗