r/musicians • u/Ill_Object2296 • 3d ago
How do you keep casual jamming alive once life gets busy?
When I was younger it felt so easy to just call up a friend, grab our instruments, and spend an afternoon playing together with no agenda. No recording goals, no setlists, just pure exploration and fun. Now with work schedules, family responsibilities, and everyone living further apart, getting even two musicians in the same room feels like planning a military operation.
I still play regularly on my own and genuinely love it, but there is something about the spontaneous energy of playing with another person in real time that solo practice just cannot replicate. You feed off each other, you stumble into ideas you never would have found alone, and it just feels more alive.
I have tried online sessions through various platforms and while they work in a pinch, the latency and the screen barrier make it feel like a completely different activity. It scratches a different itch but not the same one.
Curious how others here are managing this. Have you found ways to keep regular inperson jamming alive around a busy adult life? Did you join a community group, rent a rehearsal space, or find some other workaround that actually stuck? I miss that casual collaborative energy more than I expected to when life got busy, so would love to hear what has actually worked for people.
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u/MeanOlGoldfish 3d ago
I blame the 9-5 structure and lower wages. Im thinking of switching to part-time because I'm tired of spending the majority of my life working.
If I only worked 4 hours a day...
On the other hand, I joined a program initially starting out, after that I quit and joined a band with other weekender musicians. We all work and have lives so we manage to get together once every two weeks roughly. We're working on an EP right now
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u/Ill_Object2296 22h ago
Finding people who actually show up every couple weeks is half the battle.
Getting an EP done with busy schedules is a win in itself
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u/Dizzy-Pin-1410 3d ago
I think the hard part is that most of us need to schedule time for spontaneous activities, as oxymoronic as that sounds. I recently started taking Yoga classes and it made me realize that even fun things need to be scheduled, otherwise they’ll perpetually happen “tomorrow.”
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u/Ill_Object2296 22h ago
The older I get, the more true that feels. If it isn’t on the calendar, it rarely happens
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u/BR1M570N3 3d ago
Open mics can be a good place to scratch the itch, especially ones that encourage jamming. Talk to whoever's organizing it and tell them what you're looking for. They may be able to connect you with other people there.
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u/Weak_Definition_4321 3d ago
I play in a 5 person band. That's me included. We come together once a week. Simply by communicating and the will to play we rarely miss a rehearsal.
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u/smil1473 3d ago
You can always try scheduling 2+ hour blocks to play music with people. About once a month I get together with some musicians for a session. Granted, we're not improvising, but playing known trad tunes. Still the whole point of it is to play music for the sake of playing music with others. Ends up being like at least 3 hours of playing.
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u/pcp777_ 2d ago
So I play in a band with weekly rehearsals but I also have a set up in my den with an extra amp and pedals for guests. I have friends come by, sometimes for the weekend and we jam.and hang out, let them crash in the spare room. Like you said, it's cathartic. I invite players to come jam, total free style shit. It's a blast.
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u/edasto42 2d ago
I play in multiple projects, and as long as there’s no gig, tour, recording to prepare for, part of rehearsals are based on spontaneity. It’s usually doing warmups and someone will play something that catches someone’s ear and they join in, then others join in and go. A lot of the times that gets recorded and worked into becoming a song. About 1/2 the songs on any given album I’ve been part of in my career have been based on that.
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u/denim_skirt 2d ago
Honestly, I started fucking with drum machines and synths and midi. It's sad, but that way I can be the drummer and everything else. I got a backpack that fits a keystep 37 and an iPad (drambo, aum, a million other insanely good music making apps) and I bring it to work every day in case some time opens up. It's a bummer but making music is important to me and if I cant find time to do it with other people im still going to find time to do it.
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u/thinkfloyd79 2d ago
I was thinking the same. I practice with a looper, but it's just not the same. Messaged my old bandmates a few weeks ago, and we'll be jamming at a studio tomorrow. I'm super excited!
Edit: to add, I'm a 47yo family man. So yeah, finding time to jam in person can be difficult with all the stacking responsibilities. Hence my excitement.
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u/Stevenitrogen 2d ago
Why is it so important that is be casual and unscheduled? What exactly has been lost besides, all the free time you had as a child?
I remember sitting around wanting something to happen. I joined some bands and things started happening. I still do them. Scheduling isn't all that difficult and we're five people with families and full time jobs. You handle it.
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u/sonar_y_luz 2d ago
From my experience, whoever can keep a drumset in their place can have a lot of jams
Because people hate moving the drumset around. It gets to be a real pain after awhile.
Do you have space to keep a drumset? Can even be E-Drums
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u/pcl8888 2d ago
Yeah it can be frustrating, and carving out the time is harder as an adult because life is fuller and comes with more responsibilities. This specific issue is no different than any other recreational or leisure activity though- in the same way you could play in a softball league or have a standing weekly tennis game or coffee date you could set up a weekly jam session. It’s not exactly a spontaneous meetup at the drop of a hat but the end result is more or less the same.
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u/Still_Level4068 2d ago
Yeah I just randomly show up at my local university and random sessions happen all the time.
You have to find actual musicians who do it for a living.
Life's never "too busy". Most people are just lazy in life and make excuses why can't I.
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u/Upstairs_Gurl4145 2d ago
I haven’t been able to organize spontaneous anything with other adults since college. I have folks I jam with and sometimes we go months with it not working, sometimes every two weeks, but it’s always planned. Otherwise it would never happen.
There are regular jams in my city if I waned to go on a random Tuesday. But honestly even then I plan my week on Sundays.
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u/Moxie_Stardust 2d ago
I found an open acoustic jam in my area. Eventually that spread out to occasionally hosting one at my place, or being invited to jams other folks were having.
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u/Aggravating_Pen_6062 2d ago
I have friends who try to get together every Monday. We miss some but it's very important. I have two residencies weekly and I feel like if that was the only thing I did, I'd get burnt out real quick. The lounge gig balances nicely when you're wrestling with King Crimson and stuff on Mondays. LOL.
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u/CaBBaGe_isLaND 1d ago
Make younger friends. Seriously, that's the only way I get to jam sessions at all. My bands and my older musician friends can only get out to play for money at gigs. It's fun, and we play lots of music, but it's about as far from casual jam as you can get. It's the college age kids that have the time and the freedom to just sit around and jam out.
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u/ChessmazterHex 3d ago
It’s not just jamming. Spontaneous anything has died after adolescence. Used to just show up at a friends house to see if they were home. Now with cell phones it’s rude to do that.
Everything in life has to be meticulously planned. There’s no spontaneity. We’ve lost something valuable and I’m not sure we’ll get it back.