My Jam Sessions are BORING!!!

[Jazz-in-Aust]

I've been jamming with my friends at least twice a day at school since the start of school. at first there was some real energy, but now we've got nothing new to go on. it's just crap music!!

What can i say or do to help liven the sessions up???

i'll take any advice, i'm desperate

[saltwatersnow]

get high

[Dennis Gonzalez]

It's time to turn your jam session into a workshop or a rehearsal. Jam sessions usually have a very short creative life. Have each person bring an actual composition or a sketch of a composition to the session and take time to work on it. Bring challenging compositions / situations to the group. Arrange the music of a jazz musician that you all admire...or hate! Find a gig for the group and work on getting a program together for it. You have to have goals in order to achieve anything new and exciting.

[Khaled Ahmad]

Are you playing the same songs all the time? Its time to try some new songs.

Also try different arrangements for the songs, play with a different instrument handling the melody, play it in a different time, different style, try to free-jam with no songs in mind, try to play non-jazz tunes in a jazzy way (or not), there are lots of things you can do especially if you're just doing a jam session without an audience (which what I think I gathered you were doing from your post).

Or you can just not play for a few days and then get back together, trust me, you will miss it and play with a new found energy when you come back

[JazzAt52ndStreet]

Originally Posted by saltwatersnow

get high

Worked for Bird, Mozart, Marley, Miles, Hendrix, Trane......

[jessicajones]

I like the suggestions from above (that don't chemically alter your reality) and want to add one. Have everyone just bring in a recording they love and eveyone listen to it, and talk about what they love about it. Sometimes that brings your attention to textures you havent thought of when you are just chang-chitcha-chang-ing. It's nice to be with music without your instrument sometimes too, it reminds you what you like about it without all the pressure.

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by JazzAt52ndStreet

Worked for Bird, Mozart, Marley, Miles, Hendrix, Trane......

No it didn't.

[gnhrtg]

It did not, is what I also think. I wish others have also said similar things, on record, but Joe Pass, for one, did say in a Downbeat interview that it didn't work for him and that his opinion was that it did not/would not work for anyone.

[Jon Abbey]

illegal drugs definitely can help some people to be more creative, it depends on the person and the drug. blanket statements either way are just wrong.

[gnhrtg]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

blanket statements either way are just wrong.

Excluding the above blanket statement, I presume. And sure I'm stating my opinion as it would be if I were to choose and stick to one end, not that we have to but if it was a yes/no - a general tendency, if you will. I foresee a long discussion which I would rather not get into - but a lot depends on what more creative would mean and what keeps one from not being as creative if one knows the dimensions/parameters on which creativity is judged; if not, illegal drugs - if they do at all - just bring about random deviations some - if at all - of which might turn out to be interesting and considered creative.

[Jon Abbey]

I don't think it's a blanket statement to say that the truth lies in the middle between two extremes. I know plenty of artists, some of whom I think would be less creative without drugs/alcohol/whatever, some of whom have no interest in drugs or alcohol and are plenty creative without them.

I don't want to get into it past this either, but I can tell you from my first-hand experience that I am one hundred percent positive that for some people, if used correctly, drugs make them more creative, allowing them to come up with ideas that they wouldn't otherwise. how do I know they wouldn't have come up with them otherwise? well, if someone spends half the time stoned and half the time straight, and 80-plus percent of their most inspired ideas come when they're stoned, I'd say that's good enough evidence for me.

[stonemonkts]

People have been using "drugs" for thousands of years to enhance creativity.

I'm just interjecting a purely anthropological perspective.

Many of the artists noted in earlier posts were ultimately self-destructive drug abusers, but that does not negate the possible enhancement to their respective creativity, in certain instances of course. I'm confident that any of them would've been outstanding artists without drugs and/or alcohol, but their sum output would be different. In Marley's case marijuana was as much a part of his total being as any other external person or agent. Smoking weed certainly didn't hamper Louis Armstrong. It's all relative I guess.

[Jon Abbey]

my only point here, which is what I was trying to say originally, is that I've heard both extreme viewpoints on this numerous times, and I think both are dangerously wrong.

"Drugs enhance creativity"

"Drugs are a blind alley that never really enhance creativity, but trick people into believing that they're being more creative"

the truth is that depending on the person, depending on the drug, drugs can be used productively to enhance creativity. it's also of course very tricky to maintain a productive level of use, and not slip into dependence or addiction. my point is that it can be done, which you'd think would go without saying, but evidently sometimes needs to be stated.

[Pete C]

Coltrane and Miles were MUCH more creative after they kicked drugs.

Perhaps Jon can tell me which Erstwhile records I need to get high for. I would like to be in the same creative state as the artists were.

[Jon Abbey]

straight or high, you're not going to enjoy any of them.

when did Miles and Coltrane kick drugs, respectively?

