Here's what we did... We started out by attending other people's jam sessions... Once we could play some basic tunes up to tempo, we started playing along at family dances with the house band (when invited). When we moved (further away, longer travels, more gas) we wanted a jam session closer to where we lived so we figured out a day and time and started inviting people... What helped us is to have each other (my husband and me) and my sister who lives nearby (who doesn't seek to play contradance music but humors me and is a good sport about coming to play)... Having a core group is great because the jam session ALWAYS happens... The piano is tricky 'cause you can't haul it around, but there's a really nice jam session at a church around here, so you might see if there's anything like that where you are... Even if it isn't exactly the style of music you're most interested in (if you're into contra style but there's a bluegrass session), attend anyway, you'll get lots of experience, make contacts, and amazingly enough, it all seems to work itself out! Chris Weiler <chris.weiler(a)weirdtable.org> wrote: Hi everyone, I'll start things off with a question. Last week I received a piano and I'm eager to start learning how to play for dances. I'm thinking that one of the best ways to learn is to have people who also want to play come by and jam together. How do people connect to start jam sessions? Is it just plain old networking, or have people done other things? I'm starting off with Peter Barnes' book and re-learning scales and chords from my childhood. But pretty soon I'm going to want to try this with other people. I also have the "Fingers Dancing" book that comes with a CD. Thanks! Chris Weiler Goffstown, NH _______________________________________________ Musicians mailing list Musicians(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/musicians --------------------------------- It's here! Your new message! Get new email alerts with the free Yahoo! Toolbar.