Rhythm help

BlueStrat

I need to improve my rhythm, accuracy, understanding etc. 

Any advice appreciated

AntonHunter

James Brown tunes. This book breaks down a load of the tunes for rhythm section, and there's loads of tight 16th note strumming patterns, often sitting on the same two bar pattern for quite a while so you can really practice locking in with the groove.

https://ergodebooks.com/?route=product/product&product_id=2457249&currency=GBP

smigeon

Try All My Loving by the Beatles.

Switch625

A metronome is your friend.

digitalkettle

Where do you want to get to? Show us a vid!

And where are you now? Show us a vid

monquixote

It helps if you specify which genre. 

The biggest fault I see inexperienced musicians do is slowing down on the hard bits and speeding up on the easy bits. People notice rhythm more than anything so if you do a fast run miss or flub a few note and come in on time at the next bar it's much less jarring to a listener than slowing down.

I find metronomes annoying and unnatural so use a basic drum machine. Some practice amps have them built in or there are phone apps etc.

Two exercises I did when learning drums I've adapted for guitar which were super helpful were

Rhythmic displacement 
Do 16th note mutes with up and down picking
Count along with the notes "1 e & a 2" etc
and then do a chord stab on each note in turn so first bar on the one, second bar on the "a" of one then the "&" of one etc until you've learned how to consistently nail every beat.
Make sure anything that's on the off beat is always and upstroke and anything on an on beat is a downstroke.

Note Pulses
Again muted picking on one string.
Play 1/4 notes for one bar 1/4 note triplets then 1/8th notes then 1/8th note triplets then 16th notes.

CoffeeAndTV

Also, if you have GarageBand or reaper record yourself to a click and see if you’re behind or ahead.  It can be a jarring and often a rude awakening.  My goal has been to play so in time, you can’t hear the click.  

sev112

Rhythm is a lot about rests and ties

Take 8 quavers in a 4 beat bar
start off with playing / strumming sets of 8 in time (preferably down up .. rather than down down down ..)
then start placing a series of rests (ie don’t play) the e.g. 2 4 6 8 beats
then rests on the 1 3 5 7
then rests on 2 and 5
etc
try and keep using the down up down up irrespective of which rests are being used

There are books which provide lots of these rhythms, including which rests are used in different genres - it looks like I loaned my one out and haven’t got it back  

Lestratcaster

The key is to understand what you have to play within a measured space of time, i.e 4 strums within 4 beats is 1 bar of music. You can't strum 5 times and call it 4/4 otherwise its one too many. Same if you only strum 3 then start the 1 again.

So start with basic understanding of subdividing different rhythm values, whole/half/quarter/eighth/sixteenth et and make sure you can play those with a metronome/drum machine in time so the tempo doesn't need to change or anything.

I use a textbook once called the Encyclopaedia of Reading Rhythms. It has several counting exercises which really helped me tidy up my rhythm notation reading.

Rhythm makes up for 90-95% of guitar playing so its important its good! 

CaseOfAce

Easiest / quickest way ? Join a band.
Your rhythm playing will improve overnight. 

Other than that - metronome - in countless music rooms / man caves I see racks upon racks of guitars, amps, effects pedals - 
and not a single one of these things in sight...

munckee

Or play along with the original song if its a cover you are learning.  I find that the most useful for timing.

DefaultM

CaseOfAce said:

Easiest / quickest way ? Join a band.
Your rhythm playing will improve overnight. 

Other than that - metronome - in countless music rooms / man caves I see racks upon racks of guitars, amps, effects pedals - 
and not a single one of these things in sight...

Well hopefully that's cos it's on their phone. It would be nice to have a proper one though.

BlueStrat

I'm ok to follow along a song that I know on cd but on my own I can sense that the timing is drifting away.

I'll get a phone based metronome and put some work in with that, I kind of matched @CaseOfAce description of a typical mancave, loads of gear and no metronome!

Lewy

I like a simple metronome over a drum machine because you can vary the challenge - so for example you can use it as normal and have the click of the metronome on the down beat, but you can also treat the click as the off beat instead, putting YOU in charge of accenting the down beat with your playing in between the clicks. That can be hugely revealing. You can also halve the tempo of the click challenging you play in time for twice as long before you get any rhythmic help. 

These are things which will develop your own innate sense of time, rather than just enable you to follow a rhythm and not sound discernibly out of time with it.

PAL

Playing along with a song or other people if you can will help.

HAL9000

PAL said:

Playing along with a song or other people if you can will help.

CaseOfAce said:

Easiest / quickest way ? Join a band.
Your rhythm playing will improve overnight. 

^ This. Not only rhythm but every aspect of your playing will improve. Playing with others is a sure-fire way of forcing you to up your game.

Also, downstrokes give the beat; upstrokes give the groove/feel.