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

straight or high, you're not going to enjoy any of them.

when did Miles and Coltrane kick drugs, respectively?

Miles kicked in the early 50's, Trane in '57, I think.

[Jon Abbey]

I don't know much about heroin, I won't speak to that, although I find it extremely hard to believe that Miles was totally drug-free during the seventies, even if it wasn't heroin. I could do some research to check, but maybe someone else can help me out.

I'm talking about pot, which I'm pretty sure is what sws was talking about to begin with in this thread. just to name a few icons, Louis Armstrong, Bob Marley, Joao Gilberto and Han Bennink all smoked/smoke weed pretty much every day of their adult lives, and they all had long and musically pretty consistent careers (except for Marley's, which wasn't very long, about 15 years). obviously we don't know what their careers would have been like without pot, but it's clear that they felt that it was important enough to them to keep doing it.

but all of that is a bit beside the point. the point I wanted to make in this thread is in my earlier post, which starts "my only point here".

[Ellery Eskelin]

Originally Posted by Jon Abbey

well, if someone spends half the time stoned and half the time straight, and 80-plus percent of their most inspired ideas come when they're stoned, I'd say that's good enough evidence for me.

Maybe that's because they don't function well without drugs generally...because they are already somewhat addicted? Perhaps the way cigarettes calm people down...because without the substance they are relying on physiologically they'd be uptight.

But I don't really disagree with your premise except to say that I don't think the truth lies in the middle of the two extremes but rather closer to the case against. I think most folks who perform well on drugs do so in spite of the drug not because of. Just my opinion.

That said I do think that for some people at some times some drugs can open up or amplify states of being that already exist in their bodies to some degree and that it can be useful to know where those states of being reside so as to call on them organically and that this can play a role in the development of that person's creativity. But drugs are rather artificial and it's really, really tricky to avoid wanting the blast that they provide. Natural states of being may be seem more subtle by immediate comparison but ultimately much more powerful than any drug...if you are operating on all channels and not just selected and amplified ones.

[Khaled Ahmad]

We have to know what drugs everyone is talking about here. For example, Coltrane kicked heroin, but he never kicked drugs. Miles never quit drugs, you can read it in his autobiography, he just at one point wasn't a heroin addict anymore, but he was still doing it when he wrote his autobiography which was in the late 80s I think.

As far as heroin is concerned, I've never heard former users say that it was good for them musically. Bird constantly talked about he was a bad influence on the jazz community and he shouldn't be looked up to for his heroin addiction.

[JazzAt52ndStreet]

...uhh, fella's....i was just kidding....i don't advocate the use of drugs for a situation like this.....but whatever.

-52nd

[Jazz-in-Aust]

What's going on here, i just wanted some advice on my jam sessions, (and there were some great ideas) and now some how i've provoked this enormous discussion on drugs!!!

Drugs definetly do not help your creativity. to truly be creative and play good music, you must always be in control. but if you have no control over your state of mind, then how on earth can you play good music!?

My piano player once got high before a jam, and he forgot how to play piano. now how can you be creative if you can't even remember how to play your instrument.

[stonemonkts]

Originally Posted by Jazz-in-Aust

My piano player once got high before a jam, and he forgot how to play piano. now how can you be creative if you can't even remember how to play your instrument.

Hahaha. That's really funny. What did he get high on, a joint dipped in embalming fluid?

[Pete C]

The only drug that ever helped me be more creative was caffeine.

[Khaled Ahmad]

Originally Posted by Jazz-in-Aust

My piano player once got high before a jam, and he forgot how to play piano. now how can you be creative if you can't even remember how to play your instrument.

LOL, talk about a lightweight!

[saltwatersnow]

Drugs definetly do not help your creativity. to truly be creative and play good music, you must always be in control. but if you have no control over your state of mind, then how on earth can you play good music!?

you are obviously qualified to be making absolute statements on creativity,, except you cant even hold an interesting jam session

[Jazz-in-Aust]

Fair enough, your right, i am in no position to hold absolute statements on creativity. But surely with these experiences i can give my opinion on drugs and music. Or do i have to hold a good pot party first before i can do that too?

[Geo]

Ok, here's how to get your jam sessions better, or, at least, less boring (and this is without pharmaceutal info.....I could care less if someone is high/stoned/drunk.......that is up to you)

I don't know what instrument you play so.....change up who you're playing with! New people, new voices (i.e. different instrumentation, or different people on the requisite imstruments), new "playing concepts," (arrainge something........ be specific, like Gil Evans or go anti-constructed like Orentte (though, he was HELLISHLY constructed)) that is.....write.......... do you write? If you don't, you do you even try?
Ultimately, I'll tell you this: try to surround yourself with players that are better than you. You will learn more about playing that way than any other way.
G