This article is written by Toru Hoshino, a jazz bassist and instructor based in Japan who teaches online lessons to students worldwide. In this article, he shares why jazz jam sessions are the single best way to stay motivated and keep improving your walking bass playing.
Sessions are, in my opinion, the best way to stay motivated while working on your walking bass. Once you feel like you’ve gotten reasonably comfortable, go find a session and join in.
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What Is a “Session”?
When a band books studio time, it’s almost always for a rehearsal — everyone shows up having already practiced a set list of songs.
A jam session is different. There are no rules set in advance — musicians simply show up and play together, improvising from scratch.
Bass, drums, guitar, piano, horns — pretty much any instrumentalist can join in. Every night, in cities all over the world, sessions like this are happening somewhere.
Why Sessions Are Great
You Make Musical Friends
There’s only so much motivation you can sustain practicing walking bass alone. Unless you’re in a band or have a gig or recital to prepare for, practicing every day with no clear goal in sight is genuinely hard.
That’s where sessions come in — they’re the fastest way to build a network of musical friends. Showing up once won’t instantly make you friends with everyone, but if you keep going back to the same session regularly, you’ll start recognizing faces, and before long you’ll have a real circle of people you know.
I still keep in touch with people I met at a session bar I used to frequent back when I was a complete beginner — six or seven years later.
Everyone Secretly Thinks They’re “Not Good Enough”
Some people avoid sessions because they think, “I’m still not good enough to play with real musicians.”
But the people who do show up to sessions aren’t flawless either — plenty of them are thinking the exact same thing about themselves.
You might look at someone and think, “Wow, that person is incredible, they’d never want to talk to someone like me.” But if you work up the nerve to actually talk to them, you’ll often hear something like, “Oh, I’m still pretty rough around the edges too — what kind of practice routine do you do?” The players who are seriously working to improve tend to be the most humble.
You Can’t Quit Even When You Want To
Could you sit at home alone, set a metronome going, and play walking bass lines nonstop for 15 minutes straight without stopping? Maybe if you’re feeling energized, but it’s genuinely tough.
At a session, though, you can’t just stop — the other players keep going, so you have to keep up. Sometimes you’ll end up playing a single blues tune for 20 minutes or more. Being in an environment where “your hands have to keep moving no matter what” is exactly what makes you better.
You Can Record Yourself and Actually Listen Back
A session lets you hear how your sound fits into an ensemble with other musicians — something you simply can’t check on your own.
As long as it’s not an ear-blastingly loud rock show, the default voice recorder on your phone is more than good enough to capture a usable recording. You might think your playing was a disaster in the moment, only to listen back and realize it wasn’t half bad. Listening to your own playing objectively is one of the fastest ways to improve.
Sometimes Opportunities Find You
Bassists are a rare commodity in the jazz and blues session scene. In a major city it’s not so bad, but head out to a smaller town and you might find there’s no bass player around at all. Show up at sessions regularly, and you may well get approached with, “Hey, I’ve got a gig coming up — would you be up for playing bass for it?”
How to Find a Session
Search for “[your city] + jam session” and see what comes up. Even a single city can have close to a hundred regular sessions. Most don’t require a reservation — you can just show up with your instrument at the address listed on the venue’s website, and beginners are welcome to join in.
Some venues even keep a house bass — upright or electric — on hand, so you can stop by straight from work even without your own instrument. (Always check directly with the venue to confirm whether a house instrument is available.)
How a Typical Session Works
Most sessions charge a cover fee of around $7–15 USD just to walk in the door (sometimes that includes a drink, sometimes it doesn’t — it varies by venue).
You’ll usually write your name and instrument on a sign-up sheet, and then the staff or the “host” — typically a professional player handling the rhythm section — will call you up: “Okay, [your name], you’re up next.”
At a lot of venues, it’s entirely normal for every player on stage to be meeting each other for the very first time.
Advice for Beginners Joining a Jam Session
If you’re a beginner, don’t try to hide it.
Just say it plainly before the tune starts: “This is actually my first session,” or “I only know how to play this one tune.”
Every host and experienced player went through that exact same stage themselves at some point, so they understand exactly how nerve-wracking it feels to be a beginner walking in.
Often they’ll adjust the tempo or pick something easier to accommodate you. What doesn’t go well, on the other hand, is hiding the fact that you don’t know a tune and then having the whole thing fall apart once it actually starts. (Trust me — I’ve lived through that scenario more times than I’d like to admit.)
A closing thought
The first time I ever went to a session, I was 26 years old.
A musician friend took me to a session bar in Tokyo. At the time I was a pink-haired punk rocker who had never once played from a chord chart in my life. I’d lugged my bass all the way there, but once I got a look at what was happening, I had no idea what was going on — I never even opened the case.
I still remember a drunk older guy needling me: “You call yourself a musician and you can’t even play a blues?”
It stung, and facing that kind of moment head-on isn’t easy. But I still believe, even now, that there’s something real waiting for you on the other side of pushing through it.
Want Personalized Feedback on Your Playing?
Sessions will push you to keep your hands moving and your ears open, but knowing exactly what to fix in your own playing is a different challenge entirely — and that’s where outside feedback becomes invaluable.
This is exactly the kind of thing that’s hard to fix alone — and where having a teacher makes all the difference.
At Line on Bass, I offer an online lesson service where you send me a video of your playing, and I give you specific, detailed feedback — every single day if you want.
Students from around the world are using this to fix exactly these kinds of issues and steadily improve their jazz bass skills.