Blues Jam Masters Feel Joy in the Blues of Live Music
Playing live blues is about remembering them;
Hearing live Blues is about forgetting them.
About Blues Jam Masters
Our Story
An Organization to Revive Live Music
Live music has lost its once widespread popularity to the point most weddings don't even have a live band any more. DJ''s are cheaper--one person instead of many, and audio equipment is so good and powerful there is no need for band amp's and live musicians to provide great sounding music any more. In addition, the attitudes of people have changed, and most would choose to listen to a familiar song they like by the original artist than by other musicians, and especially prefer the known to the new.
Blues Jam Masters is a way to make live music popular again; to add some prestige to being a musician, to add status to clubs that provide live music, and to evoke excitement from music lovers everywhere as the competition heats up for the ultimate title of:
Blues Jam Master!
Oh, did I mention that since people love competitions, talent shows, and voting--as well as listening to great music, watching bands play, and rooting for familiar faces--even following their careers--as favorite guitarists shred, bassists thump, drummers flail and sweat, harp players blow And suck! and singers rap blues in colorful suede shoes--there's plenty of money to be made everywhere! From artists to clubs and venues to streaming live to televised highly rated matchups--in the future.
Visions
Who knows, someday they might even teach jam band instruments in schools, so students would actually continue to play them after they graduate, and when they meet others who also have been taught how to jam. High schools and colleges could compete, like with football--the heroes morphing from athletes to musicians.
"Whose lead guitarist will dominate this year's Regional Finals, as Memphis takes on Austin for the South region against Chicago, already in up North, while LA out West takes on New York City of the East to make the National Semi's;?!" "Tough call, but that young Chicago bass player with fingers like an octopus sets a groove that cannot be beat, and gives his guys the best chance to win!"
What We Do
Blues Jam Masters is a cooperative organization that accepts registrations from musicians who want to participate in improvised "jam" sessions playing Blues music in the familiar forms, as well as clubs that want to register to host Blues Jam competitions among the registered musicians who choose to play that club. These Blues Jam Master Clubs may use that title, and may elect to participate in regional competitions among other Blues Jam Master Clubs.
Clubs will have the highest degree of flexibility in setting the parameters for their internal competitions. Two associated web-based apps will be available:
- MakeJamBand will randomly define each blues jam band from the available musicians, or fill-in music app, and randomly set any musical parameters of the jam, such as key and tempo, style, and other associated parameters;
- RateMusician will provide users an integrated Rating mechanism by musician and instrument, and maintain a database for each musician including scores, ratings, and standings, club affiliations, profile information, and so on.
Regions will also decide their own internal rules and procedures.
Inter-Regional competitions will conform to a common standard, also used in the Semi-Final and National Blues Jam Master competitions.
Our Team
The Lead Content Influencer is the founder, Joseph Daniel "JD" Adamson [jdAdamson.com].
Here's the Idea
Here's the idea:
- Musicians sign up to jam at Venues/Clubs that sign up to host Blue Jam Master events.
- The Blues Jam Masters app takes sign-ups and randomly puts a Blues Jam Band together from the available musicians.
- Band in a Box or a comparable app is used to fill in drums and/or bass when needed.
- A web-based Blues Jam Masters ratings app lets audience and judges rate each musician by their instrument and role--for example a guitar player could get high scores for rhythm and low ones for lead.
- A database is integrated with the apps to track scores, rankings, status, affiliations and all other applicable information.
- Each blues jam band plays and each Musician is rated. The bands are not considered, only the musicians.
- Highest rated Musicians move forward; the numbers reduced--e.g. by half.
- Last band to play is by the winning Blues Jam Masters!
A "Blues Jam Band" is comprised of a "Beat" section of {drums and bass}, a "Rhythm" section of {guitar or kin, keys, ...}, a "Lead" section of {guitar, keys, blues harp, fiddle, sax, ...} and an optional Vocalist. Some roles may be filled by more than one instrument--for example a guitar or keyboard player can play rhythm and lead at different times in the same jam.
The smallest jam band consists of at minimum beat, rhythm, and lead--so drums, guitar, and keyboard for example, or bass, guitar, and blues harp would qualify. A minimum of 3 people are required.
A blues band should have both drums and bass, so an app like Band in a Box is used to augment available musicians for drums and/or bass parts.
A full Blues Jam band is Drums, Bass, 2 x Rhythm (e.g. guitar and synth), Lead, and Vocals--at most 6 musicians.
The maximum jam duration is arbitrary, but initially specified to be 5 minutes--enough to fully develop the jam. Minimum would be on the order of 2 minutes--enough time is needed to evaluate each of the musicians.
Players and producers should be ready to go, so consider a nominal 3 minute break between jams, which should be plenty of time to get everybody off and new players back on.
That's 8 minutes per jam, or 7 jams per hour. That can accommodate First Round of 4 bands jamming, Second Round of 2 bands jamming, and the Jam Masters victory song!
Maximum players for 1 hour event: 4 full Blues Jam Bands at 5 musicians each equals 20--up to 24 if each band has 2 rhythm players, not expect to be likely.
The minimum jam band is 3 musicians, so nominally at least 12 musicians are needed for a 1 hour event.
Drummers and bass players are expected to be fewer in number and play more frequently than rhythm, lead, and vocalists. For example, if there's only one drummer they may play every round, or be substituted out for the fill-in app, e.g. Band in a Box at the other members' request. Venues decide details.
An official Blues Jam Master Winner-Award should be presented to the winners, such as a Certificate or card, or Gold Guitar Pick, Drumstick, ... mic' replica, ..
Musicians can validate their standings in the web-app as evidence of their success!
Winning performances are authorized to be hosted at the Blues Jam Masters YouTube channel. Venues will have their own channels or playlists.