Pump up the intensity on slow/quiet songs

Yesterday, Ben Senterfit and I had a discussion regarding improving my groove. We started out by talking about that inner drummer essential in keeping time. In essense, implanting a beat in your head throughout a song. We worked on internalizing the beat by tapping the foot or moving the whole body. What I noticed was that I had focused on keeping the beat in my right hand, not my body. When I would do funky chord changes or melody lines, the beat would disappear and I would lose time.

We then started talking about intensity. What I noticed was that for my quieter/slower songs I had more of a struggle keeping time. My tendency was to get lazy on these songs. Ben suggested that I need to play quiet songs with as much or more intensity than loud songs. This doesn't mean hitting the strings harder, it means with more focus and intent. In otherwords, put the same level of effort and energy behind the slow songs.

We transferred the same concept to vocals. Quiet songs need to be sung with as much support as loud songs. In other words, the diaphram effort and breathing stays the same, only you regulate the volume.

What this means is that I need to work as hard on slow/quiet songs as fast/loud songs. Bummer!