re: How Can I Improve On Rhythm Guitar?

When I was taking guitar lessons in the 80's, we usually worked on scales. One day the teacher was absent and the owner of the music store ran the lessons. We strummed the same four chords for an hour. It made an impression on me.

Like a taekwondo weekend event that I attended once, and the teacher had us stretch for 30 minutes - until it hurt.

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I've only learned to play in later life, so I have no aspirations to play leads beyond a simple one here or there. As a relative newbie chord strumming still feels very mechanical, like my arm is a 2 by 4 swinging back and forth. The semi-professional I play with has an outstanding ear and can hear every instrument, but unless he shows me I can rarely hear it. Then even when he does, I can see he's generating much of the rhythm with his wrist and I struggle to replicate it. I currently have three rhythms I can play reliably (only two naturally) but I need to expand. Any ideas or exercises to improve?

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The first requirement is to hear and feel the syncopation of the rhythm and the associated chord changes, if you don't hear and feel the rhythm correctly in your mind you're never gonna be able to play tight rhythm.

I was generally a pick player for the first 40 years of playing guitar but lately I've dropped the pick and use just my fingers for picking lead lines and playing rhythm, there are some limitations but the freedom of not having to deal with a plectrum is worth it. I still use a pick for funk type rhythm but I'm practicing on getting that worked out with just my fingers too.

Nancy Wilson of Heart, another great rhythm player, once described John Lennon's rhythm playing as "loosely tight." I think that's a good description.