The idea is simple - a jam a day for every day in January is the platonic ideal but as many days as you can manage is just fine. It’s also fine to have some back up content for any days you might miss
the general point though is to get into the habit of sustained practice
This thread is for sharing jams, tips, feedback etc on everything you wish - whether that be composition related, gear related, media/social media choices & so on. Even if you’re not participating in any jams yourself - bring the cheers/heckles
I’ll primarily be videoing myself arsing about and using YouTube as the main platform. Might do some shorts/reels …maybe even TikTok. We’ll see - any feedback on all that is obviously most welcome
Unlikely to manage one per day, but I have a couple of new projects I’m trying to get off the ground and need to get jamming ideas out for both. When I get the chance I’ll upload the little bits I’ve already done.
What’s everybody else’s? Output like for this? I tend to see the output of this sort of thing as a pre-demo - like an 8-16 bar piece of something that feels like it could blossom into a whole piece of given proper attention.
Of course once a year or so, lightening strikes and a whole piece just falls together in one sitting. Less frequently actually, think I’ve had 4-5 of those ever.
I very much treat it like sketches and then if any ideas emerge around them, I’ll plunk in what I can. Last year, one of mine was just a random beat made out of a recording of me cooking dinner an hour earlier
My goal last year and this year is to have one of those super chaotic early Beck albums full of lofi song fragments and crazy noisy bits and collages
Definitely short ‘ideas’ that may or may not become something else. 30 minute write/record limit for me this year; have other music that needs actually finishing!
Hey there, I’ll start the ball rolling with some pre-New Year miserablism! I’m kind of hoping to use this month as a way to write up out of the place where I’m stuck at the moment, and the prompts will be really helpful in that; I’ve got a bit ‘write what you know’, and that means I’m mostly just writing sad stuff. I want to write happier things! New Year always makes me maudlin anyway, so apologies for that.
This one actually sort of obliquely (hah) fits today’s prompt, as I gave my self discipline (first draft lyrics, first draft chord sequence, less than half an hour to put it together) and then was self-indulgent in writing a lyric in the voice of my internal monologue. Bonza! It’s just a very sketchy guitar and vocal recorded on my phone, because it’s the practice of getting things that work quickly that I can then work with later that I’m really hoping to improve.
Lyrics (might be helpful because I’m singing this quietly and so it’s not exactly easy to follow)
Summary
Everything hurts sometimes
Pretty much everyone lets you down
The dog will most definitely
Unhesitatingly
Chew off the toe of your sock
Try not to be
Shocked at the state of things
Try not to be sad when the door bell rings
And half of the food that you ordered is missing
Don’t lose your composure
And cry in the kitchen
Drip tears on the baby leaf spinach
And fillets of chicken
Don’t be such a mess
Everywhere’s uphill
Pretty much everything takes too long
The chain will invariably
Without a care for you
Snap and whip you in the calf
Try not to be
Ground into dust each day
Try not to let pain splash across your face
Like some kind of Rorschach test, cheeks like a butterfly
Or two guys screaming
Distress in a mirror
At least they’ve got some kind of passion
Some kind of conviction
Don’t be such a mess
Everything’s kind of sad
Pretty much everything’s shot with blue
You can’t freeze-frame a sunrise
Or bottle the moment
You hear from a long-lost friend
Try not to be
Stuck in the cracks between
Try not to be carrying all that weight
You’re not training for anything
Take all those rocks out your bag
Make a stack in the garden
They’ll be there when you get back
Just be free for a while
I’ll see you when you get back.
Any feedback etc welcome, I promise I will buck up and not just be this generations less talented non-bigoted Morrissey for the whole month.
I’m starting as positively as possible by taking the bank holiday off. Start as you mean to go on and all that.
I’ve got my little studio set up to go tomorrow though and I’ve put together a little palette of sounds to use and a list of tried and tested techniques. I’'m aiming to put together a kind of ambient cookbook; recipes to use as starting points whenever inspiration is refusing to strike. Mostly just going to bung things on soundcloud but I’ve got a webcam set up and a bunch of visual loops to use as filters - I’ll probably chuck a few videos up, maybe do a live jam or two.
