Looking for someone to jam with and practice. I’m located in Southeast Michigan (just south of Detroit), so it’s probably a stretch to find someone locally. I consider myself a novice (skills) to intermediate (knowledge). I play both acoustic & electric guitar. With the leap in technology, I believe it’s an option to do this remotely. Thoughts or suggestions?
Regards,
Bill
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Welcome, Bill!!
Hope you are able to find a practice-buddy.
On-line or in-person.
Maybe a visit to your local music shop can get you started.
Keep playing, and have fun!!!
Warm regards,
Rene
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Welcome to the community!
There are ways to do this. Unfortunately, and regardless of technology advances, they are bound by the laws of Physics which means that latency is an issue. This tends to restrict what you can do online and remotely.
The main issue is being able to play together as the other person will always be delayed by a bit.
Forget using standard video conferencing tools (Zoom, Teams, Meet, etc) as none of these are designed to optimize and reduce latency.
There are some tools like Jamulus, Jamkazam and others which are better at this, but don’t expect to be able to jam with someone too far away.
Jamulus has, for example, a directory of sessions which shows which ones are near you and what their latency is.
I suggest using something like Jamulus and either joining in with open groups, or arranging with a remote jam buddy and creating your own session.
Cheers,
Keith
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Kia ora Bill! Welcome! 
Good idea, actually I was thinking about this myself recently, being at the lower end of the south island New Zealand, organising an in-person jam session with someone here is probably unlikely! 
So, taking into account latency, like @Majik very rightly explains, I was thinking along the lines of joining online in a zoom meeting, talking through what we’re currently working on, taking turns to play a bit and maybe discussing challenges, questions or that sort of thing. Not sure if that’s what you had in mind but wonder if it might be of interest to some here? Perhaps a step towards doing a community open mic too maybe? 
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That’s a nice format.
I used to do that for bass guitar. There was a monthly “hangout” for UK based bass players that was organised through the SBL forums, and which I took over organising for a while when the lady who originally did it got too busy.
We would do a 1hr hangout (originally, literally, using Google Hangouts, but then Google Meet once they transitioned/rebranded) where we just chatted about current practice including the community/campus challenges, courses, new gear, and anything else we fancied.
We ran a Google Calendar with the dates set up which anyone could subscribe to so they knew when the next hangout was, and had the details of the meeting link.
Cheers,
Keith
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Aw that’s cool, Keith! Pretty much exactly what I had in mind Using Google calendar to arrange is a great idea for coordination. Would love having that kind of engagement with others on here. Hmm something to think about…
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It is Jeff. “Something to think about” is how the Community OM was launched. And we do have a Community Zoom license that could be used as a platform that doesn’t have any of the limitations that free-to-use options may have.
Of course lots of thought needed to figure out coordination details but with enough bright ideas I expect something that is practical and meets such a need could be figured out.
A Community Hang-Out …
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YES 
!!!
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I think it’s worth exploring the options.
The advantage Meet (and some other web-based options) have over Zoom is that they don’t require an application to be installed to use it on a PC, which can be a barrier for some people.
The limitation is, obviously, max number of people (100) and max length of conference (1 hr).
I’ve been on conferences with 50+ attendees, and they are IMO quite ineffective.
If you have more than 20 people, even over 1 hr (which is long enough for most people) that only gives 5 minutes per person.
There’s also the consideration that, whoever sets up calls needs to have the ability to do it, which means multiple people will probably need privileges if you use the community account. I’m also not sure if the community account has its own limitations (only one conference at a time)?
My suggestion is that, if people want to do it, it’s done on an organic basis. It probably should also be done regionally to accommodate time zones and, potentially, languages. That will also tend to keep the group sizes down.
The way it worked on the SBL forums was they set up a UK based one first (a few people from continental Europe joined) and then someone started up a US group.
Of course that relies on volunteers to set it up and run it regularly, but it isn’t a huge amount of work and if people aren’t prepared to volunteer then they probably wouldn’t attend anyway.
My suggestion is we just need an area in the forum where people who want to set up such a hang-out can post about it, one thread per group.
Cheers,
Keith
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@Majik
Thanks for your inputs, Keith.
I thought you had an option to join a Zoom meeting in the browser without necessarily downloading the app? Needless to say, I am as likely as not incorrect.
Irrespective, it would require extra effort to coordinate use of the Community Zoom License. Pretty sure only one meeting at a time would be the case, though if done in different Time Zones, different days, quite sure that would not be a big issue.
IF this became a new thing then I agree with the ideas that one manages via regional specific Topics and that it would be up to those interested initially to run with the idea, much like what happened with the OM. Then it would either flourish or wither.
And somebody would have to figure out the details, post instructions etc.
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Actually it does look like there is a option for that now. When I first started using Zoom a few years back, there wasn’t that option.
Cheers,
Keith
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Interesting discussion and a potentially good use of the JGC Zoom licence. Sounds like a little more exploration would be required and if the groups become regular events, some form of scheduled would be required. And for example our diarised OM dates would need to be ring fenced, especially as I would expect the weekend to be a popular time to do these.
So I better bookmark this and keep an eye on developments.
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Thank you Rene. As we progress as guitar players, I believe a key element is having someone that is on or near the same level as you to bounce ideas off of each other. We can only do so much sitting in front of the computer, reading books, and solo practice sessions. Thanks again for the kind words.
Best,
Bill
Hi Keith,
Thank you for the suggestions.
Ideally, that’s what I’m looking to do here. Find someone who I can practice with remotely. Not necessarily play songs together, but chat about techniques, progress, etc…then have each other demonstrate one at a time…therefore, latency will be less of an issue.
Thanks again,
Bill
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That’s exactly what I’m looking to do.
Could be a matter of finding someone who is close to my skill level…then getting near my time zone: New York EST.
Thank you for the comment.
Best of luck,
Bill
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Sounds interesting.
IMO, the more people that get involved, the more challenging it gets. People are at different skill levels, time zones, and specific content to practice. That’s why I’m seeking that one person to get started. The last thing I need is more complexity 
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100% agree! Enough complexity going on with this guitar thing as is lol!
Yeah that’s probably the trick eh. For me I l often ike playing in the morning, which probably works quite well with UK/Europe’s evening, so I could be lucky there, but working around time zones is always a challenge.
@nzmetal This is a great idea. I feel talking through my challenges to someone else could help me clear my head around them and listening to someone else’s could be eye opening.
I’d be up for this.
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We’re already there. Why not direct message someone who’s already here. Set up a Zoom and away you go!
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In terms of technology to jam together online… the tech is definitely improving. Has anyone seen this? https://www.elk.live
I haven’t tried it yet, but it is on my radar for the future if I ever find myself in a situation where I can jam with someone locally.