jammr Forum

If you just want instructions on how to jam successfully and in sync, then please read this post first. If you want to really understand jammr and how the Beats Per Interval (BPI) value affects synchronization, then keep reading this post.

How does jammr work?
A short introduction for all new jammr users.
jammr is a program with which you can jam together with other musicians. It's all live, but not in real time. We play interval-based and this means that everyone will only hear the other users' intervals when it is “done” (if you watch the metronome, you can see when a new interval starts, namely when the first one starts blue block lights up).

For this reason it is not - or only very difficult - possible to play longer chord sequences or entire songs.

It makes sense to set an interval to the length (BPI = beats per interval) that is needed to play a part, a chord progression, a loop, … 16 BPI corresponds to 4 bars in 4/4.

There is a nice explanation: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/1115/
If you have problems with the settings: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/4/

Good examples of playable songs are e.g. Zombie by Cranberries, Wicked Games - Chris Isaak, 9 Crimes - Damien Rice … (3 - 4 chords the whole song) for 16 BPI.

For 32 BPI more songs are possible: e.g. Knocking on heavens door, Nobody knows you - E Clapton,

A blues standard usually has 12 bars → 48 BPI. Here it is important to find the “first blow” and stick to the sequence. If something changes during the interval, it no longer fits the others and sounds terrible. It is very helpful if someone - preferably the drummer - has an overview and the beat begins on the metronome for the first beat of the interval. Using the metronome, everyone can see when “it starts all over again”.

Of course, simple jamming in one key is also possible, and changing the chord progression is possible if all participants are attentive and withdraw so far that everyone gets their space. A BPI of 16 is advisable.

Otherwise you will find many questions in the forum and often good answers, mostly from very nice people.

Before you log in, please check that your microphone is muted or that you only have headphones as the playback source. Then it does not happen that you ruin the ears of other musicians (who mostly use headphones …) ;-)

I hope this little introduction is helpful and understandable for you!

Regards, D4n

Edited stefanha (March 18, 2020 15:18:52)

Wie funktioniert jammr?

Ein kurzer Einstieg für alle neuen Jammr-Nutzer:
Jammr ist ein Programm mit dem du gemeinsamen mit anderen Musikern jammen kannst. Es ist alles live, aber nicht in Echtzeit. Wir spielen Interval-basiert und das bedeutet, dass jeder das Intervall der anderen Benutzer erst dann hören wird, wenn es „fertig“ ist (beobchtet man das Metronom, so kann man sehen wann ein neues Intervall startet. Nämlich genau dann, wenn der erste blaue Block aufleuchtet).

Aus diesem Grund ist es nicht – oder nur sehr schwer - möglich längere Akkordfolgen oder ganze Songs zu spielen.

Es macht Sinn einen Intervall auf die Länge ( BPI = beats per interval) einzustellen, die benötigt wird um einen Teil, eine Akkordfolge, ein Loop, … zu spielen. 16 BPI entspricht dabei 4 Takten im 4/4.
Hierzu gibt es eine schöne Erklärung: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/1115/
Bei Problemen mit den Einstellungen: https://forum.jammr.net/topic/4/

Gute Beispiele für spielbare Songs sind z.B. Zombie von Cranberries, Wicked Games – Chris Isaak, 9 Crimes – Damien Rice… (3 - 4 Akkorde das ganze Lied) für 16 BPI.

Für 32 BPI gehen durchaus mehr Songs: zB Knocking on heavens door, Nobody knows you - E Clapton,

Ein Bluesstandart hat meist 12 takte → 48 BPI. Hier ist es wichtig den „ersten Schlag“ zu finden und genau bei der Abfolge zu bleiben. Wenn sich während des Intervalls etwas ändert, passt es bei den anderen nicht mehr und klingt furchtbar. Sehr hilfreich ist es, wenn einer – am besten der Drummer - den Überblick hat und der Beat zum ersten Schlag des Intervalls auf dem Metronom beginnt. So kann jeder anhand des Metronoms sehen, wann „es wieder von vorne losgeht“.

