Friends.

[Cobby]

It ebbs and flows but this sort of thing has been part of my life since I was a teenager (i.e. about 50 years).

The heyday was when I was in my 20's. I had home recording equipment and a group of about seven or eight very creative friends that all had keys to my house. I never knew what I would find when I got home from work - usually a music recording project going on, but sometimes it would be an art or video project or who knows? We'd hang out and socialize, or mess about musically as the spirit (or muse) moved us. I feel so grateful for having that period in my life.

These days I have similar group of talented friends but we all have more-or-less regular lives now so it has to be planned instead of spontaneous. But we get together still now and then and socialize first, then pull out the instruments and play. Just pure fun.

[zuzu]

Yes but not as much as I would like. I am just coming out of a very busy schedule of helping friends record, doing some recording for my own project, and continually meeting my responsibilities on guitar in the church band. It would be nice to just have some loose type jam and a brewski or two thrown into the mix. I think that hasn't happened since early last fall...on guitar anyway.

But, as mentioned above, a lot of my peeps have gone to the far country and will not return, and most others won't come out once they are in for the evening. I'm not much different...

[ghostnote]

As I age, my circle of friends becomes smaller for many reasons, a lot of which are health-related. Most of my former band mates still play to some extent, but things are not the way they once were. Casual drop-in musical friends are a part of my youth, but to be honest, I don’t think I’d want that now - I’d prefer a text or call first these days. Life is busy. I still go to my old duo partner’s house on Friday nights and we play all the old songs, and still manage to sprinkle in some new ones. We’ve been together in bands of many formats over decades, and we have a pretty vast and diverse repertoire to try to remember. We took a break for a year or so and just started playing again a couple of months ago. I’d love for him to come here where I have a much better setup, but his health prohibits that for now.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rllink

Just curious and something to talk about. Do you have friends that come to your house to play music, drink a beer or a cup of tea if they are non drinkers, and just hang out? I'm not necessarily talking about the weekly jam, although sometimes that distinction is hard to define, I'm just talking about other like minded musician friends that show up and want to play.

Hi rlink
I taught fingerstyle (intermediate and advanced) locally for 40 years. I taught friends, and made friends while teaching.

I belonged to a guitar 'society' which was a gathering of players who meet monthly and play 2-3 pieces for the group each month. Players of all levels, and a very supportive group.

I owned & operated an acoustic studio locally for 8 years.

I've been part of the local Worship Music community in our city for 45 years. I hosted and promoted more than 90 concerts the first 2 decades we lived in this city.

I own and allow others to play several high end solo built guitars which I allow guests to play.

I have friendships which developed out of these situations…so sure, people come over for coffee and just to play guitars and to chat.

It slowed with COVID, but people are open now to visiting, sharing a meal and songs…

[rllink]

As far as time, I'm retired, so I'm pretty much always available. Music is a social thing to me so I have a number of musicians that I socialize with. I would say at least half the people I regularly hang out with are musicians or were musicians at one time. I'm also social in general. I go to coffee or out to eat, or out on the weekends with friends all the time I've known for years.

It usually starts with a text, someone says to me something like, "I've been working on a couple songs, want to get together this week, get a little context, get a feeling for how it is going to go in a group." Then I text back, "sure, your place or mine." Or I might text to someone, "I've been playing the banjo for two weeks, want to come over and play some songs to see if I can keep up." Then we get together, play some music, chat, have a drink, laugh a little and then go home. That's what happened this week. So that's why I asked.

[Glennwillow]

I have had friends drop by to make music on a Friday or Saturday evening in the past and it was fun. I don't today. I just live out in too remote of a region and the few people I know who are good players are busy gigging. I no longer gig.

- Glenn

[Bluenose]

I have friend that was one of the people I used to party with back 'in the day' that comes over and checks out my guitars. I usually have something new to show him. I've been playing a lot longer than him and he's more of a hard rocker than me, not really interested in fingerstyle and so on but we have a couple of beers and talk about music and the good old days.

[Robin, Wales]

Yep! Whenever I visit my neighbours for a few beers, or they come to me, the guitars come out.