How To Survive Your First Blues Jam: A Bass Players Guide
11th June, 2022
Your First Ever Blues Jam…
The idea of getting up on stage at a Blues jam night for the first time can seem daunting to many players but as long as you are prepared, there is nothing to worry about.
In this article I am going to give you five tips that will help give you the confidence to go and give it a try.
Each Blues jam night venue is unique and will be run slightly differently with particular favourite Blues tunes and different systems for getting up to play. But there are ways that you can be prepared and things you must know if you want to feel confident when you get up on that stage and start jamming.
Tip Number 1 - Learn The Blues Forms
The 12-bar Blues progression is by far the most common Blues form and you have to know it back to front and be able to play it in your sleep in any key if you are going to get through a Blues jam in one piece.
The common Blues keys that you’ll come across at Blues jam nights are:
E
A
C
D
G
Make sure that you can transpose the 12-bar progression into these keys.
E and A are probably the most common Blues keys so I’ll show you the 12-bar progression in A.
12-Bar Blues Progression in A
| A | D | A | A |
| D | D | A | A |
| E | D | A | E ||
It’s useful to know the 12-bar progression in Roman Numerals or the number system as this will help you to transpose it into other keys more easily.
12-Bar Blues Progression in Roman Numerals
| I | IV | I | I |
| IV | IV | I | I |
| V | IV | I | V ||
I suggest playing through the 12-bar progression in A just using root notes first of all.
You can hear me playing this in the audio fill. The backing track is in the Blues shuffle style which means that we play the 8th notes with a shuffle feel.
12-Bar Blues Progression in A With Root Notes
Once you are happy playing the 12-bar progression with root notes, try and experiment with using different riffs.
In the example below, I have taken a basic riff and moved it for chord 4 and 5.
Basic Blues Riff Over The 12-bar
Once you know the 12-bar progression really well then try moving it into the different popular Blues keys I listed above.
As well as 12-bar Blues there are 8-bar Blues like the verses of Mary Had A Little Lamb by SRV and Worried life Blues and there are occasionally 16-Bar Blues which often add another 4 bars of chord 1 on the front of the progression for example. If you know the 12, 8 and 16-Bar Blues progression then that will cover pretty much all the tunes you are likely to encounter at a Blues jam.
Tip Number 2 - Learn Popular Blues Tunes
There are obviously hundreds of Blues tunes and different jam nights will favour certain tunes but the following list of 15 Blues standards is a good starting point as these are all played a lot.
Crossroads
Dust My Broom
Pride And Joy
Sweet Home Chicago
Born Under A Bad Sign
Stormy Monday
The Thrill Is Gone
Hoochie Coochie Man
Everyday I have The Blues
Johnny B. Goode
Hound Dog
Spoonful
Killing Floor
The Sky Is Crying
Little red Rooster
Tip Number 3 - Intros, Turnarounds & Endings
Often at a jam night the intro to a tune will just be a groove on chord 1 to set the song up. Sometimes the band will launch straight into a chorus of a 12-Bar with a guitar solo for example. Sometimes the last four bars of the 12-bar are used as an intro. Usually this will be communicated by someone in the band before you start. You can always ask if it’s not clear.
The turnaround happens at the end of each chorus and there are a few common turnarounds.
Have a listen to the one I played earlier to the backing track as this is a really common turnaround. There is a push into beat 3 where the chord changes to chord 5.
When you are playing through the tunes I mentioned, look out for the turnarounds and remember the common ones. You don’t have to all be playing the exact turnaround in unison but it’s good if you and the drummer are playing a similar rhythm.
The endings at jam nights can cause some funny situations with some players just not being able to finish a song! One person might carry on when the rest have tried to finish and then the rest of the band might come back in again.
There are some common endings where for the example the band played the last 4 bars of the 12-Bar 3 times round but the best advice I can offer for endings is to watch the drummer and singer like crazy and see what they are doing.
Listen to how Riff 1 sounds starting on all three different root notes.
Tip Number 4 - Use Your Ears!
Use your ears at all times when on stage and make sure that you are communicating with the other players. This could just be having eye contact and looking around to see if anyone is cuing different sections, the ending, etc.
Now this may seem pretty obvious but I’ve personally experienced a lot of players who come up on stage to jam and then just keep their heads down and are impossible to communicate with.
You need to be thinking about who is taking a solo at that point, or when you think the vocals are coming back in, or whether the guitarist is using the quick 4 change in bar 2, or whether the drummer is playing a shuffle or straight groove and many other things.
With experience you will learn all of this but the most important thing to do at your first jam night is be attentive, listen and watch. Then you’ll pretty much be able to work out what’s going on throughout the song.
Tip Number 5 - Jam Night Etiquette
It is really important to understand the jam night etiquette of the particular venue that you’re at. Now as I said near the beginning of this article, each venue will run their jam night a little differently but there are common things you need to know. I’d suggest going down and checking out a jam night before you think about getting up and playing if you can.
When you want to play, find out who is running the jam night and have a quick chat with them to see if you can get your name down on the list. They might ask you which Blues tunes you know so have a few popular ones up your sleeve, or they might just ask you if you know a particular tune and then get you up.
Usually there is a house band who will bring the gear and start the night off and they are often happy to let everyone use their instruments. But some players bring their own guitars and basses. You could always ask if you are unsure.
Where To Go From Here…
I hope that this article has helped give you the confidence to go along to your local Blues jam night and get up to play.
It is great to be as prepared as you can be but ultimately you just have to get up and learn on the job!
Click here for my Blues video lessons
You can also check out the follow Youtube video lessons below to reinforce what you have learnt in this article.
Take Your Blues Playing One Step Further
Click the images below for more details about the video courses
Walk The Blues - this video course will give you all the tools you need to create your own authentic and great sounding Blues bass lines.
Blues Jam Night Survival Guide - this video course will help your prepare to confidently step onstage and wow the audience at your first Blues jam night.
