jam bands

any information, techniques, common scales, etc. about jam bands.

Jam bands are really no different than any other band except as a band they jam. I know it sounds silly but it's the application as a whole that makes them different.

I'm a huge dead fan and most of their songs were based in good old fashioned major and minor scales and modes. Leams some theory, and apply it. once you have that learn some jazz. there is really little difference between a good dead like jam and a fusion band but i may piss a bunch of players off for saying that.

I think Saint Stephen, ripple (just the chords), sugar magnolias, uncle johns band are places to start.

but what about choreographing 30 minute jams in and out of songs. but like the disco biscuits do that stuff all the time. i dont understand. is everybody in the band all on the same page?? or whats the deal?

I'm not really sure how much choreographing is done in those long jams. I think a loose foundation is set and deepening to the players they take off from here. Those jams cannot really be forced out of a band, they have to come naturally.

Tele's absolutely right. Jam's are 'inserted' by arrangement between the musicians of the band around and within a set format. The quality of the jam will be dependent not only upon the quality of individual musicianship, but the 'tightness' of the band as a whole. If you want to see great jamming in action I'd recommend 'Live' recordings of Deep Purple Mk 2(a), 'Space Truckin and Strange kind of woman' are two particularly good examples off of of the 'Made in Japan' Album.

@ tele:-

Great new avatar. That Smurff looks like he can really rock!!

thank's man, he's got my kind of guitar too a red es-335 holowbody.

Umphrey's MCgee is a great jam band. They are borderline jazz fusion but they are awesome non the less.

A great up and coming band that I know and will book a gig in seatle for sometime soon is Tangerine Jam

http://www.myspace.com/tangerinejam

Listen to My Madeline and their cover of the Weight, and you will see why they are great.

yes umph is very good. probably the most musically talented jam band out there right now. and you cannot put a "genre" on umphreys, shredguitar. they have basically every style of music, excluding a select few. but during the long jams is everybody in the band just all on the same page? thats merely what i meant by choreographed i didnt mean like they practice the jam and then go play it note for note on stage. but like the transitions and ** like that.