For 13 years, Portland Casual Jams have supported groups in the Portland area who play live music and develop their skills in collaborative, inclusive environments with a wide range of abilities. Using Meetup.com, over 3500 musicians have connected to weekly and monthly events including unique community jams that offer experiences learning and enjoying how to share live music with others.

The community jams within Portland Casual Jams have become increasingly popular for their ability to transform lives, enhancing physical and mental health as much as building skills and teamwork. People learn together, play together, and develop musical connections forming priceless memories. Volunteers have worked incredibly hard to develop software for jams, organize events, lead groups, educate musicians, and build Portland’s community jams into a remarkable success.

In 2019, we started the nonprofit organization Community Jams to make music even more accessible locally and around the world. Some major goals include:
• Provide a welcoming studio space for inclusive live music events
• Develop and manage technology to help groups play, record, and stream live music jams
• Build a collection of donated instruments for community jams
• Develop mobile programs to share community jams in Portland and beyond
• Develop weekly programs for musicians of every age, ability, and walk of life that teach key concepts around playing live music as a group:
– Playing as an informal team
– Playing for performance
– Improvising with live music
– Practicing and recording live group music
– Integrating specific instruments into jams
– Singing with freedom and confidence
– Improving quality of life in physical and emotional ways

Our new studio space is located at:
211 SE Madison St., Portland, OR 97214

Help support Community Jams by donating to monthly via Patreon!