We don't mind playing at a faster pace, but we do slow down so we can help others learn the tune and do variations to the tune.  IF YOU NEED to player slower, tell us so we can help you.

We are also trying to get some practice time in. So we try to play more than we socialize.  But bring some cookies for the break!

We do try to take the time to tune before we start. (although this confuses the banjo player)  We usually start with an easy tune we all can play so we can warm-up.  

When starting your tune, tell us what key you plan to play in,  just in case the banjo player thinks he needs to re-tune!  We try to stay in one Key for a few tunes so cross-tuning fiddles, banjo and harmonica players don't have to spend more time tuning than playing. 

We may replay a tune 4 to 6 or more times, so we all have a chance to learn it. We like to end tune faster if we think we are ready.  

We like to try variations, so if we crash, it's no big deal.

We refrain from telling Fiddle and Banjo jokes,  that could take all night.

 

Thansk to Katie Bailey Waller who found this useful reference:
The Ten Commandments of Jamming  by L.P.
http://www.icdc.com/~fmoore/tencommandments.htm

I.  Thou shalt not ever forsake the beat.

II.  Thou shalt arrange thyselves in a small circle so that thou mayest hear
and see the other musicians.  Thou shalt listen with  thine ears to the
songs and attempt to play in accord with the group; also, open thine eyes
betimes to look about thee, lest there be some visual sign someone is
endeavoring to send thee.  Thou shalt play softly when someone  lifteth his
voice in song, when playing harmony, and when thou knowest  not what thou is
doing.

III.  Thou shalt play in tune.  Tune thine instrument well, and tune it often
with thine electric tuner, lest the sounds emanating from thine instrument be
unclean.

IV.  Thou shalt commence and cease playing each tune together as one, so
that the noise ye make be a joyful noise, and not a heinous tinkling that
goeth in fits and starts, for that is unclean, and is an abomination.
Whensoever a musician sticketh forth his foot as though he were afflicted
with a cramp in the fatted calf, thou must complete the rest of that verse,
and then cease.

V.  Thou shalt stick out thine own foot or else lift  up thy voice crying
"This is it !", or "Last time !" if thou hast been the one to  begin the
song, and it has been played sufficient times over.  If the one who began a
tune endeth it not by one of these signs, then the tune will just go on and
on, like the Old Testament, until the listeners say, "Hark !  It all
soundeth the same."

VI.  Thou shalt concentrate and thou shalt not confound the music by mixing
up the A part and the B part.  Most songs, but not all,  proceedeth
according to the ancient law "AABB".  But if thou sinneth in this regard, or
make any mistake that is unclean, thou may atone - not  by ceasing to play -
but by  reentering the tune in the proper place and playing on.

VII. Thou shalt be ever mindful of the key the banjo is tuned in, and play
many tunes in that key, for the banjo is but a lowly instrument, which must
needs be retuned each time there is a key change.

VIII. Thou shalt not speed up or slow down accidentally when playing a tune,
for it is an abomination.  (See commandment I)

IX.  Thou shalt not, by thine own self, commence nodding off on a tune the
other musicians know not, unless asked or unless thou art teaching that
tune, for it is an abomination, and the other musicians will not hold thee
guiltless, and shall take thee off their computer lists, yea, even unto the
third and the fourth generation.

X.  Thou shalt have fun and play well.