In most jam settings, people “call” a tune and then lead it. If it’s a song (with lyrics), that means singing. Others may join with harmonies on the refrains. Instrumentals can be tricker for other melodic instruments since they require picking up the melody “on the fly.” This is something that can make old time fiddle jams difficult.
One of the easiest ways to participate is to have things prepared that you can call and share. But we can take a step further by keeping a list of tunes that have been called before. They are likely to show up again. (Stick around a community and you are rewarded with a sense of having learned the same songs.)
There’s another way to make it a touch easier, too: we can call some tunes in advance. Folks who have the time can listen and practice ahead of time. Of course, this is not required by any means. There is no expectation in most jam settings that everyone will know every tune. Only an advanced or well-established community would be surprised if you don’t know something.
If you want to add something here for the next week or two, then send me an email at [email protected].
While some of these tunes have versions that rise to the level of “standard,” many show up in all sorts of settings from very different artists. The same is true for lyrics: there are so many versions. I use bluegrasslyrics.com where possible simply because it’s not bogged down with ads. Where I have a transcription, I’ll include a link to the version that the transcription comes from, but otherwise, take these links as starting points on an exploration.
We certainly repeat tunes, but these lists are largely the new ones from each week.