A consumable electrode arc welding method includes the detecting of a constriction formed in a molten droplet of the welding wire so as to reduce the welding current, the detecting of a smoothed value of the welding current, and the feedback controlling of the feed rate of the welding wire so as to make the smoothed value of the welding current correspond to a predetermined current setting value. The constriction detection is performed repetitively in a predetermined cycle.
In each time of the repetition, the length of a constriction time, from the constriction detection till the arc generation, is measured. The number of constriction time lengths falling outside a predetermined range is counted. When the counted number is not less than a reference number, the transient response time of the feedback control is made longer.