Casey Henry
I have been holding an almost regular student jam at my house for a few months now. Most weeks we only have two people – Ginny and Jean – but on a couple of occasions we’ve had third person join us. Week before last it was Matt, who has been taking from me for years but who rarely gets to come and jam. When there are only two people, looking at the other person to pass the break becomes less important. I mean, where else is the break going to go? But as I watched the three of them play the first couple songs I realized that they needed a reminder to make some eye contact. They took the reminder to heart and looked at each other very conscientiously.
It occurred to me that what many students don’t realize when we tell them to look at the next person to pass off the break, is that you don’t have to wait until the END of your break to look at that person. You can make that eye contact at ANY point during your break (though probably sometime after the halfway point), just long enough to confirm that the next person is going to take over from you. Of course, this requires that the next jammer be paying attention to the person who is playing lead – if not looking at them directly then at least keeping track in their peripheral vision so that they can tell when they’re getting the hairy eyeball. Once that confirmation has been made the lead player can concentrate on finishing out their break, and the next person can concentrate on coming in right.
Tags: jam ettiquette