Al Stevens was a programmer/columnist/author for many years – and his C column was my favorite part of DDJ most months.

Now that he’s retired, Al’s back to playing music full time. And now that we’ve moved to Melbourne, I’m just gonna have to go catch him playing in Cocoa Beach.

Anyway, Al’s guidelines for jazz sit-ins apply equally well to all sorts of open mikes and jams, just substitute “rock” for “jazz”, “Oops, I Did It Again” for “Love Potion Number Nine”, etc. To the point, and funny.

#10: If you are not trained in music theory, don't scat. If you are trained in music theory, don't scat very often.