How to Get Into a Jam

The following excerpt from Flutes Jam: A Guide to Improvisation addresses issues that apply to group music in any context, whether playing a drum or flute or other instrument. It could apply as well to the daily performance (or jam) we call life.

How to Get into a Jam: Four Stages of Personal Evolution

1. Unconscious self-absorption

Not listening, not paying attention to others or the wider music. Maybe focused on the instrument, the melody, the rhythm, but in solo bubble: inspired by some private muse, but unaware. Or simply daydreaming, fantasizing, worrying, thinking… buffered from the living organism of the jam.

2. Hyperconscious self-absorption

“When you’re nervous it’s because you think everyone’s looking at you and the first thing to realize is they’re not. It’s just a big ego trip. Plus, when you’re feeling like that, all the energy is coming in toward you. You’re making it happen that way. The thing to do is turn it around and send the energy out. To be giving energy to what’s happening. Like Olatunji says, Service.” —Friday Night Jam

3. Global awareness, energy of all, witness, transparent eyeball

Present in the space: listening. Harmonizing, gelling in time, joining the flow. Holding steady, with wide-lens focus, soft gaze. Attention to breath, posture, pace, dynamic. Blending in. Ready to shift, when the moment is ripe.

4. Spiritual warrior, intuitive jazz, heart-centered

Effortless mastery, without thought. Flying above, or rooting below. One with the organism, the living machine; breathing and dancing together. “Right action, without attachment to the fruits of action.”

We don’t always achieve or embody mastery but we can always be mindful, or remind ourselves, that there is more to be gained by deepening and opening our awareness. For more insights into the art of improvisation, with practical tips and visual learning aids for solo practice and group creation, see the newly released Flutes Jam: A Guide to Improvisation. 

“An intricate and in-depth presentation of a world of musical styles and genres. The book’s approach to the learning process opens the doors to infinite possibilities of improvisation—the intuitive aspect of music playing, too often overlooked in academia.” —E. Nep