Playing too fast in jams

[red7flag]

I find that I work out an arrangement of a song by myself and to me it sounds great. I kick it off in a jam and find I am playing WAY too fast. I guess the answer is playing with a metronome. With banjo and especially guitar my problem was always getting the break up to spead. With a mando, it is slowing down. Funny being on the other side of the problem.
Tony

[Mike Crocker]

If it's just adrenalin, get a metronome with a light to set your tempo, nobody even needs to know you do this! Mooh.

[John Flynn]

I have the same problem. My fix is: Just before the kick off, I "sing" the opening bars of the tune in my head, get my toe tapping on that beat and do the kick off at that pace. If there are lyrics, I sing those in my head. If not, I just sing the notes to myself as nonsense syllables like "da-da-da-da-da." I find it's pretty accurate.

[Dfyngravity]

When you say you are playing too fast do you mean if you are kicking off a fiddle tune lets say and it's just to fast for everyone else? If so I wish I had that problem! Or do you mean when it comes time for your break that you "rush" or start to play faster than the tempo of the song?

Problem one is easy to fix, just kick the song off a little slower, that shouldn't be too hard to do. If the people you are playing with like to play at speeds around 200-240bpm which is what I like to play fiddle tunes at, just practice at home with a metronome at those speeds.

Problem two is just the matter of you sitting down with a metronome and just drilling tempo into your head. A good way to practice is to find a really good rhythm guitar player and practice with them. In a live setting tempo is never dead on constant, but should stay relatively the same. When you find yourself in a jamm situation just place yourself near a guitar or bass play (or anyone) who is good at keeping the rhythm and follow their lead. "Rushing" also comes from not fully understanding where you are in a song. Lots of time you will be playing and know that it is gettin gready for your break but you don't come in on time and you start to "rush" which ultimately breaks down the tempo of the song. Also a good way to practice this is to play with recordings. Timing is everything and you have to be able to feel the flow of the music. Once you can do that you will have no problem.

[red7flag]

I wasn't clear, problem was kicking off a song, starting it.
When others would go to follow, was too fast for them to play.
Tony

[sunburst]

...Just before the kick off, I "sing" the opening bars of the tune in my head, get my toe tapping on that beat and do the kick off at that pace.
That works for me too.
I was a rock-n-roll/country/pop drummer for years. That's how I set tempos then.
Now I play banjo (when I play) and that means I have a lot of kick offs. It still works, but I will say that it's not always the opening bars that I have to "sing". Sometimes it has to be the chorus, or the middle of the verse, or wherever the words or notes get too hard to handle at too fast a tempo.