This past weekend I finally had an opportunity to take part in an old time jam. Now I've done bluegrbutt jams with my 5-string and some were good and some were not...but this was the first time I had a chance to play my fiddle in an old-time jam.

So I get there about 5 minutes after it started....2 fiddlers....2 banjos....bbutt....1 guitar. I get out my fiddle and stand beside the guy who seemed to be running things. He's fiddlin' away while the other guy is just kinda' holdin' his fiddle. The tune ends...and before you could blink, the guy goes right in to another tune. Midway through the other fiddlers puts his instrument away. The tune ends and I ask "what's the name of that tune?" Without even looking up at me the fiddler says "Cricket on the Hearth"....right in to the next tune....tune ends....next tune...he knew I had a fiddle...I did the proper thing and WAITED to be invited....never gave me the time of day. It was all "look at me". What a drag.

Now I've only been playing for 8 years (also play 3 other instruments) so I'd say I'm mid-level at best on the fiddle...but isn't a jam supposed to INCLUDE people who want to learn?

I hate to pre-judge, but early on in my playing someone once told me how "snobbish" some Old Time players could be...about including you AND about HOW you play the tune....I came away from that NON-jam understanding a little bit more about what she meant. The thing that makes me smile in the face of such rudeness is the fact that I've have the opportunity to play with world-clbutt, even world famous fiddlers who would openly share anything and everything you care to absorb from them.

Thank goodness I have a guitar playing wife and some good friends to jam with.

Just my observation.

James