Welcome to the Agile Music Project (AMP) blog. The goal of this blog is to open discussions on music topics as well as Agile which defines the core values and principles to which we adhered in our quest to learn music together. You can read more about Agile by clicking on the “Agile” sticky-note on our main web page. We hope to post regularly to this blog and look forward to the conversations.
For this first foray into the blogosphere I’d like to chat about learning music together and Jamming. Each has its added great value to both the group and each of us individually. We started getting together to Jam every few weeks or so. Although it was fulfilling it didn’t take us long to determine that most whom would listen to us would rather hear either covers or songs with traditional patterns (beginning, middle, end, verse, chorus, etc.). There are exceptions but we wanted to be able to play what most people would enjoy. That’s when we decided to adopt Agile and focus on learning songs (See the “About Us” sticky on our main page).
We were making very good progress with the Agile Music Project Lifecycle. However, after a while, the hunger pangs for just being able to Jam again ate at us. Our Jam hiatus ended and we gathered for much needed nourishment. The Jam started slowly but it didn’t take long for us to get back into sync. As usual someone started laying down a riff and the rest jumped in.
We had recently bought a Jam Hub Tracker MT16 to record from our Jam Hub Greenroom. We had armed it but about 10 minutes into the Jam Mike noticed we hadn’t started the recording. After what didn’t seem like a very long time, we came to a good conclusion and ended with a pretty good coda (considering we were all adlibbing). When we stopped the recording we noticed it was at 28 minutes. We’d been playing for about 38 minutes and didn’t’ even know it! What a blast!
After the Jam, as we were saving the recording and just talking we got into a pretty deep conversation about the key, mode, and structure of what we were playing. Was it F#? Were we confusing the key with the mode? Was the lead working on a myxolydian chord progression? We didn’t discuss the learning opportunity that presented itself through the session. We just took advantage of it.
Even though we get great learning opportunities through our Agile Project while we are learning covers or working on new songs, we also do gain from jamming and the rich conversations that come from it. I believe we’ve all agreed that we’ll do both as often as we can. Like most amateur or pseudo-professional musicians we all have a regular job, families, and commitments besides music. So we prioritize appropriately and take advantage of the opportunities that arise.
Thanks for hitting our site and reading our blog. All reasonably professional, polite, and relevant comments are welcome.
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