We’re thrilled to bring you a very special FarPlay performance. See what happens when Jacob Collier and Dan Tepfer trade musical ideas across the Atlantic.
Dan shares the story behind this magical moment:
I’ve known the crazy brilliant Jacob for a few years, and with him in NYC and me in Paris, we decided to try playing together for the first time, 3500 miles apart, using @farplayapp.
We started with a version of If I Were A Bell where we change meters between 5/4 and 7/4 every 8 bars, keeping the bar length the same (amazingly, this actually worked despite 45ms of latency at this distance, equivalent to playing with someone 45ft / 15m away from you in a room).
Then, spontaneously, we free-improvised the coda you hear here, which keeps returning to the idea of bells ringing.
I love it when improvisation turns into genuine exploration, which it can if, like Jacob, you have patience and big ears. That’s when the magic happens, in the listening.
“Crabfeathers” from California to Québec
Across 2800 miles, Ben Lewis on piano in Chicago, Vince on guitar in California, Jean-Luc Landry on bass in Montreal, and Doug Percell on drums in California play Steve Kuhn’s “Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers” together with a cool, laid-back vibe on FarPlay.
Find your people on FarPlay Meet
The performance above is just one of many musical moments from Ben Lewis’s Open Sessions on FarPlay Meet, our platform that lets you connect with the wider community of FarPlay users, free to all subscribers. Sign up now for early access.
After you’ve created your profile on Meet, check out the schedule of Open Sessions, including Ben Lewis’s weekly jazz jams and Eden Casteel’s weekly open mics (or create your own Open Sessions!). Open Sessions are an easy way to jump in, meet other musicians, and start making music together.
Windows PC causing latency spikes?
Is latency spiking even though everyone’s using Ethernet with Wi-Fi turned off? Check out our new blog post that walks you through a simple fix for Windows PCs.
Monthly support sessions
Sign-ups are available for our monthly support session Saturday, April 18th 2:00pm New York time (8:00pm Central European time). Our following session will be Saturday, May 23rd 2:00pm New York time (8:00pm 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 help with FarPlay and FarPlay Meet.
Get in touch
We love featuring our amazing users. If you’d like to be included — whether you use FarPlay for lessons, rehearsals, jam sessions, or conversations — we’d love to talk to you. You can let us know by emailing us at contact@farplay.io.
Need help right away? Check out our FAQ & Troubleshooting Guide, which you can open from the Help menu in the latest version of FarPlay. If you haven’t already, upgrade free to the latest version.
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!
—David Liao & the FarPlay team