Jam-Sessions - A Musical Discourse
Over the last couple of years, I have been finding myself reflecting on life a lot.
Specifically, I have been pondering about what values, relationships and experiences truly matter to me and how to incorporate them into daily life.
That also included my passion for music.
Lately, I more and more figured out my place in the Berlin music scene - not in a band or an ensemble, but participating in spontaneous and ever changing constellations of different people who simply love to explore this magnificent tonal cosmos: jam-sessions.
These vibrant musical moments, when something completely new and vivid emerges out of a spontaneous improvisation conducted by strangers, definitely left me speechless and charmed.
Many times I just sat there smiling, feeling such pure and authentic waves of emotion which I haven’t felt for many years.
From that point, I started reflecting about these experiences - that’s how I am - and I think this ongoing process already led me to some fruitful and beautiful observations.
For me there is so much to say about music, its mystery and why I think I can never finally come to a really satisfying conclusion about this phenomenon.
A curse of recursion, but that’s how it is - we never know how much we don’t know.
To keep it short, I like to pin it down to three fascinating observations about musical interaction.
Consonance, Dissonance and Resonance
While these terms may already suggest some meaning, I don’t want to precisely stick to their exact meanings in e.g. music theory or physics. Rather I consider them as metaphors for my personal impressions.
These thoughts came to my mind in musical situations with a respectful, mindful and humble manner.
Consonance - I guess we all love harmony and mutual agreement whether it is in discussing hot topics, politics, society, the meaning of life; or in a creative process or collaboration. Working with other people usually seems to have the potential of conflict and argument, but there is a silent sigh of relief if that tension doesn’t boil over.
Same with music: Isn’t it great if five strangers meet up to improvise music and quickly arrange themselves in a standard configuration of jazz or rock?
Sure it is!
Recognizing the familiar, comfortable feeling of well known sounds and compositions, in which everyone already knows their role and time to shine, seems absolutely fine!
Acknowledging the consensus and sticking to it, naturally feels like the right thing to do.
Never change a running system - to keep it running, to keep it effective and reliable.
But what if this seemingly easy solution gets monotonous after a few sessions and a dooming feeling of boredom and apathy arises towards these spontaneous compositions?
Dissonance - Because of that, even more important appears to me that moment of dissonance in a (musical) conversation. As natural as we strive for harmony, we inevitably end up in situations where consensus falls apart. To (potentially) restore it and to achieve this feeling of harmony again, we first need to directly look at that odd spark.
What I have experienced at respectful jam-sessions with a sense for discussion culture:
This very odd spark; this moment of separation and distance often turns out to be a great narrative fork in a journey that is just about to be told.
Again, it requires mutual respect and an agreement to disagree, which I am going to emphasize later.
But I believe that these are values are worth cultivating, so I’d like to build upon that.
Once this odd spark emerges in that room of people, it reveals great potential to transform the journey that has already happened into something suspenseful, ambiguous, but nothing more than truly exciting!
After a heated up discussion is over and some people are like - okay, I gathered a few more opinions, but my decision is clear and remains unchanged - we all could go home and sit in our comfortable echo chamber and feed ourselves with all the same stimulus again.
Instead, now the actual fun begins:
Discussion and disagreement create tension between us individuals, who are nothing but unique and not simply pieces of hardware that want to be stuck together. The puzzle is to be figured out in that same process of the whole falling apart. The puzzle is as unique as the human beings who constitute it.
Creative sparks arise from that pool of difference.
We laugh and celebrate our own individuality as we collectively ignite these sparks and watch the fire rise to the night sky and feed us with that feeling of deep human connection.
We gather and sit around that fire that feels like home for so many people - music.
These musical journeys guided by this feeling often - not always - happened to be deeply inspiring and moving.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that it could also be the opposite case:
Discussion can make people turn away, organic flows are simply not emerging and an overall frustrating feeling may sum up that night.
That’s why for me there is a third relevant aspect to be considered to better deal with not only overwhelming joy, but also disappointment at jam-sessions.
Resonance - Agree to disagree. As mentioned before, this attitude can help to handle a situation of conflict. I like the idea of finding the consensus in the midst of disagreement, but how does resonance now play its role in this „trinity“ of consonance, dissonance and resonance?
We all strive for harmony and (usually) like to avoid conflict, but reality is that disagreement and conflict are going to arise in every human relationship. The question now is how to deal with this or to be precise: Which attitude or approach towards this everlasting risk might lead to fruitful and constructive outcomes?
As it’s very difficult - probably impossible - to generalize that for every human interaction, I’d like to conclude for the scenario that I am quite familiar with: jam-sessions.
A bunch of people meet up in a giant city Berlin. These people couldn’t be more different, but they share the same intention to solve this puzzle - at least for this fleeting night.
Given the circumstance that both consonance and dissonance play their parts in this creative collaboration, it’s now up to the musicians to join this experiment carrying inside curiosity, tolerance, the ability to listen and a certain readiness to fail.
If the spontaneous musical composition is honestly asked to emerge in its uniqueness and weirdness, then the musicians are asked to let the music take itself to that unknown and magical place.
The musicians need to let go of control over that complex and uncontrollable process of spontaneous improvisation while tolerating the risk of failure (failing in achieving these flow moments).
Since playing music is an emotional act, full of human flaws and dead ends, the musicians need to allow themselves to be touched and moved by that piece of music. They need to allow themselves to be vulnerable to fully immerse themselves in that process of creation.
Arriving in a state of resonance, you’re enabled to be inspired and moved by your surroundings and fellow musicians. That can be both a „positive“ or „negative“ inspiration, but that doesn’t matter in the first place.
It’s about encouraging yourself again to experience the effects of human connection and feeling one‘s place in this existence.
Trust The Creative Process
Incorporating consonance, dissonance and resonance, the musical discourse happening at jam-sessions can take the musicians to unique places with magical forms of emergence consisting both of tone and emotion.
It might be a little bit of utopia to dream of every jam-session being that way and leaving you speechless and inspired all the time.
But it happens from time to time.
Forcing the music or the discussion to flow is predestined to fail - that’s for sure.
Let’s remain in hope for wonders and let’s stay curious about what this unpredictable and complex world might reveal to us - if we are ready to listen.
If you like to further explore the concept of „Resonance“ in human relationships, I can really recommend reading some of the great literature written by German Sociologist Hartmut Rosa.
JP - August 2023