For example, I’ve once found myself unexpectedly in the middle of an iPad jam in an Apple store in London with a suddenly growing crowd that started clapping along with the music that two of us were playing. It just so happened that I had the bass&pad role (cause that’s what my fingers could play on the keys of that small screen) and noway could I permit myself changing chord sequence while the other (definitely pro) musician was soloing over that part. I tried for a little moment by changing one little chord in the sequence, then noticed a “don’t” reaction somehow and went back to the original sequence of chords.
So if the jam is supposedly without rules, it will be important to provide and to seek visual feedback because without rules means that there are hidden rules (or expectations). This can be fun of course, unless there is a big crowd following along with their own expectations.
This is gold and not to be minimize as less important. You learn a lot from troubleshooting. I personally think it’s a must if you want to understand something more deeply.
If possible, invite your friends an hour earlier or make a Zoom with them beforehand.
One surprising thing I learned is to think about the lighting. The best session we had was when one of the musicians brought these led clip lights (for reading), and we used those on our gear so we could see the knobs, and the rest of the room was dark (as it should be ).
Keep it simple, if it’s your space you can make sure they have everything ready to connect and gain stage in a couple of minutes, give them headphones if you have them. Maybe your friend won’t even need sequencing for the stylophone but it’s nice to have an option. Good jam advice here already but I’d +1 on taking things slow and layer one thing at a time so everyone has time to adjust.
I have to edit and add this: I take for granted that people are somewhat respectful but that’s not always the case. I jammed with a guy who had the best of intentions but he kept overpowering everything with a personal noise show that drowned out everything else and I had to tell him that’s not great. He was entirely unaware that it clashed with our efforts and not really disrespectful in the end, but just know that some people need verbal confirmation of boundaries since they pay attention to “other things”.
Good call. The thing is not everyone is used to jamming in club lighting. You know the people that do, they usually have masking tape and labels all over their gear
For people who have not had that experience / opportunity, the first thing you hear is “can we turn the lights down” which is quickly followed by “Shit I can’t see the labels, and the leds are blinding me”.
My preference would be that drums are sequenced and everyone else plays live. I’ve done that before, playing keys and running drum machine with friends on guitar/bass/sax. Trying to get multiple midi machines from different manufacturers (all of which say “X works best as master clock”) all working together sounds like a special circle of hell, but it would be cool if it worked
In general jam rules, make sure you are looking up at your buddies periodically in case they are trying to tell you something and don’t take a solo longer than 8 bars. And if you don’t know the key, it’s best to ask early on rather than pretend you know and skunk up the joint.
Nice idea for a thread. I agree with everyone else’s advice here. I’d keep the rules light and simple and have fun. It’s good when each person just has one or two pieces of gear and kinda stays in their lane a bit. Try and keep all the syncing and midi stuff simple. It helps if someone is just playing unsynced keyboard to keep things loose on top of the ryhtmic stuff.
The best is if you have a group of people who are all good at listening to eachother. Sometimes you can have a bad jam if each person is just noodling on their own and not really calling and answering with one another.
If someone is too loud or not gelling with the others, i think its fine to talk to them to change it up. If everyone is just totally individual and not willing to hear some criticism then youre just going to get a lot of competing egos.
I’d love to see some unedited footage of like Autechre or some other duo or trio jamming to see what it actually looks like.
another thing is that your first jam might suck and feel aimless. thats fine, just make plans to do it again another time. ive jammed with one friend a half a dozen times and sometimes it sucks, sometimes we finish tracks.
I‘d prefer some cozy indirect lighting where you can still read stuff, should work for everyone. Depending on the space you’re jamming in, I‘d come prepared and bring two nice standup lamps just in case.
One central clock with transport start/stop (like a Multiclock, Pam’s etc.) into a Kenton MIDI thru 25 is fine, if you have one device or so that needs nudging you can use a non-main channel and adjust latency.
Friend jams are easier to mix and minimize at least.
Public jams start well and then the inevitable “guy with a preprogrammed max patch hits play” causes everyone to raise their volume to account for the spectrum getting gobbled way up.
Give time for the setup. Treat it a bit like a gig, time to plug everything in, line check, sound check, get levels, try a couple jams. Then go away and have a break/walk/cup of tea etc, and come back good to go for the jam. Multi-day jams are nice, first day (say Friday night) is that setup and test and the rest (Sat/Sun) is the jam.
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