The improvement you will make with your guitar playing simply by working on your rhythm and timing skills is massive! No matter what style of guitar/music you play, this is one of the most important and essential areas of your development as a musician.
The following scenario may resonate with you: You spend hours and hours working on a solo, getting all the notes and fingerings down.
You play along to the recording, and while some parts may sound great, there are several areas that don't.
What you play just doesn't seem to fit with the recording.
You keep trying, but nothing works.
In frustration, you throw your guitar down and walk away.
This pretty much sums up my guitar playing in the early years.
Hours of time spent getting notes and fingerings down, and then frustration setting in, when I discovered that a lot of what I was doing didn't fit when playing along to the recordings.
Eventually it dawned on me that my rhythm and timing skills, or lack thereof, were the culprit.
I had all the notes down, but a lot of them were being played at the wrong time.
When it came to playing my guitar in time, I sucked at it, pretty much.
Everything you have ever played on your guitar will instantly sound better when you start to invest time into improving your rhythm and timing skills.
There is nothing more true than the statement above.
The great news is that this investment of time only has to be minutes a day.
Let me show you exactly how to go about improving your rhythm and timing, and by extension your whole playing, in this article.
The Benefits Of Having The Ability To Play Your Guitar In Time Do not underestimate the effectiveness of the exercises presented in this article due to their simplicity.
Do them regularly and you will see a massive improvement in the ability to play your guitar in time on a consistent basis.
You will start to "feel" time rather than have to "think" time.
This is the ultimate goal.
You want to go from having to think where the beat is, as you play your guitar, to being able to feel where it is, and by extension the notes you play.
Once you achieve this, and you will, a whole new freedom will come to your guitar playing.
No longer will songs be a struggle for you to play.
You'll find them so much easier and quicker to learn.
Jamming with friends, or playing in a band, is something you'll love doing, rather than something you fear and dread.
The Endless Frustration Of Playing Your Guitar Out Of Time, And What Happens If You Ignore This If you realise that you have trouble playing your guitar in time, then be thankful, because many people are not even aware that this is a weakness for them.
The reason for timing being such a common problem for many guitar players is that far too often the emphasis is put on WHAT notes to play and not WHEN to play these notes.
It's wrongly assumed that if you can play the right notes, then they will also be played at the right time.
This is not true, and will end in frustration for you if you adopt this approach.
You can attempt to learn as many songs as you like, but you will always struggle to get them down if you lack good rhythm and timing skills.
The feeling of spending many hours learning a song, only for it to fall apart when you try playing it, is very frustrating and leads to embarrassment when jamming the song with friends or in a band.
No Need For Your Guitar.
Put It Down That's right, you won't need your guitar at all.
Put it away so that we can focus purely on the beat instead.
Playing your guitar will only be a distraction.
The aim is to improve your overall awareness and sense of time as you play your guitar.
To do this, there is no need to focus on anything specific in relation to songs etc.
Rather, we will focus more on rhythm and time in general, which by extension will then improve everything that you already know on your guitar, as well as everything that you'll learn in the future.
A big advantage to our approach here is that you will be able to work with your timing skills anywhere, anytime.
You don't need a guitar, and you don't necessarily need to be at home.
All you need is a few spare minutes in your day, something everybody has no matter how busy you are.
Warning: A very costly assumption that many people make is that rhythm and timing drills, like the ones I am about to present to you, are for beginners only.
Counting and clapping appears to be simple and therefore you feel you are above these and don't need to do them.
This is WRONG! You're playing will suffer if you take on this attitude.
If you have trouble with playing your guitar in time, or you want to increase you awareness of time, then the following drills will help you greatly.
Don't underestimate the benefit your guitar playing will receive by doing them regularly.
The following drills are all in 4/4 time, the most common of time signatures.
Start here, but you should also work with other times like 3/4 and 6/8 once you get comfortable with 4/4.
Be sure to use a metronome too.
Metronomes are an essential tool for musicians of all kinds.
They will train your time better than anything else.
Let's start by counting 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc Each number you count coincides with a click of the metronome.
Your aim is to be perfectly in time as you do this.
Once you have this going, tap on the first beat only as you continue to count all beats.
Like this: (Each beat you are to tap is in bold) 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc Now let's tap on the 1 and 3 beats like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc Finally, tap on all 4 beats like this: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc You must be counting each and every beat aloud in the drills above.
This is vitally important in developing your awareness of time.
Counting aloud is a means to an end.
It's purely for training your awareness and sense of time.
Soon enough you will be feeling the beat instead.
Divide And Conquer Creating rhythms in music is all about dividing the beat into various groupings.
These divisions of the beat are found in everyday music.
Let's begin by dividing the beat into two by tapping twice to each click of the metronome while counting: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + etc Next, let's tap three times to each click of the metronome and count: 1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a etc Finally, let's tap four times to each click of the metronome and count: 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a etc Tapping like this to your metronome provides a great foundation for your rhythm and timing.
Before long you will be feeling these divisions rather than having to count and clap them.
Remember that our aim is to go from "thinking" to "feeling" the beat.
Mixing It All Up Once you have worked with the drills above, the next step is to create cool rhythms and grooves by mixing the divisions of the beat together.
This is how music is, rhythmically speaking.
It's all about dividing the beat up in various ways.
Here is an example of this: 1 e + a 2 + 3 + a 4 + a etc and another: 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 + 4 + a etc There are many rhythms that you can create by doing this, and that is exactly what you need and should to do.
The great thing is, you can do this anywhere, anytime.
Even if you don't have a metronome handy, just tap your foot to provide the beat and start creating rhythms right there on the spot.
All you need is a few spare minutes.
Download this free video/PDF for a very cool, fun, and interactive way to continue building your rhythm and timing skills by learning percussive guitar