As guitarists, we spend countless hours honing our skills in a multitude of ways. Grappling with the Rubik’s Cube-like nature of the guitar’s fretboard, mastering a plethora of physical techniques, learning and memorizing songs, organizing scales and arpeggios into usable patterns, and trying to remove the barriers that exist between what our minds can hear and what our fingers can play. But, it seems there is an area that is often neglected by guitarists, and even other instrumentalists, more than others… rhythm.
Most Musicians Are Sick
In surveying the musical world around me, there appears to be an epidemic of bad timing running rampant among musicians today. And, I’m not just talking about beginners or amateurs – I’ve encountered professional musicians, even players with university-level training who suffer from this affliction as well. Everywhere I look, I hear musicians who struggle to keep a consistent tempo, fail to correctly subdivide a beat, get tripped up in the pitfalls of rests, and who fall apart rhythmically without the help of a time keeper (a drummer, conductor, drum machine, click track, or metronome)
There is, however one category of musicians who have managed to inoculate themselves against this musical malady. Drummers and percussionists spend an almost obsessive amount of time devoted to developing their sense of time and with good reason. There is very little other than rhythm for them to focus on in most contemporary music. For them, timing literally is everything.
So, you might be thinking to yourself “Who cares if I have a good sense of rhythm or not, I’m a guitarist.” That might seem like a reasonable line of thinking, but if you look a little deeper you’ll find that rhythm really is at the heart of everything that we play.
One To Rule Them All
In music , there are seven basic elements that make up all of the things that we do. They are specifically Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Dynamics, Texture, Form, and Timbre. Each one concerns itself with a particular aspect of what we play and are combined together in an infinite number of ways to create music. But, it is rhythm that commands them all.
Through discussions with several musician colleagues of mine, we all seem to agree that the most important element to develop as a musician is your own sense of rhythm. But, why is this the case. Yes, rhythm can certainly create a very powerful connection to the music in certain styles – Dance, Rock, Hip-hop, Swing – but it can’t be the most important thing in every style can it?
Whether you believe that rhythm drives music or not, you have to concede that poor rhythm will ruin every other aspect of your playing. It all comes down to this… If you play the right thing at the wrong time, it’s wrong. That’s it. You could have the most amazingly crafted melody, the god-like tone of Eric Johnson, and the stunning virtuosic technique of Yngwie Malmsteen and none of it would matter if you can’t play it at the right time.
So, what is the solution? How do you cure yourself of your rhythmatic infirmity? Well, you certainly don’t have to become obsessed with rhythm like our percussively-minded friends, but I do recommend that you reorganize your practice time to allow for the regular development of rhythm. Spending time focusing completely on improving your rhythm will help you to go a long way in a very short amount of time.
Now let me be very clear though, I’m not talking about spending time learning to play more rhythm guitar parts like riffs or strumming patterns. What I mean is working to develop your sense of rhythm; your inner time. This is a very different thing and it requires a completely different approach to improve.
If you have absolutely no idea how to do this, I recommend that you begin by learning to count whatever you are playing. Will it be hard to do? More than likely, but it will be more than worth the effort.
