Summary: I mentioned in a previous episode that I sing and play guitar at my church. What I didn’t tell you is that I’m the worship leader and I’m, shall we say, rhythmically challenged. Most of the time I’m fine. That’s not to say that I alway keep in rhythm. I don’t. I have a tendency to speed up as a song goes on. I have to really focus to keep from speeding up the tempo.<br> <br> However, speeding up the tempo isn’t usually that big of a deal. The band sticks with me and we all stay together. The drummer has worked with me in rehearsals to help me more aware of my tempo during the entire song and I don’t really ever get so fast that it’s hard to sing along, it’s just faster than it was when we started.<br> <br> If gradually getting faster as songs progress was my only problem, I probably wouldn’t bother telling you about it. After all, it’s a problem that most people won’t notice. My bigger problem is that I will flat out lose my rhythm from time to time. That is, I’ll be strumming along, playing a song that I’ve done a hundred times before and add in a extra beat or even skip a beat. When I make this type of mistake, it’s noticeable by everyone. We’re all off. Well, actually, the band and the congregation are together, but the guy singing into the microphone and leading everyone is off.<br> <br> When this happens it creates an awkward moment. I instantly realize what I’ve done, of course, and try to figure out how to get back on track. I think what normally happens is that once the odd beat has passed, I’m back on the normal rhythm and the band and congregation just have to sync back up with me. This process usually takes a couple of seconds. Then we’re all back together and the awkward moment is behind us. Read More...
