We have a pretty good Bluegrass scene around where I am, including a beginner jam that is fantastic for folks who are pretty comfortable playing in a group setting who are ready for the opportunity to practice solos in a group.
There is a small group of us that want to start a slow jam where we work through 1-2 new songs each week in the first hour, and then practice a few standards we rotate to practice on in the second hour.
The focus would be helping people who have never played in a group keep time, learn to read and improvise along melody lines, and generally pick up some of the more common bluegrass standards into their repertoire.
We are all pretty new to bluegrass playing, and playing together, and just need something with a slower pace to start.
I'm looking for some direction on what resources to put together to help get this started.
Specifically:
1. If you were going to give a 12 track songbook to a new jam group, what songs would you recommend as fun to play classics? (I think everybody around here is familiar with the Casey Fakebook--so songs inside that tome would be helpful.)
2. I'm a guitar player (learning mando), so helping folks with rhythm and melody there isn't a challenge--but I could really use a resource or reference on how to help mandolin, fiddle, bass, etc, players find their place in a jam. Where is my Jamming for dummies book?
3. Is this a good idea? Or is there a better way for us to accomplish this goal of playing together and making music instead of noise?
Again--thanks to everybody and I'm sure I will get lots of thoughts based on how nice everybody here seems to be.
Cheers!
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