I have been involved with a jazz guitar rehearsal group for several years now. This gives each member the chance to play songs he likes and wants to learn or just get better at, playing with other guitar players.

We met during the week, Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. We changed nights from time to time to suit members schedules. This has been much better than just playing along with backing tracks, which is good too.

Playing with other people is more fun, and it is always different. There are a number of things that I have found make things work better.

Our group had between three and ten players, but regardless how many showed up, we all had a chance to play. We discussed what songs we wanted to play the next week, and had fakebook sheets of each song for each member, usually three  to five songs.

Here’s one of the fakebooks we use: The New Real Book, Volume 1 (Key of C). There’s also a second volume: The Real Book – Volume II (C Instruments): C Instruments 2nd Edition (Fake Book). Got a bassist in the group? There an edition for him or her too: The Real Book -Bass Clef; Sixth Edition (Fake Book)

One of our members had a copy machine at work, so he took the responsibility of making copies for the group. This also ensures that we all had the same arrangements in the same key.

One of us would play melody and the others rhythm. We would play the song twice, and the soloist could play the melody straight, or improvise, his choice. At the end of the two times through, the next player in line would take his turn as soloist, and the same format continued until everyone got their turn. Sometimes we would play the song all over again, or just go on to the next one, and follow the same format.

At a jam session, everyone must know the songs, or you just have nothing to play. Each meeting we would have the charts ready for the next week, so everyone would know what to practice. It becomes obvious which players did not practice. Everyone soon learns that if you come prepared, you sound better, and it is more fun, and you learn things by playing with other musicians that you don’t learn on your own.

Organization makes a huge difference. It is easy to turn a session like this into a blues-only jam session, because not enough people know the same songs.  You have to keep each member interested. Playing blues is OK, but you don’t learn a repertoire that way and it becomes boring quickly.

We picked jazz tunes, bossas, and standards that everyone should know anyway. After a few months, we had quite a list of songs and everyone became competent at playing them.

Here is a list of some of the songs we play: Fly Me To The Moon, Solar, Girl From Ipanema, Wave, Four, Green Dolphin Street, Gentle Rain, All The Things You Are, Yesterdays, Desafinado, Here’s That Rainy Day, A Foggy Day, Polka Dots and Moonbeams, Georgia On My Mind, Autumn Leaves, All Blues, Blue Bossa, Blue Monk. All these are well known songs that you can play on a gig, and are “must know” songs.

If you have questions on how to start a group in your city, please leave a comment and I’ll respond.