Do you jam with your fam?

Bob Holo

Do you jam with your family? I know Josh does - his dad Tim is a trumpeter and I've had the pleasure of jamming with them. In my humble estimation there probably aren't more than half a dozen things in the world more fun than making music with family. If you do - please post a clip or picture or something here. I hope this is a fun thread. Here's my clip:

I was just going through some stuff looking for website photos and found that my wife took a cellphone video of my brother Dave and I jamming a while ago. He is a traditional jazz trumpeter but also a pretty good hand on guitar. I am occasionally able to con one of my brothers or my sister or one of my cousins into jamming - it's a ton of fun. My mom used to have a family band when she was a kid... the "Hansen sisters" they played dances - that's how they made fun money as kids. One of my little cousins - actually not so little anymore - in his early teens - is just outrageously talented. He's a piano player but my brother gave him one of his old cornets and he said: "Cool - this is fun"... a couple hours later he was playing heads to songs as we were jamming and doing a pretty decent job of it. But the thing that completely baked my head was when he stopped us and said: "Wait a sec - this song needs an F# - I don't know how to finger the sharps yet - how do you finger an F#?" ... now this is HOURS afer he has first picked up a brass instrument... So Dave showed him and he said: "OK - thanks." and then he played the head pretty much flawlessly. I just about dropped over. I don't know if he wants to be a musician but if he does - it's his for the taking - that much is clear.

Stackabones

I jam with my dad. He used to be involved in the Dallas blues/rock/RnB scene back in the 60s and played around some pretty hip players. Primarily a rhythm man, he knows a ton of chords, but doesn't really know the names -- just knows what they do and where they fit. Super tastey soloist ... few well-placed notes here and there and leaves space for the the rhythm to cook underneath.

We only get to see each other about once a year, but we go down into his basement and crank it up!

rimm

My step dad and me knock out a few tunes when I get home to Bangor in the Northern Ireland-he's a great blues/trad player and he is still getting his head round some of the shapes we use but he swings in his own way! Actually he owns an incredible sounding Fylde from the 70's its an absolute peach and I always grab that and let him jam on his Martin.
The hot club of Dublin are of course Finton, his brother John on bass and johns son Daniel on rhythm..they have a great understanding that you only get from playing with each other for years I suppose.

One love

Shawn

Interesting to hear about other people's experiences, and I hope more chime in. The only family members I jam with are my wife and my sister. My wife, who is a classically trained pianist, has tried to take up a bit of Jazz but cant grasp it, so we normally jam on some classical pieces and I just fake my way through the melodies. My wife's entire family are classically trained musicians and some of them even play in Orchestra's and such. Needless to say, I have inadvertently been picking up some Classical music theory and using it in my improvisations without realizing it.

On the other hand, my sister plays Jazz/Blues Saxophone and piano, and we used to jam for hours upon end. Sadly, she has recently married and moved to Washington, so those days are pretty much gone. Like Bob, I would group her into the same category as his little cousin, in that she can pretty much play any instrument after fiddling with it for awhile.

Very interesting topic.

V-dub

I jam with my brothers casually on occasion, but usually this consists of us making mockeries of early 90's rock.

djangology

I've been teaching my mom to play harmonic minor scales on her fiddle for soloing over Dark Eyes. I hope it works out.

Bones

Here we are busking at a farmer's market. We ended up with such a big crowd that they made us move because it was blocking the customers from getting to the vegetable vendors.

I'm on rhythm guitar and my son is on drums.

I hope the link works. I don't know how you guys attach a video to the post.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RdUn4ItKpho