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Jam Sessions
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Jam Sessions
Nintendo DS
FAQ/Walkthrough
Version 1.00
by bodo_parkour
Last updated: 15th April 2009
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Table of Contents
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1. Introduction
2. Version History
3. The Concept of Jam Sessions
4. The Concept of Chords
5. The Game Screens
6. Tutorial Mode
7. Warm Up Mode
8. Songs Mode
9. Free Play Mode
10. Game Options
11. Recording Songs
12. Conclusion
To find a specific section of this guide, highlight the section number as well
as the title of the section you are looking for (don't write it out yourself),
copy it, then type ctrl+f of cmd+f. Paste the title into the search box then
press 'find'. This will take you (hopefully) to the relevant section.
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1. Introduction
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Hey, and welcome to my FAQ/Walkthrough for "Jam Sessions" for the Nintendo DS.
Jam Sessions shouldn't be mistaken for a videogame, as in reality, it is just
an electric guitar simulation tool with a couple of songs included for you to
play through. At least some understanding of chords is needed to fully
understand and appreciate this title, but if you can't distinguish A#m7 from
BbM7 then go straight to section four of this guide, where I'll explain the
basics of chords, how they work together, and how the notation system works.
Other than that, enjoy the guide, and remember to send any suggestions,
comments, questions, information about this game, or fan/hate mail to my email
address which you can find in the conclusion of this FAQ.
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2. Version History
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Version 1.00 - 15th April, 2009 - 18kb
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First public version. All sections complete.
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3. The Concept of Jam Sessions
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Jam Sessions allows you to use the DS stylus as a guitar plectrum, strumming
a virtual guitar on the touch screen, at the same time as using either the
directional pad or A, B, X, and Y to set the virtual guitar to a preset chord.
So, say for example that I have mapped C major chord to the A button. I would
press and hold down the A button then strum with the stylus to produce that
chord. Strumming down and up makes a slightly different sound as it would on
a real guitar.
To the buttons, you can map four different chords at one time, like as shown
in the diagram to the left (fig.1). But, you can map four more
F chords to multiple buttons, for example, by pressing both the F
C G and G chords together, you can produce a third, totally
Am unrelated chord which, like all the other chords, can be changed
and customised independantly of all the other chords. So, you
(fig.1) can have eight different chords as shown in fig.2.
Now, by pressing one of the shoulder buttons, changeable depending on whether
you're left handed or right handed, you can switch to a
secondary chord palette, with eight more chords to Em F Dm
choose from, all of the chords being totally customisable. C G
D7 Am Css4
Also, you can change the 'key' of the chords. By this, I
mean that you can shift all the chords up in pitch (fig.2)
slightly by pressing the left or right button on the D
pad if you're left handed, or the equivalent buttons if you opted to play
right handed.
Also included in Jam Sessions are various guitar effects you can apply, and
some songs to play through, but we'll cover them later in this guide.
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4. The Concept of Chords
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This section of the guide is aimed at those who have no experience in dealing
with chords or music, and so if you understand them, you can just skip this
entire section.
Now, I'm going to start at the EXTREME BASICS. If you understand anything, feel
free to skip ahead.
Music is based on what are known as scales. They start on one note then go
progressively higher in pitch to reach the same note again except much higher.
Each note of the scale has a value: first, second, third, fourth, and so on.
With this knowledge, you can apply values to any note of any scale, regardless
of which note it starts on. Here is an example of a C major scale, the most
simple one:
C D E F G A B C
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 1st
(8th)
However, if the scale is in the key of F, then the notes are as follows:
F G A Bb C D E F
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 1st
(8th)
On your DS, the left and right D pad buttons, or Y and A raise and lower the
starting note for all your chords. You may wish to keep the starting note to
it's default to begin with, until you begin to understand it a bit better.
You may notice that the B has a 'b' sign in front of it. This means that the B
is flattened slightly to make a Bb. The reasons for this aren't that important
so I'd just ignore it for now.
If you played all of these scales on the piano, they'd all sound 'happy'. But,
you also get 'sad' chords, which are called minor chords. To make a chord a
minor chord, you put a small 'm' after the note. For example, F would become
Fm.
