Gary Meek

Do kids get together and jam like we used to? We used to jam somewhere almost every night. Practice all day jam all night. I didn’t go to college. That was my education, but a lot of friends who were in college were jamming with us. Every party I went to had a live band playing. If we didn’t jam we listened to music on real speakers in groups of people together. Then we’d talk about what we had heard and probably play it again and again. Maybe figure something of it out on the piano and start playing it. I always had my ax around close by. Maybe some of this goes on but I think a lot of social listening is gone. Music is either for dancing or ambience. Most kids I see are listening in headphones. Some in groups. Are they listening to the same thing? It seems so isolating to me. Especially to those who want to take music seriously. We also used to talk about the mechanics and technical aspects of music and debate about what sounds better and who is getting the best sound and why. The way engineers and producers do about the whole picture, we used to do about our individual instruments. How can you do that if your not experiencing the music together. I think that’s why live jazz is and will continue to come back. People want to experience music together, at least in my community, and I think elsewhere too. But if they are not doing it, kids should jam more! Call your friends up and get together and play. More fun than computer games or dumb TV shows. Just my opinion.