Hey Guys.  I hope every one is enjoying the new year.  I want to talk about rhythm.

Did you know that a drummer may never have to play a Bb?

Did you know that you are going to have to play rhythms?

Rhythm often gets overlooked by many guitar players.  I always ask my students if they are playing with a drummer.  If they are I congratulate them.  If they are not I ask them if they would be able to play along with a drummer and not get confused.  This often stumps the student. 

I then ask them to mute their strings and start strumming some rhythms.  A guitar player, as well as any other type of musician is a drummer.  Think about some of the great guitar players:

 Satriani, Clapton, Rhoads, Etc...

How good would they sound if their chords and notes were not in rhythm?  No drummer would play with them. 

Give a listen to some solo acoustic Dave Matthews and listen to the rhythms.  If he had no sense of rhythm then his songs would never work.

Listen to Don Lappin play and listen to the rhythms he plays in his notes and his chords.  They are all right on. 

Rhythm is very important, an it is very easy to learn.  Here are a couple of ways that you could practice rhythm away from your instrument: 

1.  Count  measures in your head, or out loud when you are listening to music.  If you drive then this is perfect!  bang on the steering wheel, and count.  Also, be sure that you are driving safely.  What is cool about this is if you are listening to something familiar then you can start to work on getting the rhythms of the accents in the music.  Most of us hear music daily at many places.  Why not take the opportunity to get into the feel of what you are listening to.  You should know that if your favorite song came on that you could play the drums perfectly by banging on your knees, a steering wheel, or anything.  I started this when I was a little kid.  My mom hated it.  Little did she know that I would eventually pick up the drums, then the guitar, and then write about the value of it on a cool website!

2.  Write rhythms out.  You can use anything to write on.  You don't need staff paper for it.  Any scraps will do.  Start by writing quarter notes and quarter rests.  Then move onto 8ths and 16ths.  Write them out and just get yourself used to them.

Here is how you could practice with your instrument:

Mute your strings and get strumming.  Now that there are no notes coming out, and just rhythms, realize that you are in fact a drummer.  This needs to be tight.  Get this together and then start simple.  Get an E Open chord and start strumming.  Be smooth.  Begin to use muting to enhance the "rhythm" of the E chord you are playing.

Whether you are playing with a drummer or not, or whether you are playing live or just for yourself, some rhythm is going to give you a greatly enhanced sound.  Rhythm can become 2nd nature very quickly.  Work on it now and in now time you will notice a dramatic difference in your playing.