metronome

Counting in your mind is part of the process of reading sheet music (like you do with your study songs at BluesHarmonica.com), especially when it comes to long-held notes and rests. This becomes increasingly difficult while playing in time with a metronome. To help you keep track of where you are within the bar, here's a metronome that counts for you http://eumlab.com/pro-metronome/. After downloading this free program, click on settings and choose the "Voice Counting" option.

Watching your foot while playing is helpful. If you find your foot stall, then you don't own that particular passage. This is what I said a couple of tips ago. Now let's make sure you REALLY are in time. Set your metronome to the desired tempo of the song you're working on and place it next to your foot. This will help you to stay in time with your metronome by giving you a visual confirmation of the tapping of your foot. As you develop your awareness of what your foot is doing this won't be necessary, but this is a good way to get started.

Playing in time is challenging, and when you think your timing is good, then try playing with a metronome. The skill you're developing is a listening skill. You listen to the metronome (which is a stand-in for another musician) and adjust your playing to stay in time with it. Just like when riding a bike with a friend and trying to hold a conversation, you're consistently adjusting your speed so that you're within comfortable speaking/hearing range. As soon as you lose concentration, you're soon too far behind/ahead to continue the conversation. continue reading...

Start your song and turn on your metronome. Adjust the metronome until it sounds like you're in the ballpark. Stop the metronome and start it again exactly on the first beat of a bar. If it seems fast, slow it down a smidgen, stop it again and start it on the downbeat of the next bar. Repeat this process until you find a tempo that matches the band for around two bars (these are live musicians, you won't get the metronome to stay with the band any longer than that).