Hi I’m Jeff Scheetz, I’m the Director of Education here at TrueFire, and I’m also the founder of Smart Practice. In this Smart Practice TrueFire Guide for Rhythm Guitar, I’ll give you some great tips you can use to practice smarter and I’ll share some of my favorite resources here at TrueFire to improve your rhythm guitar playing.
The first tip is you need to get clear on where you are with your rhythm playing. In my Smart Practice for Guitar system, I teach you how to do something called a "Skillbox Inventory." This shows you: What you know, What you are working on, and What you need to know all in one place. So check that out. The first step is to write down everything you know related to rhythm guitar playing. Write down any exercises you know - any chord progressions you like to play with specific timing - everything that you know and play where you focus specifically on rhythm when you play it.
This is a great starting point for you to see what is working and what needs work! Once you have that where you can honestly look at it and assess - it helps you decide what you need to do next!
Of course, the best advice I can give on improving your rhythm guitar playing is to make sure you are working with a metronome or jam tracks. Basically, you need to get good at syncing up to something outside of yourself.
What do I mean by that? As guitarists we spend a lot of time playing by ourselves, and in that case we are our own rhythm keepers. But the reality of playing with others is you are NOT going to be the one who sets the rhythm or tempo - that will be the drummer, or the metronome, or tracks, or other musicians you are playing with. So it is super important to learn to “sync” to something outside yourself.
How can you practice that? Just be mindful of it - when you turn the metronome on, make sure you tap your foot and sync up to it before you start to play. When you listen to music, consciously tap your foot and "feel" the beat. Being aware of the timing and feel of being on the beat is crucial, and you can even work on this when you don’t have a guitar in your hands.
Finally, make sure you set aside time during your practice to just work on rhythm! That intentional work on it is what will make you a groove machine.
I’ve put together some great courses to help you improve your rhythm. I’ve also selected some In the Jams and Multi-Track Audio Jam Packs that are fun to play to and will really help you get better at syncing up to something besides yourself!
Check out Smart Practice for Guitar for more tips on organizing your practice time and dig in!
Here are several great courses that give you a ton of tools and techniques to help you take your rhythm to the next level.
Playing through common chord progressions is a great way to hone your rhythm chops. These Fakebooks in various styles can give you specific tunes to play through with the instructor.
The best way to get better at rhythm guitar is playing with real musicians. TrueFire’s In The Jams are as close as you can get to jamming on stage with the band. Some feature videos of all band members! You can adjust the volume of each instrument and even solo or mute any parts you want. You can watch the rhythm video or lead video to learn the parts, and then when you are ready, mute that part and jump In The Jam!
You can also jam with the Multi Track Audio Jam Packs just without the videos or any lead guitar parts. A great way to get in repetitions on your rhythm chops!
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