Certain notes of a scale are almost always minor. The 2nd, the 3rd, and the 6th
are the most common. So, coming up with chords in a basic song, in the key
of C major (the easiest one and the first we looked at), they'd look like this:
C Dm Em F G Am B C
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 1st
(8th)
For coming up with chords, you can remove the 8th, as it's the same as the
1st. to make this:
C Dm Em F G Am B
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
And the 7th, as it's almost never used and sounds horrible with any of the
other chords here.
C Dm Em F G Am
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th
The most common chords are chord 1, chord 4, chord 5, and chord 6. Many popular
songs are based on these chords alone. Some popular chord progressions
include:
1, 4, 5, 1 = C, F, G, C
1, 6, 4, 5 = C, Am, F, G
6, 4, 1, 5 = Am, F, C, G
1, 5, 6, 4 = C, G, Am, F
You should experiment with these chords to see what you can come up with.
Remember that chords with letters next to each other in the musical scale and
none of them are minor don't tend to sound nice together, so try and seperate
the chords by a couple of notes each time ie. B and C sound horrible, but B and
E do sound nice together.
If you see a chord with a '7' on the end, like C7 or Fm7, this means that it's
a more jazzy sounding chord. It's common to get chord fives with 7ths in them.
In C major, this would be G7. Try throwing some chord fives with sevenths
(called dominant 7th) into your playing.
if you see an 'M7' on a chord, this makes it sound deliberately dissonant,
making for some nice sounding chords in an otherwise boring sequence. You also
get chords with 'ss4' or 'sus4' in them. These also add flavour to the chords.
With chords like Fss4, you would usually put a plain F chord afterwards, so
experiment with these as well.
I hope that gives you a bit of help towards understanding chords, which are
essential to Jam Sessions. If you have any questions, check the conclusion
section for my email address.
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5. The Game Screens
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When you're playing guitar on Jam Sessions, there are three aspects of the
screen you need to notice:
1. The strum bar.
This runs horizontally across the touch screen and is where you strum with the
stylus either up or down to produce chords. If you haven't got any chord button
pressed down while strumming though, you will just produce a 'clunky' noise.
2. The Chord Palette
Depending on which mode you are playing, this will either appear in the corner
of the touch screen or on the upper screen. It shows all 8 chords, and which
buttons they're mapped to. If you press a shoulder button, the chord palette
will change to show you your secondary palette. Let go of the shoulder button
and the palette will return to normal.
3. The Pause Menu Button
This is the little plus sign in one of the bottom corners of the screen.
Navigation
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This takes you back to the main menu
Songs
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This will take you to the song selection screen
Guide
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Pressing this during some of the songs will turn on the guitar playing along
with you to help you learn the song.
Mask
----
This will transpose the chord palette but keep the note names the same on your
current chord palette. This is a useful option for people who want to keep
the chords shown on the palette quite simple.
Recording List
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Selecting this will show you songs you have previously recorded
Options
-------
This allows you to change the game's settings and guitar effects etc.
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6. Tutorial Mode
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This mode teaches you how to play Jam Sessions. Press Next to advance through
the screens, and back to return to the last screen. You can try out what you're
taught on the strum bar.
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7. Warm Up Mode
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In this mode, the song will play by itself first (along with a visual guide to
which direction strum you should use, then when it's finished, you have to
match what you just heard yourself. There are three stages to this.
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8. Songs Mode
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In this mode, you can play the chords of some popular songs. On the top screen,
you will see the chords along with the lyrics so you can sing along should you
choose. Also, a predetermined chord palette is automatically selected with all
the chords you need.
Before you start any song, take a moment to learn it's chord palette through
first.
NOTE: It doesn't matter how long you spend on each chord. The music won't
progress until you hit the right chord. You can go through it at your own pace.
When you finish a song, a plectrum will appear and congratulate you, even if it
took you two hours to get through one minute of music.
