Whether you are missing some key rhythmic ingredients in your playing or you just want to move forward from where you are, some serious focus on rhythm will get you back on track!

In the last exercise I focused on what a new player can do to get on track. But now, what can a player do who has been playing for a while and realizes that their rhythm guitar could use a little work?

Well this is a great example of what I say all of the time, “becoming a great guitarist is like building a house. The key is to build a strong foundation.”

In the last exercise, I created 3 exercises that started the new guitarist down the road towards great rhythm guitar. The key concepts of those exercises are not just essential to new guitarists but all guitarists as well.

The key to those exercises is to get the new guitarist thinking about and working on a few key areas in as easy a way as possible. They are:

• Chords
• Strum patterns
• Timing
• Planning ahead

For the rest of us, guitarists that have already been playing but want to improve, the idea doesn’t change. If  you continue to work on those four areas, throughout your journey with the guitar, you will see very steady improvement in the thing that guitarists play the most, rhythm guitar.

CHORDS

Let’s talk about the chords themselves.

Guitar players tend to gravitate to their favorite chord voicings. You find the chords that sound the best to you, or sound like your favorite songs and you are ready to go. It’s fun 

And now being able to have those sounds in your bag of tricks, you can use them in many different situations. Adding these sounds to songs that might not normally use them, could be just the thing to make them sound incredible. It’s like adding different spices in cooking.

But, just like cooking, if you put the same spice in all of your meals, you might start to get a little tired of that taste.

The idea that “once you learn a few chords and you are done” has kept a lot of players from really achieving their potential in rhythm guitar.

How do you get past that? How do you move forward past just memorizing shapes on the guitar? Well, you need to know how these things work. It’s not just magic the way these things sound. There is a reason for every note in a chord. And the reasons for them make sense.

It’s called chord theory.

Oh no! There is that theory word that just turns people off. It seems that when the theory word starts getting thrown around, people start to tune out. When you add the word theory, it makes you think “Watch out, this is going to be difficult”. But honestly, chord theory is not difficult at all. It makes sense.

The first step to being a better rhythm player on any level, is to start getting into how chords are built and incorporating what you learn into your playing. New ways of playing chords can be exciting and raise your playing to new heights.

If you are interested in learning more about how chords are built, I suggest that you read my post that will help start you out in the right direction. It’s at: playguitarpodcast.com/chords.

Another tip that can improve your chords is to work on voicings.

The way the guitar is setup is fantastic for chords. There are so many different ways and places on the guitar to play any chord you want.

Chances are that no matter where you hand is on the guitar, the chord you need is under your fingers. You just have to find it.

Try taking a chord that you play all of the time and find out exactly what notes are in it. For the example earlier I used a C going to a G chord. The C major chord has the notes C E G. The G major chord has the notes G B D.

You don’t have to play those notes only where you learned them. They can be played anywhere you find them on the guitar. And, they can be played in different orders as well. It doesn’t matter, if you have those notes, you have the chord.

To start getting some new voicings, try finding the notes from a chord in different places on the neck. When you find an arrangement that sounds good to you, make a note of it. Write it down. You might be able to use your new voicing in your next song.

To start to go farther with all of this, watch or take a listen to Episode 39 where I help you move forward toward advanced chord construction and voicing.

STRUM PATTERNS

Once a lot of guitar player get a few common strum patterns down, it’s rarely thought about any more.

It quickly goes from study to “seat of your pants” playing by trying to strum on the fly and hoping to spontaneously figuring it out.

The next time you are playing rhythm, pay special attention to the way you strum. You might be surprised. We always focus so much on the fretting hand. Spending time in your daily practice dealing with your picking hand is time well spent.

If you remember from my funk guitar rhythm episode (#28) I took you through an exercise to get your 16th notes under control.

In that exercise, we gave each beat of the 16th notes a direction. Down on 1, up on e, down on &, and up on a. The first beat always has a down-stroke, which is a very strong sound.

As we went through the 16th notes, we started muting certain ones and letting other ones sound, all the while keeping our very economical down up strum pattern. Sometimes letting one sound then another. It’s easy and it sounds very interesting.

If we didn’t have that way of ordering our down up strokes, it would be impossible to play those 16th note grooves at any moderate to fast tempo at all.

Take a look at the songs that you are playing and start to economize your strumming. Make sure you stay with a down up pattern on your strumming hand as much as possible, even if your fretting hand is not playing anything at the time.

TIMING

Working on your timing is key to moving forward with the guitar. You may have found that you can play a particular chord pattern at a comfortable tempo, but if you had to do it any faster you would start to struggle.

I’m sure that there are very few players that can play perfectly at all tempos. There is always room for improvement in timing. And there is a simple way to move forward. It’s just not very exciting.

The metronome.

It’s the age old tip that has worked for countless musicians over time. And it’s one that you should be using in your practice if you really want to improve your timing. Here it is:

Find the tempo that you are comfortable playing at. Write it down. That is your number. Practice at that tempo today. Tomorrow, increase the number 1 or 2 BPM. Practice it there. Rinse and repeat.

As each day goes by, and you keep increasing the tempo, you are slowly training your brain and fingers to adjust to the new environment 

Keep this up until you find the tempo that you really seem to struggle with. This is your new number. This is where our focus needs to be. Back off one or 2 BPM and practice there for a few days. When you really feel comfortable, give your new number a try and see what results you get. You might be surprised.

PLANNING AHEAD

This isn’t just a problem with beginners. Not giving yourself enough time to change chords, especially complex voicings is a problem that players of all levels deal with.

It just comes out different. The beginner just loses time completely. But the more experienced player knows that the chord can’t be late. But if they don’t have enough time, the just play a fudged chord on time.  

What’s worse, being out of time or not playing something correctly. I don’t know, but wouldn’t it be nice not to deal with either!

If you know you have a challenging chord voicing coming up, prepare. Set up the chord before it in a way that your fingers don’t’ have a lot of difficulty making the transition.

Also, make sure that you borrow plenty of time from the measure before to make the new challenging chord in plenty of time. If you fill up every single beat, all of the way up to this new chord, you will most likely struggle.

Thinking ahead is the key in music. No matter if you are playing lead guitar through key changes or coming up with interesting chords and rhythms. If you don’t know where you are going, there is a good chance you may end up with a train wreck. Always keeping an eye on what is coming up will keep you sounding professional and give you time to process new ideas on the fly.

IN SUMMARY

So there it is, how to play rhythm guitar for beginners and tips for intermediate and advanced players to keep their rhythm guitar moving forward.

I gave three easy exercises that a new guitarist can use to start improving their rhythm playing right away and get their mindset together for future progress.  

 I also gave some tips for the intermediate and advanced player to incorporate the four essential areas of rhythm guitar in their daily practice. Which were:

• Chords
• Strum patterns
• Timing
• Planning ahead

Rhythm guitar is very important and it’s overlooked a lot. Being intentional with your rhythm practice can really speed up your progress and keep your playing sounding fresh and exciting.

So my challenge for you this week is to set aside a portion of your daily practice for rhythm guitar. Make a note of the things that you are struggling with and work through the four areas… Chords, strum patterns, timing and planning ahead.

Please let us know the changes to your practice and playing right here in the show notes.