Lost the rhythm

[logdrum]

Drummer?

Was fired?

 

[SkylineFiver]

You could use your phone and a single earbud and use an online metronome.

METRONOME ONLINE - free online metronome

 

[Grinderman]

Charlie Watts playing bass drum and hi-hat would help.

 

[_Tay_]

Keep your foot tapping

 

[rtslinger]

I'm working with a guitar players and keys in my band for years and I am still counting sometimes no sure why they some times drop their count coming in off a solo it has happen my times and I have to pull them back in.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

Hi gang. Every Sunday I play (electric) bass at a bluegrass jam. Lots of fun and I usually do well holding down the beat. (Solos are another thing, I'm kinda hit and miss).

Yesterday, however, I was having trouble finding my rhythm, at first anyway. One thing is, we had about 15 people playing, as opposed to the usual 8 or 9. I think that made it harder to nail things down.

What is your secret to keeping a steady beat when those all around you are going off in all different directions?

Super focus (and play upright, where the physical act of playing helps you keep time)

 

[Crispus]

Move your body: Tap your foot; bop your head; dip your shoulders back and forth; stomp; dance... do some sort of repetitive body movement. Rhythm is a body movement thing. Bass is a body movement thing. Counting helps too, but i'm of the opinion that body movement is a more reliable tempo measure. If you're bobbing your head and shaking your shoulders back and forth, you can physically feel if you have to change direction too abruptly or too slowly. You can physically feel if you're not landing the notes on your body movements. If you're hitting the 2 but you're somewhere in between shoulder-sways, you're not hitting the 2.

You said it's bluegrass so even odds there's not a drummer or there is one. If there is a drummer and you feel you're getting lost, only play when the kick drum kicks. If there is no drummer, the bass is the drums. When there's 15, or even "only" 9 musicians playing at the same time, play less. Just hit the downbeats, and maybe fret-clack the back-beat. Send the band a big booming "THIS IS THE 1" bass note to the whole band so that everyone else knows where the rhythm is, and it's your rhythm.

The thing you can't really control is what everyone else does when there's that many players. Ideally, they'll all be following the bass (and drums if drums). And ideally the more musicians there are, the more space everyone will leave. But, musicians being musicians, there's a good chance everyone is finding all the empty spaces and filling in all the empty spaces with all the notes. But, if you're holding down the rhythm and really broadcasting the downbeats, and the other musicians lose the rhythm, that's on them. If there are enough decent players there, they'll recognize your solid rhythm through the chaos of 15 players and hopefully find a home there, and then the other players will have an easier time finding it too.

Yes! Physically moving to the music also offers a visual cue to the others, even f only in their periphery.

 

[mrperkolator]

The answer is clear. You need a bobsled.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Hi gang. Every Sunday I play (electric) bass at a bluegrass jam. Lots of fun and I usually do well holding down the beat. (Solos are another thing, I'm kinda hit and miss).

Yesterday, however, I was having trouble finding my rhythm, at first anyway. One thing is, we had about 15 people playing, as opposed to the usual 8 or 9. I think that made it harder to nail things down.

What is your secret to keeping a steady beat when those all around you are going off in all different directions?

 

[C Stone]

I do my best to lock in with the drums or percussion and if the others players are new-ish or not very good and not really paying attention that is entirely on them.

 

[Blueinred]

I grew up and still live in Kentucky, heard Bluegrass all my life. So I'll take license here:

THERE AIN'T NO DRUMMER IN TRADITIONAL BLUEGRASS !!

There, I feel better.

All the instruments support the rhythm while others solo, so lock in with the ones nailin' it.

 

[JimmyM]

You are the drummer in a bluegrass band. Stand your ground and take no prisoners. And turn way up

 

[Jaycat]

You are the drummer in a bluegrass band. Stand your ground and take no prisoners. And turn way up

Best advice yet. Thanks.

 

[timmus]

Fifteen people jamming at once? Most jams are a timing catastrophe with only three or four playing.

It is usually a tuning catastrophe with 15 people playing too, especially if the guitars all have a capo on their neck.

 

[Snarf]

Tempo should be a shared contract between all the members of an ensemble. It ebbs and flows — it is not static. It relies upon everyone listening to everyone else.

This is only true if you're playing with bad players. If you're playing music with a set tempo that is expected to be executed that way, all the players should feel the SAME tempo simultaneously, and that same tempo should be what the drummer sets. If you have a bad drummer, you're just SOL. One of my tasks in life as a bass player has been to alter my time to accommodate a bad drummer. It's a lot of work and focus that I don't want and shouldn't be necessary.

 

[fhm555]

You are the drummer in a bluegrass band. Stand your ground and take no prisoners. And turn way up

I was taught the mandolin served as the drummer in a bluegrass band, until they take a solo, then you just have to wait for them to come back to their chop and hop back on their one. It's not always the same as it was when they started their solo, but...

 

[albertus]

leave the stage, ask for a beer and let the ship sink

 

[wiscoaster]

Move your body: Tap your foot; bop your head; dip your shoulders back and forth; stomp; dance... do some sort of repetitive body movement. Rhythm is a body movement thing. Bass is a body movement thing. .....

I've noticed this while watching videos of famous musicians. Hendrix's bass player Noel Redding in their early years videos looks much like a turkey bobbing his head back and forth. Well, he's a skinny guy with a long neck. Yes, it's kind of funny .... but .... hey, if it works.

I kind of bob up and down on my heels with the beat. (I think so, anyway .... that's not something I'm really paying that much attention to. It just kind of happens naturally).

 

[jthisdell]

See if there is one guitarist nearby that you can lock into. That many players in a jam is going to be loosey goosey

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

Hi gang. Every Sunday I play (electric) bass at a bluegrass jam. Lots of fun and I usually do well holding down the beat. (Solos are another thing, I'm kinda hit and miss).

Yesterday, however, I was having trouble finding my rhythm, at first anyway. One thing is, we had about 15 people playing, as opposed to the usual 8 or 9. I think that made it harder to nail things down.

What is your secret to keeping a steady beat when those all around you are going off in all different directions?

I've always been a "team player" and, being a musician, I'm a bit of an "insecure egotist". One of the things I noticed, early on was: I tended to think I was the one going out of time and I would try to "latch onto" others.

Three words: "don't do that". You've got a large group of people and the odds are it's one of the newer people who are putting the turd in the punch bowl.