Natürlich geht auch einfaches jammen in einer Tonart und auch Wechsel der Akkordfolgen sind möglich, wenn alle Teilnehmer aufmerksam sind und sich soweit zurücknehmen, dass jeder seinen Raum bekommt. Dazu ist ein BPI von 16 ratsam.

Ansonsten findest du im Forum viele Fragen und auch oft gute Antworten dazu, meist von sehr netten Leuten.

Bevor du dich einloggst, schaue bitte nach, dass dein Mikrofon stumm geschaltet ist oder du ausschließlich Kopfhörer als Wiedergabequelle hast . Dann kommt es nicht vor, dass du die Ohren anderen Musiker (die meistens Kopfhörer benutzen…) ruinierst ;-)

Ich hoffe diese kleine Einführung ist für dich hilfreich und verständlich!


Grüße, D4n

FEEL FREE TO TRANSLATE THIS INTO OTHER LANGUAGES USERS SPEEK…SPANISH, ITALIAN, FRENCH….

I'm actually looking for a way for my choir to practice online. Is this possible using Jammr? Can I participate simply with the mic on this laptop?

EarleP
I'm actually looking for a way for my choir to practice online. Is this possible using Jammr? Can I participate simply with the mic on this laptop?

Hi EarleP,
jammr is designed for improvising over a chord progression (usually 4 or 8 bars). It is not suitable for performing entire songs with multiple chord progressions or key changes. The experience is different from performing together in real life and it probably won't work for a choir (although it depends on the type of music that you sing).

In addition to what has already been written about interval-based jamming, I want to provide more background that helps with understanding it.

Playing together in real-time over the internet is a hard-to-impossible problem. Our computers, internet connections, and audio codecs add a short delay (latency). Even an optimally set up computer and internet connection is still limited by the speed of light so it's possible to calculate the minimum latency for jamming with someone on the other side of the globe. The minimum latency is 13 milliseconds and this is the best possible case (it won't be possible in practice). Audio latency becomes noticeable to humans above 10 milliseconds, so we cannot expect real-time jamming to work around the globe - and jammr aims to just work regardless of where you are in the world and without tuning your computer and internet connection.

jammr takes a different approach: it is an interval-based jamming system. The latency problem is solved because you hear what others played last interval and they hear what you played last interval. This means everyone hears a different time-shifted version of the jam - but everyone can play live even though it's not real-time.

The interval is the number of beats that jammr for transferring audio before it is played back. Usually the interval is at least 16 beats long and this comes to 8 seconds of audio when playing at a tempo of 120 beats per minute. This makes jammr immune to internet lag because 8 seconds is plenty of time to transfer data over the internet. However, now you are hearing what others played 8 seconds ago instead of what they are playing right now.

The trick to making interval-based jamming work musically is that music is based on patterns and repetition. As long as the interval is set to the length of the chord progression you won't notice the fact that everything is time-shifted. Why? Because a melody played over a chord progression sounds good whether the chords were played a few seconds ago or are being played right now. The harmonies sound correct and the notes fit because everyone hears them over the right chord in the progression.

But the trade-off is that you need to stick to a chord progression and cannot change it drastically without hearing “collisions” (when notes don't fit). It is not possible to perform full songs over jammr because they change chord progressions. It is not possible for two users to sing in harmony unless they repeat the same line for multiple intervals.

This means jammr is great for improvisation but not good for performance.

can't connect

can't connect

can't connect

stefanha

It's hard to understand how you can play but not sing together. Our choir sings polyphonic baroque music with an even beat. Everything we sing is alreaddy written - we don't need to improvise. We know how to use a metronome, and if necessary our conductor could pre-record a piano accompaniment. How come it still wouldn't work?

How to I start? Im trying to set up a private jam
cant find them