As it stands (June 2020 for those reading in the future), a lot of people are spending time at home. It's a strange time, band rehearsals are right out (hands up who has tried a Zoom band practice!). People want to be productive with their bands, but how can you do this when not being able to meet up and jam? Here's some ideas:
Record Voice Notes
I'm sure this is something every musician does: your phone is a recording device! So when that random harmony, or that chord progression pops to mind, sing it, get it down!
When you have space, work out how to play it! Then you can record that and send it over to band mates (saves them hearing you awkwardly hum!). You can bounce ideas between you, passing back and forth ideas, developing and working on the music as you go.
But this is a bit low-tech, lets see what else we can do...
Demo-ing Music In A DAW
Musicians nowadays commonly have a small recording setup. If you have the same DAW as your band mates, you can quickly pass ideas between you.
The advantages of this over the first idea, is you can really build up a mulitrack idea, instead of the more.... 1 dimension of recording voice notes.
If you're keen to start this, audio interfaces can be found very cheaply nowadays. If you're looking for a good inexpensive DAW to start with, Reaper is a great suggestion, powerful and easy to use.
Using A Collaborative Online DAW
Now this is fancy! Online tools such as Ohm Studio are surely made for a time like this! DAW style collaboration, without the hassle of constantly sending files back and forth. You could be on a Zoom call, and on the DAW at the same time, discussing and adding ideas in together.
This type of collaboration could be what you're looking for. No it won't replace a good old jam session, but it may help get the creative juices flowing!
How do you write music with your bandmates? Any ideas here you haven't thought of before? Let me know down in the comments!