The songs are arranged in order of complexity. The songs are:
Artist | Song
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Beck | Jack-Ass
Bob Dylan | Like A Rolling Stone
Bob Marley | No Woman No Cry
Coldplay | Yellow
Death Cab for Cutie | I Will Follow You Into The Dark
The Fray | Over My Head
Nirvana | The Man Who Sold The World
Avril Lavigne | I'm With You
Rascal Flatts | Life Is A Highway
Blind Melon | No Rain
James Taylor | How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)
Johnny Cash | I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know
Janis Joplin | Me And Bobby McGee
Jackson 5 | Never Can Say Goodbye
Cheap trick | Surrender
Marvin Gaye | What's Going On
Amy Winehouse | You Know I'm No Good
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9. Free Play Mode
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Free Play Mode is where you can play anything you want with any chord palette
you want. Also, while in this mode, enter either:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right
or
X, X, B, B, Y, A, Y, A
and when you hear a guitar chord, you will be taken to the songs menu where
three new songs have been unlocked. For these songs, you will need to repeat
this code every time you turn off your DS between playing sessions.
Artist | Song
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Brad Paisley | I'm Gonna Miss Her
Tom Petty | Needles And Pins
Jimi Hendrix | Wild Thing
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10. Game Options
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On the plus menu, select "Options" to go to the game settings page. Here, you
can customise the guitar sound and many other things.
Palette Change
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On this screen, press the Edit button to edit the chords on the palette. You
can save up to thirty different palettes. On the edit menu, select the note
your chord is based on from the right, then drag the actual chord you want from
the bottom of the touch screen to the position you want it to be on the chord
palette diagram. When you're done, press Back. Use the "Save" option to save
your creation, and press the "Load" button to select a palette you have created
earlier.
Effects
-------
Along the top, there are different customisable presets. Select any one to
start editing that. You can have any two effects at one time. Select the two
you'd like, then click on the icon for that effect to adjust how much you want
the effect to alter the sound. You can click the effect again to deselect it
in order to use a different effect.
Settings
--------
Here you can adjust the picking volume, the section of the strum bar with the
loudest sound, which hand you play with, and how you'd like the shoulder button
to change the chord palette. Press the "try" button to check what adjusting
these feels like before deciding to save them.
Theme
-----
In this menu, use the bar on the left to select which background you'd like to
appear behind the strumming area and chord palette in free play mode. The bar
on the right selects how your strum bar looks. You can choose between many
different styles but it's purely an aesthetic choice as it does not alter the
gameplay one bit.
Livemode
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Livemode disables the onscreen buttons and user interface so you don't
accidentally press anything during a song. To get all the menu options back,
press the START button and go into this menu to turn Livemode off again.
Tuning
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This option is for adjusting the pitch of the guitar in miniscule amounts. To
tune, slide the slider left or right to match a CD or other instruments when
playing live. Return the slider to zero to return Jam Sessions to the correct
pitch.
Output Settings
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This alters the game's equaliser to either the DS's speakers, external
speakers, or personal headphones.
Shortcuts
---------
Here, you can select two options from the options menu to appear as links on
the plus menu. Simply drag the option you want to the windows on the right
hand side of the screen. You can also select a third option which can be
accessed from the SELECT button during free play mode.
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11. Recording Songs
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During free play mode,tap the small square icon just underneath the strum bar
to start recording your input. You can only input a certain number of notes
per recording, as opposed to a certain length of time. Press the button again
to finish recording. Now you can playback your input, cancel the recording,
and if you like it, save it. Saved recordings are accessed from the plus menu.
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12. Conclusion
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This guide is Copyright (c) 2009 Bodo_parkour.
Only the following sites can use this guide as of now. To add your name to this
list, you must be an honest website, email me for permission, and uphold any
agreement between us that we make.
The latest version of this guide will always be found on www.gamefaqs.com.
Any other site hosting this FAQ may not have the latest version and some
information may have beena added in more recent updates.
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My email address is bodo_parkour [at] hotmail [dot] co [dot] uk
Only email for permission to host this guide, with suggestions, or general
comments. Please title emails sensibly, or they will be unopened and deleted
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I will try my hardest to answer all legitimate emails within a week but
sometimes I am too busy so your email may remain unanswered for a longer
period of time.
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---------------------------------END OF GUIDE----------------------------------
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