Our Story

September 2020

The extraordinary guitarist Tuck Andress, of the beloved duo Tuck and Patti, turned me on to Jamulus, software that “enables musicians to perform real-time jam sessions over the Internet.” Reading the Jamulus documentation led me to C4, an award-winning chorus in New York City. Reading C4’s documentation on the various platforms they’ve evaluated, and seeing their video on the process of setting up a Jamulus server in the cloud, convinced me to give it a try. Although I had never set up a server in the cloud before, I got it running in about 15 minutes. (I chose Google Cloud Platform, which C4 recommends, and found that Google gives a $300 credit when you sign up. Server cost is pennies, not dollars, per hour of singing/playing for a small group.)

Then, after checking that my home’s router had an Ethernet port on the back, I bought a 100-foot Cat7 cable (Cat 5 or 6 would have been fine), since my computer is far from my router in my home. Because my laptop didn’t have an Ethernet port, I ordered an Ethernet dongle for it so I could use my laptop as well. Then I downloaded and installed the Jamulus client software. (Note: I have a Mac; if you have a Windows machine, there could be additional configuration needed.)

Now it was time for the first test. I asked my sister to download and install the Jamulus client. Both of us connected to my Jamulus server for audio and Zoom for video, and voilà, we sang together in harmony, live! Then it was time to experiment with a small group — that worked! — and then to launch the first Jamulus-based Song Circle that I knew of. How big of a group can you have? Here is what I know: C4 has made it work with 20 people (to be clear, the C4 video is a recorded video of a live performance, not an edited video), Santa Clara University has made it work with 26 people, and in theory Jamulus will work with 50 users under the right circumstances. I have heard unconfirmed information that the newest version of Jamulus will support up to 100 users. SingOnline.org has an online song circle using these tools — join us!

The wonderful folks at C4 have done a ton of heavy lifting to make this process understandable by mere mortals. If you’ve learned of Jamulus from this site and you use it to start an online singing group, please consider making a donation to C4. And of course, Jamulus’ creator, Volker Fischer, and everyone who has contributed to building and documenting Jamulus are true heroes. (I encourage you to read Volker’s paper if you’d like a detailed and surprisingly understandable summary of how Jamulus actually works.)

Once you start using these tools, please let me know how it goes! My heart will fill with joy knowing that you, like me, returned home to the beauty, to the unique feeling of connectedness, to the magic of joining voices in song during this challenging time.

Warmly,

Marv

P.S. 2021 Update: Many companies now offer and host Jamulus servers, for a fee (usually a few dollars per hour), so you don’t have to set up your own. Check out the Links page.

P.P.S. 2022 Update: Especially with Omicron derailing in-person singing, our Song Circle is still going strong, check it out!

P.P.P.S 2023 Update: Sadly, XBB1.5 is derailing a lot of in-person singing. But thanks to our longtime singers and new singers continuing to join us, our live online song circle is only getting better!