Sunday 2nd February 2025
Guests and former members welcome!
The upcoming Random Jam on February 2nd 2025 is now open for registrations.
We are currently taking registrations for Random Jam to be held at Wundenberg’s Rehearsal Studios in West Thebarton. Three rooms have been booked to ensure we can offer everyone a chance.
Random Jam is open to both members and guests eg. public and lapsed members.
About Random Jam
Random Jam brings together musicians and singers of all experience levels. Everyone is welcome – drummers, guitarists, vocalists, bass players, keys, fiddle and harp players – no pressure – it’s just jamming fun.
If you ever wanted to get into playing live music or back into a band this could be your stepping stone.
Random Jam is held in professional rehearsal studios. PA, mics, amps and drums are supplied by the studio and the SA Live Music Club, with several separate studios available.
Cost: $20 for paid-up members and logged in. Non-Members (Guests) is $30.
(Payments go towards the cost of studio hire and equipment maintenance).
Running Random Jam
Random Jam gives musicians of all levels, beginner to more experienced, the opportunity to get together with other musician in a relaxed, friendly, and welcoming environment.
Any instrument – drummers, guitarists, vocalists, bass players, keys, fiddle and harp players – no pressure – it’s just jamming fun.
If you ever wanted to get into playing live music or back into a band this could be your stepping stone.
Whether you’re just starting out or experienced, this is for you to enjoy the opportunity to play with others.
It’s 4 hrs of jamming fun with real people who make real mistakes just like you. We start of by nominating people into a room, and then at some point during the 4 hours, we move people around into different room(s) so you don’t get hung up with genres or song choices.
To get started we provide song books (hard copy or a few tablets with SongBook Pro) on the day. Some participants bring their own tablets with SongBook Pro installed and songs loaded (see below on how to get songs file). The songs are usually 3 or 4 chord popular well known, but we are open if anyone wants to suggest anything (preferably ahead of time so we can tee things up) or just chill to a blues jam or however it goes for you.
A little history of Random Jam and Random Bands
In early 2014 the concept of a program called Random Jam was suggested to the SA live music club as an avenue to keep members connected with the club once they had completed the then entry requirement to the club, participating in a Week End Warriors program with the sponsoring music store Holden Hill Music. The aim was to offer members a connection or meeting point outside of their formed bands, in the event their band did not continue together they could still meet and jam regularly with other club members, network and possibly find new band connections or just remain as a social jammer, getting the opportunity to play with the full contingent of a band and at the same time learning and sharing. The concept was pitched as a nonprofit exercise with fees set to just cover rehearsal room charges and protect against future shortfalls or small maintenance costs.
The first year was very successful with a few events introducing players who instantly became a band, others put their hand up to attend multiple sessions and long-standing members who had one or more bands came along to share experiences or even try out a new or different instrument. All round Random Jam was well supported.
Early in the second year, one of our loyal members who also participated in a theatre group mentioned their group was putting on a cabaret style show later in the year and would we consider making a number of bands from Random Jam members only, for a one off event. We thought it was a great Idea and so began seeking registration of interested parties. The rehearsals were overseen by Random Jam organizers and some of us even participated in the bands. The show went off well with participants expressing great delight in the whole experience. The following year the event was again suggested as a possibility but sadly couldn’t be coordinated so as a compromise we formed four bands and registered for an open mic at The Railway Hotel Port Adelaide. This event was a smash hit with a full house of cheering appreciative supporters and spawned the concept we now have of Random Bands, offering the opportunity to become part of a band for a 5-6 week period, learn a 30 minute set to be performed in front of friends and family with the support and backline of the SA Live Music Club as part of the Clubs regular Saturday at the Gov performances.
This is what we invite people to be part of, friendship, cooperation, networking, sharing, supporting and the wonderful therapy that is live music.
SongbookPro
We provide song books for each Random Jam to get things started. They are usually well known songs most people should have heard before across the ages, eg. Beatles, Elvis Presley, Doors, Dion, etc. These books are limited in space physically to about 60 songs. With that we have been promoting Random Jam participants to go digital. To do that we encourage people to use a tablet or iPad, and an App called “SongbookPro”. The Club has a limited number of spare tablets but we would ask others if they can to install the App and bring theirs along.
As a Club Member, you will have automatic access to a back up file to import on your tablet. This can be found under ‘Member Area’ – ‘Resources’.
Random Jam/Random Band participants will be emailed a link to download the file.
