Forum - Banjo Ben Clark

Playing Along Difficulties

I’m currently having a struggle: I can play along with the .tef file flawlessly, but when it comes to playing alongside Ben’s rhythm tracks, I can never keep time. I can also play with the metronome flawlessly.

I keep telling myself, “Just keep at it and it’ll eventually fall into place.” But the trouble is, I can’t find out where I’m going wrong to try to help it fall into place.

Anybody else struggle with this?
What can I do to help this?

It is hard to learn to play with different audio cues for tempo, but doing so makes you a better listener. Keep at it! It is a skill that takes time and repetition to improve. Perhaps try playing with the slower tracks a bit more? Perhaps turn up the volume of Ben’s track?

I completely understand your struggle. I have no problem to play with the metronome. Also not to play the banjo part together with an original song. Then we play the same song with our own band and I don’t ‘feel’ it sometimes. Like Mike says, you have to get used to the audio cues with every new person you play.

What might also help is to first vamp the chords along with Ben’s rhythm track a few times, to get a better feeling and internalize the tempo, before you play the solo part over it.

I still count out loud to myself when playing along w/ a backing track. I also kinda nod my head while doing it. As an old fart learning to play guitar/banjo and to keep a beat, it helped out a ton to do that to “get into the groove”