I am a dedicated finger-watcher, even when I know several versions of the tune in n out. I watch to pick up tips for other instruments (I play mando, guitar, banjo...and suck at fiddle), and I watch because sometimes I get so absorbed in the other person's playing, I just about forget that I am s'posed to be playing too.

For my purposes, I have found that 3 musicians of equal caliber to be the best possible jam arrangement...I have done it in huge groups (35-40 pickers, all mumbling their way through "Jerusalem Ridge") and I have done it just with me and my trusty bluegrass rhythm CD's...3 is the number that just seems to click. You can sit close enough to get visual cues that don't look like silent-movie slapstick, and you get to really "hear" the instruments you are playing with.