Jams can be tuff for a beginning mando player, especially if you have never played guitar. You tend to have one or 2 good rythmn guitar players who know the chords to most songs and everyone else is just following them (and sometimes strumming loudly). The other problem is that guitar and banjo usually get capo'd so that if anyone is calling out chords they're probably not calling out the actual chord but the chord relative to the capo position.
See if you can get a decent guitar player to practice with you one-on -one. They'll be able to help you memorize the chord progression to a few songs and you'll probably learn to watch their hands and learn how to follow their lead on chord changes.
Also playing along with your favorite CD is good because you can repeat a song over and over until you get it or just let it play and force yourself to see how quickly you can pick up the key and play along when a new song starts.
When in doubt, chop a muted I chord. You'll be contributing to the rythmn without detracting much musically in most cases even when it's not the right chord for that particular point in the song.
Don't forget to listen and enjoy the music. Sometimes if you quit thinking you hear better.
If you can't learn to do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.
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