It must be said that learning to play the washboard alongside blues guitarist/singers who are used to playing alone has it’s downsides, and in my case the one I’m still fighting the most with is that I learned how to follow the lead musician’s rhythms and not how to hold a steady beat. This was noticed during Swamp Train’s week in Bellwald last October and I was asked to use a “click track” which in that case was just sticking on earphones with a metronome beat. To everyone’s surprise it worked OK, mainly because, thanks to Bill, I have been practicing with a metronome long enough for it already to have gone from being my enemy to being my friend. About 3 years…
It is stressful however because you need to focus on the beat while listening to the band but ignore any rhythm changes they might be inclined to make. And the gig at the end of that week was one of the worst: I had to both talk between songs (since I speak English and that’s cool) and change the settings on my small electronic metronome with my washboard gloves on. Plus we were all exhausted.
So it was obvious that I needed something programmable that hopefully could be easily switched between songs by someone wearing gloves with thimbles on the finger tips. I would like to say I had a choice but the truth is there wasn’t. The Boss DB-90 was the only digital metronome in which you could store up to 50 settings that I could find and what’s more it’s easy to switch from one to another with the large rotating dial. But of course it was the most expensive one too.
I got it about ten days before the next gig on our schedule, at the Vully Blues Festival, and quickly went through the basics with the help of the above video, entered my rhythms and was as thrilled with it as one can be by a metronome. “This is great, I love it!”
We set up at the Vully gig, and just before going to catch a quick bite before it began I changed the battery to be sure it wouldn’t go dead during the evening. In my hurry it would seem that I didn’t quite press down well enough on the battery’s connection. Checking that all was OK, it wasn’t, didn’t turn on. Checked the battery, saw it wasn’t attached correctly and corrected that…
Well if you are interested in this product, you may have noticed in the video at about 4:55 that you may lose your settings if it’s turned on without the battery. This is a fact, I spent the first half of my meal re-entering my settings. I didn’t really love it then either. What’s more if you are using it and the battery runs out, you lose your settings! IMHO this is really lame! And watch out, the battery only lasts 6 hours.
After re-entering my setting for the third time last month I bought the corresponding AC adapter.
Otherwise it’s great for practicing plus the fact that when playing live you can run a line from the table into the DB-90 and add your clicks to it at whatever level suits you is fantastic! A far cry from having the metronome on one ear and the band on the other. All in all a good investment, don’t know how I lived without it… :P
PS for readers who dropped by for this article: At the moment I’m playing a small drum set (no toms) along with my washboard and not just a washboard as it may seem reading this.