Calgary Acoustic Music Jam (CAMJAM) is a great place to meet passionate musicians, of all skill levels, who share your desire to play, sing and socialize.
If you have a basic understanding of an instrument (any acoustic instrument - not just guitar), and can play in a group environment, this is the place to be!
Here you can meet and join in with other musicians in a fun and friendly atmosphere. Because there will be different levels of musicians in attendance, it's a chance to learn off of each other. It's also an opportunity for those with more advanced skills to showcase their talents.
The General Requirements For Our Group Are:
- Have a basic understanding of music.
- Be able to play your instrument in a group setting.
- Read, understand and adhere to Jam Etiquette.
- Host your own Jam if one doesn't already suit your schedule, genre, skill level or location in the city (3 or more members need to be attending for a planned Jam to go live and be automatically published.) Hosting a Jam instructions.
- Participate at the Jams as well as in the Discussions Groups because our group success depends on your input/feedback.
- Have a current CAMJAM membership card or pay the per Jam fee to a Jam host.
- Review the list of Frequently Asked Questions to see if your question has already been answered before emailing a CAMJAM Organizer.
- Have some patience because we all aren't Eric Clapton.
- Have lots of fun because we're all a friendly bunch!
If you are joining because you have a guitar and want to learn how to play it, this isn't the place. We ask that you are at least able to chord along with the group. However, we do have beginners Jams on occasion and if there is enough interest, we'd host more of them. Feel free to host some yourselves!
Singers are also highly encouraged to join - even if they don't play an instrument!
User Fees: (Effective September 3, 2011) Our group has implemented an annual membership fee of $20/year or a per Jam fee of $2/session (your choice) to help offset the costs of running and maintaining a Meetup user group. Your first Meetup is free though to help you "try before you buy". Our goal is to cover our costs only and not become a business venture. You will receive a membership card with your name on it with the $20/year fee which entitles you to sponsorship deals and discounts as they're offered. Per Jam users do not get access to these discounts. In order to be as transparent as possible, members can see our financial status at anytime by navigating under More > Money.
Please Note: It is the Jam host's responsibility to ensure these fees are collected and submitted to Drew, our Treasurer. Since we run on the honour system, we'll entrust that you do so. Soon, you will get a membership card showing how long you've been a member of CAMJAM and a reminder of annual renewal date.
We didn't want to have to start charging but I bet you weren't aware that it costs $170/year ($160 space rental + $10 annually for a domain name) to have a group here on Meetup.com? Well, we have to come up with a way to pay for that because money doesn't grow on trees unfortunately. Read more about this in our Discussion Groups regarding this policy change.
Discussion Groups: A lot of useful information is posted in the Discussion Groups and you are encouraged to participate and add your own too. You're guaranteed to discover and learn something new. It's where we communicate with one another, post guitar tabs, song lyrics and chords, music write-ups, tutorials, videos and anything music related. It's the heart of our group outside our Jams.
Song Books: Download, print and bring your own song books to the Jams so you can participate. We encourage everyone to help grow the list of commonly played songs. Please include lyrics and chord changes in your submissions. Posting YouTube links will help those gain familiarity with your song before hand. We all want to participate but we depend on you to help the process!
Polls/Feedback: Please also take a second to answer the poll questions we post under the "More > Polls" navigation menu. We use this information to gauge the group's interest levels in order to help improve the overall CAMJAM experience. Also, your input and suggestions are taken to heart. If you have ideas on how to improve things, don't be shy, be proactive and let us know your thoughts. This is a community of passionate people, so your participation is welcome!
Help Promote CAMJAM: Don't forget to spread the word about CAMJAM to your fellow musician friends and help grow the group. All are welcome!
CAMJAM's URL: You can now find our group through the URL: http://www.camjam.ca instead of http://www.meetup.com/camjam. The later will still work too however, whatever is easier for you...
Hope to see you soon!
Sincerely,
The CAMJAM Organizers.
