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Playing with others
One of the goals I considered is having the opportunity, when I feel ready (could be sooner than I think), to play with other TAC members or local people. One suggestion I was given was to search in the members for members near me. Well, apparently I live alone on a mountaintop (I do, not far from Jerimoth Hill, at 812 ft the highest point in RI) as there are exactly 4 members in both Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. (I live in northwestern RI.) Two are inactive, two are over 50 miles away. I don’t know of any local bands aside from the country/Western bands that play at local bars (definitely not my scene) or church bands (again, not my scene). I’ve tried Meetup with no luck, and none of my friends are into music. I did have a Facetime meet with one of the members, which was nice, and I would do it again, but he is quite a bit more advanced than me; not sure if that is a problem or it could be a good thing? Anyway, should I just suck it up and go to a church or approach one of the local bands, or what other options/opportunities might be out there?
I do have a friend that plays piano a little; I have been trying to get her to play a duet with me. But I’m not sure if that is happening, she is quite busy. It’s getting hard to get motivated to learn songs if I’m just playing for myself.
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6 Replies
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Good luck with this, it can be hard to find someone to play with. You want to find somebody who is a little bit further along so they can help you along but often times that other person isn’t terribly interested. Probably a friend or a relative is your best bet in the beginning. I’m going to be moving in a couple of months, then I’ll try to find somebody to play with there.
If you can’t find anyone locally perhaps you might try jamming online with people? I found this website, perhaps it helps or inspires you in some way:
https://www.stringkick.com/blog-lessons/find-musicians/
stringkick.com
How to Find Musicians to Play with or Bands to Join (2025 update) | StringKick
Playing together is a great way to become a better musician. But where to find jam buddies and band members? Here’s 25 ways to find musicians near you!
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I also found this: https://jammr.net/
jammr.net
Jam together online using jammr. Play live online jam sessions with other musicians for free.
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Thanks, @petelanger, I’ll check those out.
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So I read up a little bit about it. The jam sessions are on a delay, this is necessary because there is always latency over internet transmissions, but somehow it comes together.
I’ve never tried it but I recall watching Switchfoot perform songs when the bandmembers were isolated during the Covid quarantines. They were playing as a band in perfect time as far as I could tell. Not sure what technology was used.
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@BarbaraM it’s great that you wanna play with others because you will grow as a guitarist doing so. When searching on meet up make sure you’re not just looking locally because a lot of them are done online now through Zoom and you don’t have a delay on there as long as you have original sound for musicians on so search for virtual open mics, song circles, another plays on words. Try typing and just acoustic guitar. I found several that way.
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I have the same desire. I’ve a friend who plays at an independent living facility and another at a memory care facility and they enjoy the audience and interaction but are not playing instruments with others but more of a sing a long and then solo.
My wife is in a painting group and she has set a “play date” with her friends husband whom I’ve never met. But we will play together soon. Also I am trying to play with people from the church.
We shall see how all that goes but playing with others live and in person is a deliberate effort.
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