Intermediate Jam

​At the intermediate jam, we will no longer restrict ourselves to playing only songs on the top 20 and additional 30 lists for the first half of the night.

For the initial phase of the intermediate jam, we will continue playing collective breaks for most songs, except for the 14 songs on the attached list titled 'the hits of 2016'. The 14 songs in question have all been played more than 24 times at the jam since Sept. 2015. 48 beginner jams have been held from Sept. 10, 2015 to the present. The closer to the top of the list a song is, the more often it has been played at the jam. Cripple Creek, which is at the very top of the list has been played 51 times at the beginner jam since Sept. 2015, and 18 of those times have been in just the last four months! (It has not been uncommon for Cripple Creek, and a few of the other songs at the very top of the list, to be played at the jam more than once in the same night.) 

When any of these 14 songs are called at the intermediate jam, unless there is a special reason not to do this, we will play them up to speed and with individual, rather than collective, breaks. When I say 'up to speed', I have in mind the speeds that the songs have been played at at the jam on the nights when the songs have been played faster than on other nights. I don't necessarily mean playing all these songs as fast as they are played on the recordings I have sent out for the songs in the song of the week emails. Nevertheless, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a listen back to some of those recordings with attention to the tempos the songs are played at on the recordings. For those tempos are for the most part the tempos that we should be working towards being able to play the songs at at the jam.

On the same sheet as the 'hits' of 2016, there is another list titled 'B-List' songs of 2016. The 16 songs on this list are songs from the top 20 and additional 30 lists that I think would be most beneficial to play more often at the jam than what they have been played in the past. Since many of these songs have been played less than 10 times at the jam since Sept. 2015, we will for now continue doing collective breaks for them when they are called, and, for now, they need not be always be played 'up to speed'.

Hits and b-list songs of 2016.pdf
File Size:	303 kb
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​I have also included in the attachments a list of 20 songs that I intend on making 'songs of the week' within the next 6 months at the jam, and this week's song of the week is on that list, and is one of the 8 songs on that list that has been played at least once at the jam since Sept. 2015. 

Many of the songs on the list are not as simple and straightforward as the songs on the top 20 and additional 30 lists. There is more of a variety of types of bluegrass songs on this list than on the previous lists used for the jam, and there is a higher concentration of songs that tend not to show up very much outside bluegrass contexts. Since it is usually easier to learn a song that one has already heard a number of times rather than a song that one is unfamiliar with, I recommend going to youtube to take a listen to the songs that are on the list that you are not familiar with before they are made songs of the week for the jam. 

Since two or more songs may share the same title, and often a bluegrass song will have the same title as a non-bluegrass song, it can help to narrow down your search if you punch in together with the name of the song, the name of a well-known bluegrass artist or band. For 'Cry, Cry Darlin'',look for Bill Monroe's or Ricky Skaggs' version. For 'Homestead On The Farm' (a.k.a. I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home), check out 'Mac Wiseman'. For 'Cryin' Holy', try either 'J.D. Crowe and the New South' or 'Bill Monroe'. For 'Little Willie' and 'White Dove', punch in either 'The Stanley Brothers' or 'Ralph Stanley'. Search for 'Love Please Come Home', in connection with 'Reno & Smiley' or 'Bill Monroe', and for 'Why Don't You Tell Me So' as played by 'Flatt & Scruggs' or by 'Tony Rice'.

Songs of the week.pdf
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