How do I find and prepare for a jam session?

I want to get together and jam with other musicians!

How exactly does this type of thing work? What is the best way to go about finding people to jam with?

I am thinking about the possibility of placing an ad on craig's list. I am also considering seeing if Guitar Center and Music Go Round will let me pin up something on their walls.

I'm generally not a shy person, but am having trouble with stepping out in this regard, especially since I don't even know a whole single song yet! Thanks for any tips!

Voila! Soon you'll know three songs all the way through

Anyway, yeah... the ways you mentioned are pretty much the only ways I know of You could also ask your friends if they have friends who play instruments, though. Or if they play instruments themselves. Though, being friends, I expect you'd know already

I've only been in a few jam sessions so far, so I'm not too experienced. All I did was ask around amongst my friends for musicians, seemed to work for me. As far as the learning songs part, just look up tabs on some of your favorite tunes and get rolling. Good Luck!

Or if tabs for a song aren't available (or are wrong), you can ask me to try to learn them by ear for you HAPPY TO HELP, I BE.

Thanks guys. I'm going to keep practicing when I can and maybe next month I'll put out the feelers some more.

I do have a couple friends who are into music but sadly, aren't very interested in picking up their instrument again or have vastly different music tastes than what I do so I don't think my jamming is going to be with people I already know.

Also, I have two different tabs for The Cure- Lullaby and neither of them seems to match up with what they guy on the YouTube video that I found is playing I'm glad I found the vid because for some reason seeing it played out is helping me get a better grasp of the timing but not having matching tab is a little maddening.

You could always get your hands on a copy of Guitar Pro for private use... That'll give you both a tab and timing too. It's a great tool for learning songs, but I've come to depend on it too much

Guitar Pro is excellent for beginners. Plus, if you know anything about torrents, it's totally free. I don't think Guitar Pro will necessarily hold someone back as much as tabs in general will. Just don't overuse tabs, use your ear just as, if not more, often.

A bit late, sorry!

It depends on what sort of music you want to play, but try looking for blues jams. There are pubs & clubs all over the place doing them.

I got to blues jams twice a month, more if there are any I can get to. They're pretty easy to get into - all you need is a basic knowledge of 12 bar blues, and that will get you through! When I first started going there I knew very little about blues bass (infact, I knew nothing at all!). Through talking to people, watching others & just messing around, I'm now in a couple of blues bands & am able to stand in for others. I wouldn't be half as good as I am if I didn't go to the jams.

You don't really need to know many songs as such - the singer is usually in charge, and will say something like 'Give me a slow blues in A'. You can then make up whatever you want Jam nights like that are always friendly & people there encourage others to get involved & will provide advice & if you're new, whoever is organising the event will likely put you together with the right people

Try here for some resources on blues bass:
http://www.studybass.com/lessons/blues-bass/