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My Funny Valentine, 6700 km apart
Our own Dan Tepfer on vocals in Paris, France and Ben Lewis on piano in Chicago, improvise on Rodgers and Hart’s “My Funny Valentine” 6700 km apart.
This is just one of many serendipitous musical moments from Ben’s Open Sessions on FarPlay Meet, which he’s been holding weekly. Ben writes, “Using the impressive FarPlay Meet beta … I’ve connected with new players and can ‘make public’ any active session I wish to share.” Read more and check out clips from Ben’s Open Sessions at his new post on our blog.
Want to join Ben’s Open Sessions or create your own for others to join? Join the FarPlay Meet beta, free with your subscription. Ben’s session meets Tuesdays 11:00am-noon New York time / 5:00pm-6:00pm Central European time (4:00pm-5:00pm Central European time on October 28th). Bring your instrument, your voice, or just come to listen — everyone’s welcome.
Monthly support sessions
Quick reminder that October’s monthly support session is Saturday, October 25th 2:00pm-3:30pm New York time (8:00pm-9:30pm Central European time). Our following support session will be Saturday, November 22nd 2:00pm-3:30pm New York time (8:00pm-9:30pm Central European time). Sign up for support sessions here.
Monthly tech-support sessions are available free to paid subscribers and students of FarPlay For Teachers subscribers. These sessions are a great way to get live tech support for FarPlay and FarPlay Meet. Check out highlights from past sessions.
Get in touch
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If you’d like to ask tech-support questions, our forum is the fastest way to reach us. If you need to reach us privately, email us at support@farplay.io — we’re happy to help!
I have long been fascinated by the idea of remote music collaboration.
My name is Ben. Like many of you, I found myself quite unemployed during Covid isolation. I’d been a full-time jazz pianist and keyboardist in Chicago for more than 25 years, and suddenly the future felt rather uncertain. I would livestream every week for tips, but I dearly missed playing with others.
My career survived the pandemic, but my curiosity about how we can connect musically over the internet never wavered.
Enter FarPlay.
One quality that I really believe sets FarPlay apart from other options is the sense of intimacy it creates. Rather than connecting to a random server, we are connecting directly with each other, which has the added benefit of lowering the latency between us!
When people join my session, it feels like welcoming someone into my studio—and being welcomed into theirs.
An illusion, perhaps, but a powerful one. We step into a space where distance fades away, and the focus shifts to what we can create together.
That’s cool.
So, I started a weekly Tuesday open session on FarPlay, using the impressive FarPlay Meet beta currently in development. Through it, I’ve connected with new players and can “make public” any active session I wish to share. These Tuesday sessions are open to anyone who wishes to join!
Below is a musical diary, of sorts, providing examples of my experiences with FarPlay.
Note : I simply added all the recorded audio stems directly into Logic, adjusted levels, removed some background noise, etc.No other edits to the performances were made.
Tue Session #1 : 09-09-2025
Georgia on My Mind
RobertJackson / Oregon – Trumpet Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano
approx. distance : ~1,830 miles (2,940 km)
Robert joined me from his home in Oregon. Here is a clip from Georgia on My Mind by the great Hoagy Carmichael. At this point in the song I switched from 12/8 to a double-time swing feel – which can be a gamble at this distance but with FarPlay, it just works!
Georgia on My Mind
My Funny Valentine
Dan Tepfer / Paris – Vocal Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano
approx. distance : ~3,640 miles (5,860 km)
Dan Tepfer joined us from Paris half-way through the session and asked to sing a song with me. Paris to Chicago? No problem! The entire performance felt very natural, and I think you’ll hear that in the clip I’m sharing here. It features a snippet of Dan’s rather excellent scat vocals.
My Funny Valentine
Private Session : 09-14-2025 Sun
The Donegal Lass
Arbo R Doughty / Vermont – Tin Whistle Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano approx. distance : ~740 miles (1,190 km)
Arbo is a self-taught, Irish traditional musician who plays a number of instruments – Flute, whistle, uilleann pipes, banjo, and fiddle. When I received a message on FB from him, I was intrigued to try a session playing this music! The clip below is a rough take from our first meeting.
The Donegal Lass
Tue Session #2: 09-16-2025 Tue
Blackbird
Jean-LucLandry / Montreal – Elec Bass Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano approx. distance : 950 miles / 1,530 km
I had a really nice connection with Jean-Luc in Montreal. Below is a portion of Blackbird (Paul McCartney), which I love playing any chance I get. Latency hovered around 19ms for this.
Blackbird
Girl from Ipanema
Robert / Oregon – Vocals Jean-Luc / Montreal – Elec Bass Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano
Robert joined us from Oregon again for this Jobim standard. As I began to solo, he surprised me with some vocal percussion that fit in nicely with the pocket I’d established with my new friend in Montreal.
Girl From Ipanema
Tue Session #3: 09-23-2025 Tue
Now is the Time
Randy Felts / Boston – Synthophone Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano approx. distance : ~850 miles (1,370 km)
I had a great conversation with Randy about his experience at Berklee College of Music. He has a very cool setup with a Synthophone (made by Softwind Instruments in Berne, Switzerland) and an array of hardware and software synths setup for play using Loopback and Mainstage.
Here is the start of Charlie Parker’s Now is the Time.
Now is the time
Freeform Improv
Robert / Oregon – Trumpet Jean-Luc / Montreal – Elec Bass Randy Felts / Boston – Synthophone Ben Lewis / Chicago – Piano
For this last song, I tried something new (for me). I added some delay to my piano and we just began a very Bitches Brew / Blade Runner sounding free improvisation. This has inspired me to spend time creating a deeper palette of sounds available for these sessions. Here is the full performance. Listen to how it floats in and out of rhythm, everyone responding to each other’s ideas.
Closing thoughts…
The argument I often hear from musicians skeptical of trying a program like FarPlay is that it can’t possibly be “the same” as playing in person.
It isn’t.
But the virtual musical landscape made accessible by FarPlay represents a future of possibilities – new music created between artists who would not have met otherwise, and sound that adapts to and embraces the distance between them.
