Blues Guitar Jam Session Mini-Course Lesson 7:

How To Get Rid Of Your Fear That You Are ‘Not Good Enough’ To Jam With Other Musicians

Welcome back! Today we’ll look at how to lose your fear when playing guitar in front of others in order to create music that drives deep down to the soul of people.

First, let’s talk about the need to make yourself appear better than you are when you are jamming. This is something that we all want to do when we are playing in front of others, it’s hardwired in us as human beings, but it’s holding us back big time in many ways! Even when we are just talking to people we have met for the first time, we want to appear better than we are.

One advice I would give you to appear really good in the eyes of others is this; just allow yourself to be playing at the level you are currently playing because in that way, all anxiety will melt away. Think about it, you cannot possibly expect from yourself to play better than your current level, so why try to be better than you are? Just accept whatever level you are playing on now and try to have fun on stage.

“Fake It Until You Make It”

Let us get on to some topics that will positively surprise your listeners with your guitar playing even if it is your first jam session. We talked about embracing your current level on the guitar and the second idea that I will give you that is really important is about the topic of body posture. When you appear confident on stage, you will not only look confident in the eyes of your listeners, but paradoxically you will start to play more confidently. Also, it is important to move around on stage. When you focus on moving your body with the music, you are aligning yourself with the music and you are allowing yourself to have fun; and soon you will find all worries melt away.

Interpret Your Fear As Excitement

Whenever you feel that the fearfull jitters are coming up, tell yourself that they are actually excitement. Fear and excitement have a physical reaction that are identical to eachother, your body doesn’t know the difference. It’s your mind that interprets the jitters, but you control how you see this.

You need to frame the situation as an oppertunity to learn in order to turn fear into excitement. Say to yourself “I’m excited to take on this challenge and learn from it”. Let your adrenalin work for you instead of against you, by replacing negative thoughts with positive ones.

Less Is More (At Least In The Beginning)

Another very cool idea that you can experiment with when it is your first jam session is this; when you are getting up on stage and you are jamming with the other guys; remember that the less you play, the more confident you will look in the eyes of the listener. Think about this for a second. When it is your turn in the jam session to play and you start playing all over the place – will people think that you are a great player? Maybe the answer is yes, or maybe not. But in general it’s a fact that most great guitarists do not play that much, at least not in the beginning of a jam session.

So when you first enter the stage, you want to appear confident and you just want to have fun – but do not go nuts and try to play all over the place because people will notice that you are playing lots of notes because you are not self-confident enough to play slowly or play fewer notes.

Creating Musical Tension

There is an exercise that you can do if you are jamming with yourself (for instance, at home with a blues guitar backing track). When improvising, instead of starting to jam with the backing track all at once and playing lots of notes, it is better to just take a back seat and stop playing in the beginning.

Try to not start playing at the beginning of the backing track, but wait for a couple of seconds. Once practiced at home, you can experiment with this on stage. This is a really easy way to create some tension. At the same time it will calm you down, because when practiced over time you will feel no need to play or impress anyone. When you don’t feel like you ‘need’ to play in order to get the approval of others, you will be ready to create wonderful music that drives deep down to the soul of people. In the beginning, it will feel awkward; but the more you do it, the more you will feel that it creates tension and people will start to pay attention to what you’re doing.

This idea not only works in the beginning of your guitar solo, but it also works very well when in the midst of the solo. In this case, you simply stop playing for a while and it will create a very special effect. This also applies to rhythm guitar playing. When you are accompanying someone playing guitar and you suddenly stop for a few beats or even a full measure or two, it can do wonders for the atmosphere between the musicians.

As you see this is a very easy exercise that you can do right away when improvising a solo; just suddenly stop playing for a while and see how far you can stretch this before you can draw the listener’s attention back to you. Have fun with this!

Learn about the Essential Blues Guitar Soloing Lesson