Bluegrass music, like all music, relies on accurate rhythm to make it sound right. When we play music together we have to find the groove and adjust appropriately to the prevailing rhythm of our ensemble. Some people tend to speed up and some people try to control the tempo to a constant beat or even slow down the rhythm. Playing music in a group is a dynamic collaboration. But we must find a suitable rhythm for the group or we’ll have a train wreck disaster on our hands.
Rhythm is crucially important. A band can follow a few wrong notes but they can’t follow bad timing. If I flub my solo break again my mates will pick up the music so long as the flow of rhythm continues. The wrong notes I just played are soon forgotten. Rhythm takes over.
I play mostly mandolin but on occasion I try to fill in on guitar or bass as needed. Recently I embarked on an effort to try and learn the venerable banjo. If ever an instrument needs accurate timing it’s the banjo for sure. So almost every practice session now I try to incorporate the metronome into my practice.
Talk about frustration! The metronome helps me get my timing right on all the standard rolls but when I try to play tunes with the metronome it’s often a disaster. I encourage any of you on whatever instrument you play to subject yourself to the discipline of the metronome. You will soon find out how off your timing actually is.
Not that we want to have metronomic timing all the time when we play music. Far from it. Some tunes use a swing rhythm that borrows space from one measure to add spice to the next. Metronomic timing is boring. But all of our hearts beat a little off pace and the metronome is a useful tool to give us some coaching about timing which is so important.
You can download free metronome apps via the internet. Many of them are part of tuning apps that you might be using anyway. Some of these apps are very sophisticated and can even produce swing rhythms for example.
Practicing with a metronome is hard. You might not want to do it every day but it will enhance your skill at any instrument.
