Les,

Well, the slower a piece is, the "thicker" the texture needs to be, usually, to avoid it sounding draggy. This means adding instrumentation or inceasing the effect of the existing instrumentation. It takes special skill and talent to make a slow, spare arrangement work.

What does not help is adding more guitars... but as TC said, using them differently. Adding a layer of sound over or under the existing pitch ranges helps here also-- add a high fiddle to a low piece, or a bass, cello, or other low-pitch item to something in a higher range.

You don't want more people on the melody or even necessarily on the harmonies, though-- what you want are the small ornamentations that add some twinkle and sparkle to your already-good arrangements, especially under or over any long-held notes.

You aren't looking to cover any skill problems, or overlay sounds that cover up your best tone. You just have to fill in bald spots the same way a writer makes good paragraph transitions... connect all the dots. What an opportunity , too with recording... one guitar player can lay out the melody, then come back in and do his own ornamentation. I just heard a two-fiddle piece like that-- I am sure it is one player, doing his own second part. Wonderful effect.

And do not underestimate rhythm instruments to help with all this-- a little rain stick or chime action, even the good old tambourine-- all these can fatten up your texture.

The additional texture is less important when the singing and playing skills are real good. But if the singing lacks, for instance, good diaphragmatic support, slower material will expose all of the shortcomings. So anyone in your group who is refining their skills will find more and more to be concerned about the slower you go and the thinner your texture.

I use the autoharp quite a bit when our jam group is trying something a bit beyond their skill level, or something that is best done slow but for which we may lack skills or enough players. If someone else is covering the rhythm pretty well, I will take up a very strong back beat, with the volume depending on the song and the other parts being played. Or I may set up a syncopated strum within the rhythm to pop the beat... give a little flip at the end of the phrase that makes the beat itself an echo of my jumped beat.

If you listen to a good bluegrass or old timey string band or jug band, and listen to the instruments separately one by one, you will notice that the rhythm guitar or other instrument is doing some varying things here and there. Just listen to as much as you can and see what tricks are being employed. Listening to ragtime helps too. Rhythms within rhythms within rhythms. Same with baroque choral music. Have a fugue.

I found that a good book of drumming patterns really helped me develop what was already a good ear for rhythm. It was great to just play these by slapping my hands on the table. You also can find out a lot about new approaches to rhythm using a drum machine or an keyboard with rhythm... run as many different rhythm settings as possible on some old favorite songs and you will go into some new areas quick!

For singability of your lyrics you want to use some of the tricks used in classical singing-- really push the consonants, and place the consonant just ahead of the beat so that the vowel falls right on the beat. And never hold a consonant-- hold a vowel and then hit the consonant hard to close the duration of the note. You wahhhhh-nt to sihhhhhh-ng lahhhhhh-ike thihhhhh-ts. Oh yeah. Don't sing ssss. Sing ts. It will not sound like ts. It will sound like a crisp s.

Our group seems to jell when I make them sit douwn and listen to something different... they are all curious and want to learn as much as they can, so listening with the intention of learning has helped them. If you ask your folks to bring stuff for everyone to hear, you might be surprised what trickles into your group's sound as a result.

Borrow from any genre, too, to add to your sound. You never know. It could be that a polka band has just the thing you are missing!

Last-- play with others. Ask everyone in your group to do that. Hope at least one item in all this is helpful-- please do let us know!

~Susan