I’ve enjoyed singing and making music most of my life. My family had hootenannies on the 4th of July, with my mom playing guitar, my dad the banjo, and me, starting at age 13, learning and playing guitar as well. I was a camp song leader and music instructor at Temple Akiba in Culver City, where I learned song leading skills. In college I would get together with friends and play and sing songs, and after school I started learning more songs and taking my guitar along on camping trips and weekends in the mountains.
My friend Ken who also played guitar said to me, around 2005, “You know, some people have poker night, or softball night. How about we have a Music Night, a night once a week we get together with our instruments and play and sing songs?” It started with just a few of us and grew to an email list of 150 people. Our “Music Night” jam began in living rooms and later moved to an artists’ collective, coffee house, cidery, tap room, and bars in Sacramento.
Meanwhile another friend (another Kim) noticed my passion for jamming and said, “You oughtta go to the Strawberry Music Festival, you would love it!” My only regret is that it took me another 6 years to actually do that, which is where I truly found my people – folks like me who love to jam and play and sing with others, all night long if possible. My Camp All Y’all campmates taught me what I’ve come to refer to as “jamiquette” – how to literally play well with others. Pretty soon I had compiled a list of 20 jamming tips and decided to share them with Pete Seeger. In August 2013 I wrote him a letter asking his advice how to spread the joy of jamming to more people and sending along my tips.
The response from Pete arrived in my mailbox on Jan. 28th, 2014, the day after he passed away. It was one of the most remarkable things that has ever happened to me (you can read about it in this Fretboard Journal article or listen to this NPR “driveway moment” story from All Things Considered). Pete told me he loved my jamming tips, and that I should share them by creating a beautiful pamphlet on good paper with nice drawings. So that’s what I did, with help from my artist and designer friends. I also asked the Strawberry folks if I could teach a “Learn to Jam!” workshop at the festival and they said “Yes!” and I’ve been doing that since 2015 along with my friends Mokai, Cris and Ken.
Below is the “Jamiquette” poster that is the inside of the 11×17 folded “Learn to Jam!” pamphlet, which also includes tips for finding a jam, hosting a jam, fun jam words and things to bring to a music jam.
Making music is one of the oldest and most joyful things humans know how to do, and also how we create community. Spread the word, start a jam and make a practice of learning and sharing songs with others!
Kim Alexander's Projects 