How it works

Here's how to make music with MicroJam:

Listen

You can browse other jams that have been uploaded or hit the "Jam!" tab to start a new one.

Perform

Tap, swirl, or swipe in the blue square to make your own tiny performance! Afterwards, hit "play" to hear what you've created. There's 9 instruments to try!

RoboJam

Use our AI Music Bot to make "RoboJam" layers top of your performance! Or reply to performances to build complex sounds!

In action

About MicroJam

MicroJam is a mobile app for sharing tiny touch-screen performances. Mobile applications that streamline creativity and social interaction have enabled a very broad audience to develop their own creative practices. While these apps have been very successful in visual arts (particularly photography), the idea of social music-making has not had such a broad impact. MicroJam includes several novel performance concepts intended to engage the casual music maker and inspired by current trends in social creativity support tools. Touch-screen performances are limited to 5-seconds, instrument settings are posed as sonic "filters", and past performances are arranged as a timeline with replies and layers. These features of MicroJam encourage users not only to perform music more frequently, but to engage with others in impromptu ensemble music making.

Research Goals

  • encourage everyday music-making with smartphones
  • investigate asynchronous and distributed smartphone performance
  • create generative microjams to mimic user styles

Development

MicroJam is available on Github and archived at Zenodo. You can cite MicroJam via this DOI: DOI

News