20 Solos and (I’m) Counting

Most weeks, a given Disquiet Junto music community project essentially runs itself. Nearly 15 years into the process, the scenario is set: I post the prompt shortly after midnight, Pacific time, on Thursday, and folks who see it online or receive it via email have until the following Monday at 11:59pm to post a track in response to the prompt. As of this week’s project, we’ve done it 747 times in a row, week after week. The one time a year I have to keep a close watch on things is when we do this current “trios sequence,” which is the one where someone posts a solo, and then the next week someone adds to it, and the week after that someone completes the piece as a trio. Except it’s more than one solo, one duo, one trio. The first week there are dozens of solos, and the second week there may be multiple duos based on individual solos, and so on the third week with the trios based on various duos. To facilitate the process, I maintain a close watch on the tracks as they’re added, and I…