Serious Timing Problem!!!

i have serious problem: I can play perfectly well and on time at just about any spped on a metronome about up to 230 bpm. And when im playing with out any accompaniment and just a metronome i can do all those fast crazy licks. But then when I improv to a progression i've recorded or jamming with my band, all that comes out is non-organized notes. So my problem is that i can shred and all to a metronome, but when someone gives me a progression, no matter how fast it is, all the licks i practice seem to go to waste because no matter what key or anything, i can never fit them in. Any suggestions?

Slasha

I guess it depends on what you practice. Scales and modes are meant to help you find the notes you need for your accompaniment to the song. Just playing a scale over a chord progression won't sound as good as using your knowledge of the modes to find a melody line. If you can sing or hum what you want to play, you can play it. If you don't have some idea of what you want to do before you start to play, you have less chance of success.

playing with a band is rarely, if ever, like playing with a metronome. in fact, to be perfectly honest, i don't think i've ever practiced with a metronome [ don't folloe my example though, i'm just lazy ]. you have to develop an organic sense of rhythm, if that makes sense, when playing with other human beings because the time flows imperfectly when compared with a metronome. the beat is like the ground of being, the foundation, of a good jam. you have to develop a 'feeling' for it, kind of an intuition. i'm prety sure all of this makes little sense [ great qualities for a teacher, eh? ], but it just takes time and practice like anything else. you can't count along with a band the same way as with a metronome because it's apples and oranges. they're really that different. you'll fall into it soon. just flow, man, flow. ;)

Become a human metronome... that may sound weird, but hey, drummers do it... I mean, watch a drummer play... most of them bob their head and tap their foot (when not holding down the high hat). I follow the same thing with guitar. I usually bob my head at half note speed and tap my right foot at 8th note speed. I don't do this on purpose... in fact, the way I found out I did this was watching a video of me playing. Now, once your whole body gets into the groove, your hands will too (hopefully). Don't try to play memorized licks during a jam, they're for when you're up on stage and you can't think of anything when trying to improvise :) Don't act as if you're playing to a metronome, because it's a band with real live people that don't go "click, click, click, click"... don't think... just play. Did that make sense?