My musical practice is all based around repertoire - learning and re-learning the tunes that get played at the Irish sessions and contra jams that I attend. Within that overarching repertoire practice, there is room for focusing on rhythm and timing, on ear training, and on technique.
Of those three sub-categories, I'm realizing that rhythm and timing is most important. No matter how fast or slow you play, maintaining good rhythm and timing = having good feel. Most of us have a tendency to speed up. I know that I do. To work on this, I'm really valuing the metronome in a way I never had before. I have played a lot with a click and/or a drum beat, but usually the clicks or beats are so frequent that it's really difficult to get off track.
Recently I've been experimenting with slowing the metronome down but playing at the same speed. For example, set the metronome at 80bpm and play along with it. Once you're comfortable with that, change the metronome to 40bpm but still play at the same speed you were when the metronome was at 80. This will make it a little harder to stay in sync. Once you have that going smoothly, change the metronome to 20 bpm but still play at the same speed as before. This will be much more difficult, requiring a conscious effort and an internal sense of rhythm to stay on the beat. Most over the counter metronomes don't go that "slow", but you can find metronome apps like Time Guru that allow for 20bpm or slower.
Of course ear training or learning/remembering the tune by ear rather than sheet music is a struggle that gets easier over time. Michael Eskin describes a method of ear training that I've started to adopt. In a nutshell you listen to a slowed down section of a tune like just the A part for a period of 10 or 15 instruments. You can sing along like a "dubba dubba" muttering of the melody, but don't try to play along. Just listen. Then go do something else for a while like chores or taking a walk. When you come back, pick up your instrument and try to play as much by ear as you can recall just from memory alone. It might be nothing at first, but try for at least five minutes before giving up. Then listen to the recording again and repeat the process. This is not a quick fix but over time you can learn the tune this way.
Another thing you can do is take a tune you're on the cusp of learning, like one you almost have, and play it from memory without looking at the sheet music. If you do need to listen to jog your memory, only listen to the very being as an aural insipid. Then sing it to yourself at a speed that you can easily play. If you have metronome that you can tap, tap at the speed that you are singing to set the click tempo. Maybe that happens to be 60 bpm. Then play it from memory to the click of the metronome. Play it in real time filling in any notes or measures you can't quite recall, but staying on the beat.
Or take a tune that you know really well, note for note, and play a completely improvised version of it applying melodic variations, triplets, double stops, or other ornamentation/embellishments...as much as you can think of while still staying in time with the metronome click. Keep the actual sound of the tune in your head and know where you are at any given time with regard to the AA/BB structure, but otherwise play freely.
Of course technique is all part of this as well. I sometimes have a hard time defining what exactly technique is, but I think it qualifies as everything from how you hold your instrument, to how you sit balanced with good posture and no tension in the body, to pick direction, to economy of motion, to dynamics (loud vs quiet, straight vs swung), to staccato versus legato, to how and when you breathe. I think it all comes down to being present and mindful of the movements you are making and how you are holding your body.
I kind of rambled but the point of this post was to convey my belief that rhythm and timing is the most important element that needs work right now. However, within that work there is also the opportunity for ear training and being mindful of technique, all under the broader aspect of increasing repertoire and fine tuning or re-tooling the tunes you already know under the construct of this newfound internal sense of rhythm.
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