Blues Standards at a jam

David and the Bluesharmonica.com community, I wanted to say again how much I value the lessons and particularly the current Tip of the Day topic on Blues Standards as it applies in a jam. I had the opportunity to play at the London Music Club (Canada) last night with Dan Bratz, Warren, Richard Miron, Wayne Mann and Rick Joyce whom are all local and fabulous musicians.  Dan is a local excellent harp player and band leader (NoBones) whom mentors me with stage presence and applying the skills and techniques I learn at Bluesharmonica.com. Again, Tip of the Day encourages finding local musicians to take lessons from or to play live with. 3 songs were from this list. Mojo working (so much fun)Help me (totally worked on playing the hook as David described)Messing with the Kid (I had the lead to get the song going) For me it was the first time doing these songs at a jam so the preparation and study David is presenting is invaluable. Not being the leader you don't know what song will be called so prepping ahead is challenging. All the lessons of accompaniment, solo studies, chorus forms, lick study, song study have a part to play every time I play in a jam setting which becomes the preparation. It gives me the confidence to play and the jitters of playing songs on stage one may not know have subsided to a level of comfort allowing a sense of relaxation, Which is also required to play the harmonica effectively.  I cannot present or play the songs perfectly yet but a Blues Jam is a great place to gain the practice and skill of playing with others and applying skills and techniques learned on the musical journey.  So it is of immeasurable value to be doing this Blues Standards exercise and I feel super excited about it.  I hope others are just as excited and can take the lessons David presents feeling confident that it ALL does apply in Actual Blues Jams as he describes.  John