When do you think people are jamming / improvising?

As you practice improvising and jamming, it might be interesting to listen to other people perform and wonder about whether they are jamming /improvising.

Think About

How would you know if someone or a group is jamming / improvising?
What might you learn from listening to several different live performances of a song by the same person or group?

Get Started

As we mentioned in an earlier XP, the only way to really know if someone or a group is jamming /improvising is to find out directly from that person or group.

Choose some of the following videos of people performing different styles of music. [You might want to come back to this page several times to try out a lot of different examples and to listen more than once to the examples]

As you listen, listen for if/when you think someone, several people, or the entire group is/are improvising / jamming.
1. Try doing something physical like pointing at the screen or jotting down what time in the video each moment is that you think improvising is happening
2. Try to articulate to someone the reason(s) why you think improvising is taking place
3. Listen to music that you are both familiar with and unfamiliar with

Snarky Puppy feat. Laura Mvula and Michelle Willis Sing to the Moon from Family Dinner Volume II