I honestly feel that learning to count out loud over what you play is the best thing you can do for your rhythm. Metronome is good too, but there's something about counting that helps all parts of the body sync up.
Will you count perfectly in time? No, though you could use a metronome as you count, but really it doesn't matter too much. No-one significantly speeds up or slows down when counting (unless consciously trying to do so) because language is actually inherently based on rhythm - hence why you don't tend to speed up or slow down as you talk. I posted a video about this on this forum, do a search if you're interested.
The point is, once you do this to the point that you can count and play over anything (very hard to do at first, but comes with practice) you start to see music as notes overlaid on a rhythmic base. What this means is that the guess work becomes a lot less involved. Once you know the rhythmic structure of a song, it becomes a lot easier to know where the notes fit, and thus it becomes much easier to learn.
How is the relevant to the thumb? Well, I personally don't feel like that thumb needs to be tethered to a particular beat, such as the downbeat, or tap of the foot. And where it's easier to use a finger, I use that instead. As long as your placing the notes correctly within the rhythmic structure of the song it will flow. And counting out loud has been a huge help to me in this regard. As someone somewhere once said "If you can't count while playing the song, you don't know the song" - has proven true for me.
|