In a 'nutshell.' So much of playing music is making music; get our instruments tuned up and make some noise. Doing it along with musicians is how we can draw from the magics that surround us all. In the discussions which follow are all sorts of musical ideas to jamm along with. Everything is tuned up to standard pitch, often with the same basic chords looped into the common progressions and forms that we find all through the Americana styles. So tune up, find a jamm and play on and on and on :)

Vamps ~ jamms ~ loops. In through all the Americana vamps, loops and grooves that fill the dance floors, how fast it goes; its tempo and the beat, can make all the difference. In this first ideas we hear two versions of the same song artistically shaped by their artist's maybe wanting to fill their dancefloor. We know slowing down a tempo can genuinely deepen heartfelt testimony. So what's on the flipside ?

Brighter tempos can just bring out the joyous energies of 'go for it life' itself. Compare these two versions of the same theory elements; building major triads from One and Four bass notes with similar rockin' tempos, yet each with its own unique 'feel.' Example 1.

Bobby's blue's

and Jerry's turn to lead :)

Ah yes, the gospel power and magic of One to Four in any groove we can dream up :) Bottom line, from the blue'n easy dance-able 50's pop of the Bobby Blue Bland classic dancefloor packer to big roar rockin' music of the 'The Grateful Dead', put the same notes in different 'feels' and whoa ... lookout ... !

And if there was ever ... An Americana bass line story of a 'we got this fill the dancefloor right now', wow ! Just the two major triad pitches 'E ( E G# B) / A (A C# E)' arpeggitated, with a blue 7th added to the chords. Teach it to the band, using dynamics and assorted rhythms to stretch it out into one of your band's own jamms ( there's cool lyrics too of course :)

~ and take it on the road ... ' ~

barre chords diatonic chords III 7 bars

~ three chords / 'C, F and G / 1 4 5 in C ... ' ~

t c a t t 1 4 5 motion to Four 8 bars

~ three chords / 'E minor, G and D ~

chords key of 'E-' / 'G' relatives 8 bars

1 - 5 bass bounce

triads

b7

strophic form

wiki ~ 'Jolene' song

All good notes in 'E major.' We get our next jam track here from the song "Blue Sky" from the Allman Brothers Band. Among the finest of songs that can be dubbed ... 'three chords and the truth', "Blue Sky" brings a joy that all musicians can aspire to learn to capture.

In 'E', our jam rolls back and forth between the tonic One chord and Four, off to the dominant Five for the refrain for the song's title words. Here's the barre chord shapes and the group of pitches / scale shape for creating melodies. Bass line pitches are root to root; so 'E to A.' Pure pentatonic so all good pitches right ? Example 1.

Find and spin the recording as time permits and chances are that on your first take, you'll be hooked by the song that has now inspired a couple of generations of Americana guitarists. Do count measures in this song too, clear five bar phrase with perfect balance, kinda rare. For pro leaning melody cats, rote up on the back to back guitar solos, for there's a fluidness of art and technique we all might benefit from. Let your ears decide for ...

All good notes in 'E minor.' Same basic chords again in the same key center with root pitch 'E', but in minor now. Plus we add a chord, so things evolve a bit too. With a reggae feel, here formed up in 12 bar form. Use the chord shapes to find new melody pitches, drum licks for motor hand rhythms ideas. The 'improv' shape also works well down one octave to the open strings.

Author's note. Perusing through our library of songs and keeping a tally, we can see that the majority of songs are written in a major key. That said, some styles and cultures lean to the minor, so a best source for chords and progressions is from the musical art itself; songs.

Begin jamming with bass note rhythms. These next examples provide bass notes to play your instrument with. Add chords and melodies to create a duo format. With a phone, record your session as a voice memo and listen back. These bass pitches and lines loop over and over, so just find your way in and keep it all going with rhythm. When it stops just click them again to begin a new loop. Recording helps us remember the good ideas we find and how do we like the music we are making while remembering; 'if it sounds good, it is good' and that 'all music was once new.'

For guitar, these folk chord shapes have been with us for a couple of hundred years now, some even go back to the lute, so they're in a million tunes now, do try to learn them all here and now if need be. Surely they can get you started. That these 'open' shapes all become some sort of a movable barre chords is the kaboom here. Fingerings change but the shape of the core arpeggios within remain. Barre chords get us moving up the neck without a capo, easing key changes and modulation along the way of an arrangement.

'Add 7' to a triad and we 'giant step' to a the next level and begin to morph more of the available colors together and thus, surely moving us into the realms of blues and jazz and 'jazz up' whatever might come along in need of a bit of 'jazzing up.' Cool ? Open chord shapes in 'G / Em.' Example 5.

Find a fave ? Cool. Now what ? Can you spell out the letter names of all of the triads included above ?

Jammin' with Franz and chords. The following soloing / jam with band vamps are generated with Franz being the motor. While not heard in the mix, know that there's clicks driving these rhythms and chords into mainly four bar vamps. Find the pitches and chords 'by ear', and even teach one or a few of two the vamps you dig to your own peeps and bandmates, and commence the jammin of your own creative collabs into your own original songs.

Montuno. From South of the Equator comes the mountains of montuno riffs that energize the Latin songs and their dances. And while there dozens of riff of melodies and chords and rhythms, there's a couple of super cool and common montunos that work like everytime we need an intro, vamp for a tune, something to jamm on, interlude between sections, so a lot of places in our music to 'bring the montuno', 'bring a mountain.'

pedal tones

polytonal

by 1/2 step

constant structure

most common ?

movable Hollywood chords

Review. Jamm loops are where we all get to at some point to move our music ahead. They can range from jammin' with the radio to selected songs, to just the clicks of a metronome to motorize time for our imagination to completely conjure. All good; time is essential in the jamm, developing an instinct for looping four bar phrase, building through the color tones to a climax, finding a beat and rhythm to syncopate,

"The key to the future of the world is finding the optimistic stories and ... letting them be known."