My First Ever Jam Session

[MikeJackal]

Learning to play guitar has been the biggest achievement in my life so far, I've never stuck at anything else for this long mainly due to my Attention Deficit Disorder. A bit part of the condition for me is very low self confidence and lack of self esteem which has led to me being very private when it comes to my playing. The first big step was getting song recordings posted on this site and getting some wonderful feedback from all of you that gave me a bit of hope that I wasn't terrible.
After talking with my shrink she convinced me that I needed to get out there more and maybe start looking into playing with other people, my dad talked me into taking my guitar over to his house and jamming a little. He loves karaoke and singing at the open mic night in the local pub but doesn't play an instrument himself. So we started working on some songs that we could do together, he ambushed me with the camera and filmed a few of our attempts. Now most of these are the first time we tried to do the songs and some of them are not songs I play so I was making it up as I went along, particularly the Gary Moore songs, which are difficult enough as it is when you do know how to play them.
My dad uploaded them to Youtube so I thought I would share them with you all as I am proud that I finally left the house with my guitar for the first time. None of the playing is particularly good and I was quite nervous throughout which is reflected in the errors but walk before you can run springs to mind. Also I am running my usual Guitar Rig 4 through the laptop and I had forgotten to swap the preset files across from my PC so I didn't have any of my usual nice tones, had to make them up on the day.
We have arranged another session for this Wednesday so maybe some better sounding songs will come out of that.

The first song is Gary Moore - Walking By Myself
My dad sings this one but I didn't know how to play it so was all improv from memory because I know the song quite well from listening to it.
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Next is John Mayer - Gravity
I've played this one a lot so was pretty comfortable with it and was one of the better recordings of the day.eN8lkP8cvzQ
Next is Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
Probably the worst song guitar wise, again it was a song I was playing purely from memory from listening to it as it's not a song I really played before and unless you have Gary Moore's playing ability then it's pretty hard to pull it off.1P_pUI4FIgQ
Lastly Fleetwood Mac - Need Your Love So Bad
Great song and not too difficult to play so this was probably the best one of the day from me.EwpHPywPRg0

[2WheelsOfBlues]

Nice video's Mike, Job very well done

[Blindboy]

Nice job!
Your playing sounds much better than you give it credit for. Also, there is nothing wrong with improvising...(I do it all the time, so there must be nothing wrong with it )
Keep on getting out... it gets easier, it's fun, and it is a great way to learn and grow as a musician.

[VikingBlues]

Very well played Mike - and well done to you for trying to do these recordings.

There's a huge difference between guitar technique for multi track recording and live accompaniement with a siger / other musicians. I can totally understand your comments about feeling nervous too - the camera alone is capable of doing that to me. I have tried to play guitar of a blues style to accompany my wife Sandra singing - her singing sounds great but my guitar always sounds a long way below the level I seem to be able to hit on a multi track recording.

Whatever your reservations about the quality of your playing though I feel you brought a good dose of the spirit of Peter Green into play on these videos.

Like Blindboy says - keep on trying it and it'll get easier. And you've got the tone and playing ability there in bucket-loads already.

[Strummer07]

That's a whole lotta songs ..
Live !! and all in one go !!

Well done Mike .. there's some nice playing in here !
Keep at it !!....all that practice is paying off.

You'll need to be on the lookout for an open mic session near you ( New Mexico is a tad far on a Monday night !! )

[MikeJackal]

Thanks for the comments guys, much appreciated as always. The next session is going ahead tomorrow so there may be some new improved videos coming soon. There is an open mic session every Wednesday in my dad's local pub which is 100yrds from his house but I haven't quite worked up the courage to go and play at it yet, maybe after a few more of these practices I will.

[12bar]

Fantastic! Both tone and playing is well done, and you have the right guitar for Green and Moore stuff.

I don't see any sign of ADD , and being nervous is absolutely normal. If I see a record button I already get scared, but you keep on playing and improvising as if it was an everyday job for you. You're ready for an open mic!

[DeaconBlues]

I have the biggest case of stage fright of anyone on the planet...and several surrounding galaxies. Playing live once a week with Blindboy and the rest of the TW crew has helped more than I would have ever thought.

As for improvisation, everything I do is improvised with about the only guidance being a known key. Sometimes I actually get fairly close to pulling off some decent riffs. Your improvisation is well within the ballpark of "very good" and will only get better with practice, as evidenced by your rapid progress as a player.

Go to that open mic. The fear of embarrassment will fade as you prove to the audience (and yourself) that you definitely have some tasty chops. Personally, I'm still waiting for that last part to happen.

[HalfBlindLefty]

Well done Mike, Good job from the both of you on this jam session.

[Bluez2move]

Nice Session , the best thing you
can do for u'r skillz is play
with other people and interact
musically. Great 1st steps