Music is an International Language!

I had my first jam session with some of the locals on Koh Samui last night.  They were impressed with how seamlessly I was able to blend with them without knowing more than the key the song was in (yeah, I can do that).  But what impressed me- beyond the fact that they were all skilled musicians in their own right was how well we were able to communicate.  My fondest memory is when a key change came in one particular song the guitarist leaned over and said "Semitone."  We all kept playing and everything was cool.  He also called out the key to me before we started each song.

After we were done playing I tried speaking with him, and we found that neither of us knew enough of each others language to say more than "that was good...I had fun...let's do it again."  Of course those are probably the key linguistic points, but while we were playing together the energy was the same as playing with people in the states.  The key calls were in English, and really that's all that's needed to jam on a song.

Talking with the bar owner afterward I learned there are no violin teachers on Samui!  And I've talked with a couple locals with a desire to play violin.  I think a trip to a couple music education outfits is in order.