ever have an impromptu jam session at GC or other music store?

[guitarman3001]

Had my first one last Friday at GC. Most fun I've had in a while. I went in just to pass some time waiting for traffic to die down, picked up a LP and plugged into an egnater rebel 30. I was just twiddling around and started playing a pseudo malague

[Coralkong]

I've done that!

I was in the acoustic guitar room at my local guitar store with the door open trying out a Yamaha. I heard some guy in the electric guitar section start in on some Who songs. I started playing along with him (loud strumming, PT style), and I then heard somebody on the drum set. I laughed and went along with it for a couple of minutes and we ended up in the middle of Tommy somewhere.
It was good fun. They seemed to especially appreciate the "Mr. Walker went out to sea, his unborn son would never know him" part I started bellowing out.

I laughed out loud. Good fun, for sure.

[cratz2]

Back when Mars was still around, a friend of mine was getting a stereo put in his car and he and I went over to Mars. He was a GREAT singer and in the acoustic room I was playing More Than Words and he was singing along just banging the chords out and three different people asked what the name of our band was.

Not the hardest song in the world, but I definitely took it as a compliment considering that, other than singing like idiots at work, that was the first time we had ever performed together at all.

Only other time was kinda anti-climactic. A guy was playing some Metallica and ended up playing the lead intro to Fade To Black and I played along with the arpeggiated bit along with him. I probably would have been more into it if the roles were reversed.

[theAntihero]

Ive had poeple start jamming with me in music stores, but usually its a stupid one upmanship sort of deal.

I was trying out a blackstar 5 watter in GC once where a guy was doing a bunch of ac/dc songs at very loud volumes heavily distorted thru a Line 6, you know for that authentic ac/dc sound. Everytime id turn up a little bit so i could hear myself he'd turn up louder and give me a arrogent little look and play something a bit more technique driven. It was kinda sad really, the guy was a decent player, but not great. So anyway he starts doing a horrid rendition of Purple Haze and you could tell he's thinking "yeah thats right im the greatest ever, you cant beat a Hendrix song". So i dimed the little 5 watter and played Manic Depression over him and left. You could tell he had never played over anything but the standard 4/4 or at least sucked at other time signatures. The guy screwed around for a minute trying to figure out what i had just did and left in a huff.

Ill never understand why people go to a music store just in the hopes that someone will be in awe of their playing or try to do the whole im better than you thing. Its sad and frankly Manic Depression isnt that hard of a song.

[guitarmandp]

There's one of my problems with GC. People don't go there to buy, they go to jam.

 

I guess it's fun if you are the one jamming, but if I'm looking for a guitar I really don't want to hear some guys "jam session". Usually when you are forced to listen to some kids jam session, you don't hear any ground breaking guitar playing.

[AxAxSxS]

I had something like that at the Experiance Hendrix museam in seattle. they have an exhibit where you can play instruments and jam a bit with other people if you want. Ended up with a 3 piece doing a little improv jam, was pretty fun. I kinda want to go up there with the band sometime and get crazy just to see how people react

[rocknhard]

Is this like speed dating?

[Spike Li]

Only other time was kinda anti-climactic. A guy was playing some Metallica and ended up playing the lead intro to Fade To Black...

This is what happened with me

I was trying out a sweet black LP custom that I was considering buying, and a guy nearby started playing the intro solo to Fade to Black, so i started playing along with him. I could just see him through a small gap in a wall of amps, and when hed finished he looked around, saw me and smiled and nodded.

[Electric Monk]

My friend claims that he once joined in upon hearing someone playing the drums to Tom Sawyer, and that a bassist joined in after. Played the whole song, he says. I wonder.

[rocknhard]

My friend claims that he once joined in upon hearing someone playing the drums to Tom Sawyer, and that a bassist joined in after. Played the whole song, he says. I wonder.

It's true, I played the synthesizer that day

[Bro Blue]

I was at a local store where I used to live and I was messing around trying out an amp. There was a guy playing some mean harp a trying out an amp and we swapped licks back and forth. It was really cool.

[hshaitan]

I had a few when I worked at GC.

[Crisco]

It's annoying.

Hey....
You....
Get offa my cloud
don't hang around baby
two's a crowd
I say......

[ajympt]

I was messing around in the acoustic room once in GC and a guy walked in and said " Tell me if this is any good" and played a totally cool funny blues song about gas prices and politicians and general evilness-- great player, nice guy. Never caught his name, but I had a much better time than usually do watching LP's get banged into the amp displays by people that have no intention of buying anything EVER.

[MichaelSaulnier]

Most of the playing I hear at the GC's near me are wheedly wheedly type scale runs. Not usually very musical, and typically with a "look at me" attitude.

I far prefer when someone's actually playing a song or something that has a bit of musical context to it... the only negative being when two "friends" come in for a hour or two "concert". That can get a little old.

I generally spend as little time in GC as I can... and when I want to check out a guitar, I'll go to the "high end amp room", where I can have a semblance of privacy... if there's something I like, I'll take advantage of GC's liberal return policy and bring it home to check out in my own rig.



M