"The Way of Jamming (1 of 2)"

Transcript
Page 1. Panel 1. Title reads, "The World On A String presents the Way of Jamming. A 12 page extra-special teaching comic. CC BY-SA Ken Alleman 2020." Graphic of a guitar and two stylized dragons with dog heads. Panel 2. Text reads, "There is a world beyond trading solos or noodling aimlessly. Jamming is about conjuring a composed piece of music into existence. For a group of musicians, there's nothing quite like the moment when a jam clicks. It's one of the best parts of making music. That moment isn't a matter of luck. Jamming is a complex skill, one that can be learned. Hopefully with the help of the following pages."

Page 2. Panel 1. Garden backdrop. A man, who is exactly as smart and good at teaching as Bruce Lee and also looks just like him, speaks to the reader. "My name is Mr. Long. I think of jamming as a paradox. A way of thinking that is guided but unlimited. Like a circular pathway with many beginnings and endings." Panel 2. A circle of arrows, labeled "the jamming circle." Various points are labeled, in an order that comes back around to the beginning. "Assess the situation." "Construct a part." "Create a structure." "Listen to your partners." Panel 3. Mr. Long, who is currently dressed in a brightly colored track suit with stripes down the sides, prepares to snap his fingers. He says, "Since we're talking music, it is important to dress for the occasion." Panel 4. He snaps his fingers and is suddenly wearing a cool suit with sunglasses. He says, "Ah. That's better."

Page 3. Panel 1. Mr. Long is seated nonchalantly atop the jamming circle. He says, "Shall we get started? When starting a jam, it is prudent to assess the situation." Panel 2. He leans into the next panel from the left edge, overlooking the next label, "construct a part." He says, "Sometimes, the situation is that everyone is waiting on you to start. In which case, you can jump ahead." Panel 3. He has returned to the "assess the situation" part of the jamming circle. He says, "Otherwise, there are some important questions to be asked first." Panels 4, 5, and 6. Text reads, "What's everyone's sound? What's the overall sonic texture?" "What are they playing? What's the key? Is it busy or sparse?" "Make sure what you play is balanced with what they play."

Page 4. Panel 1. Mr. Long sidles over to the part of the jamming circle labeled "construct a part." He says, "Now comes the question, what do you play?" Panel 2. We see three Mr. Longs. He says, "Every melody uses three basic moves." The first Mr. Long, who is walking casually, says, "Steps." The next Mr. Long skips with his fist in the air. He says, "Skips." The third Mr. Long takes a huge step with both feet in the air. He says, "Leaps." Panel 3. Mr. Long says, "This applies to any scale. We'll use E minor as an example. A Sep is a move from one note to the nearest note in the scale." We see a scale diagram illustrating this point, with two adjacent dots in the scale diagram circled and connected. Panel 4. Mr. Long says, "A skip is a move that skips the nearest note and moves onto the next." We see the scale diagram again. Two notes are circled with one note in between them. The connecting line goes around the middle note to connect the two circled notes on either side. Panel 5. Mr. Long says, "A leap is a move that leaps over two or more notes in the scale." We see the scale diagram again. Two notes are circled that are several notes apart from on another. A line weaves around the intervening notes in order to connect the two circles.

Page 5. Panel 1. Mr. Long addresses the reader directly. "What I'm about to tell you, you can violate if necessary, so long as you know why." Panel 2. Mr. Long says, "When improvising a melody, use steps most often, your basic building blocks. Use skips less often, and leaps sparingly." We see a line graph illustrating that steps are used most frequently, leaps least frequently, and skips somewhere in between. Panel 3. Mr. Long walks down a garden path lined with guideposts. He says, "A melody is like a pathway through the composition. Notes that are close together are like tiles on the path. Notes that are farther apart stand out like guideposts. Notes that are very far apart are like major landmarks."

Page 6. Mr. Long says, "Rhythm works in much the same way. A melody that is evenly subdivided will sound steady but featureless, but a melody subdivided a different way for each note will sound chaotic. Either approach will sound uncomposed. For this reason, it's best to lean on steady subdivisions for the most part, with odder subdivisions for contrast and decoration." We see another line graph, similarly to the melody graph, showing uniform subdivisions occuring the most often and varied subdivisions the least.

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