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From: Hugh Messenger
Date: Sun, 6 Oct 1996 12:30:54 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Re: Clueless at the mic

On Sat, 5 Oct 1996, Steve & Anne Price wrote:

> I disagree that we should suspend judgment, because audiences
> don't and other musicians don't and if a jam gets to be preponderantly
> populated by people who are cluesless at the mic, then the good musicians
> don't come back, the audiences don't come back, and the venue turns into
> a ship of fools, and eventually dies.

Couldn't have put it better myself. My experience is that a good jam will
only last as long as the host can keep whipping the potential Gus's into
shape and maintain a high enough ratio of good musicians to clueless
ones.

I've seen many good jams die because the good musicians just couldn't
suffer the fools gladly any more. And that's not a snobbery thing, or
musical ability thing. Even technically good players can be "cluesless at
the mic", or "fools".

And of course, the first sign of a jam deteriorating is usually the
arrival of the very bad harmonica players who have overinflated opinions
of their own playing.

I agree with everything Steve Jennings and other have said about the need
for "clueless" players to get up and play in public. But to me there is a
big difference between the "clueless newbie" who will improve and
genuinely wants to get better, and the "clueless old hat" who thinks he
rocks and keeps showing up like a bad penny. It's the latter that kill
jam sessions, and need to be considered for retroactive birth control.

-- hugh