Playing with others I have always found to be more fun than playing alone. When we play with others it helps us play better for several reasons: 1) when we play by ourselves it's very easy to slow down in the hard parts and speed up in the easy parts. When we play with others we don't have that luxury so it forces us to concentrate more and work harder/better to maintain a constant tempo; 2) when we play with others the feeling of teamwork is very exhilarating and we realize that a musical group is more than just the sum of the individual members, it has a life of its own; 3) when we play with others we can take that experience home with us in our memories and our souls and as we practice by ourselves until the next group experience, we remember what that feeling was like and we can focus our practicing more so the next time we can feel even better when we play with others. I'm delighted you had a great time -- thank you for sharing your experience!
