Another way to put it is if the bass player and/or guitar player have bad time, no mandolin player can save them.
If their time is so bad they can't play to a click, why would they be able to play to a human, unless the human is rushing/dragging with them (you know that beast, the Russian Dragon!?!)
"Listen to the bass player" is great advice IF the bass player has good time...the band is only going to be as strong, rhythmically, as it's weakest link. If the bassist is a refugee from another instrument who doesn't focus on groove too often, the whole band will wobble from that shaky foundation on up.
A band that doesn't play barn-burning tempos but that has a really tight groove is going to sound better than a band on it's collective tippytoes trying to squeeze out music as fast as they can (I speak from experience here and have the calloused tippytoes to prove it!)
If more 'unfamous' players focused on time, there'd be a lot more of that kind of musical ESP going around. I said it before and it bears repeating: one of the benefits of thinking about time feel is that it teaches you to
listen outside yourself and truly become part of a greater whole in a band context.
Once again proving that your
ears are ultimately your most important acquisition- not MAS or GAS, let's call it EAS (but not out loud!)
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