When musicians play an instrument, they use their hands to produce sounds. The most common instruments are those that rely on air or fluid (gas) pressure to create sound, such as the violin, guitar, bass, and others.

With the guitar, however, there is another tool at your disposal: rhythm!

You can either learn how to play using only rhythm, or you can combine both. Either way, it’s fun to do!

This article will talk about what is rhythm guitar, some of the styles of music that feature this element, and some easy ways to practice. So, stay tuned and read on for more information!
faq why?

Many people start playing the guitar by learning how to strum patterns, or even just picking random notes and trying to make them stick together. While this technique works if you’re looking to learn the basics of song writing, it doesn’t help you become a musician!

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Becoming a guitarist really comes down to understanding time. Time equals money, right? If you want to be paid for your skills, you need to know how to give someone a deadline!

As humans, we have a system we call our “clockwork” which determines when things happen. For example, we each have a schedule that tells us when we get up in the morning, go to work, eat lunch, take breaks, etc. This is our clockwork.

Touchpoints on your guitar

A touchpoint is any item that can be used to help you learn how to play the guitar more quickly. They are all important, but there are three major ones that most people use to start playing music.

The first is picking out notes. This is definitely something you must know how to do!

Learning how to pick correctly will take some time, so don’t worry about it for now. Instead, try learning how to strum or finger-tap the strings. Both of these types of touches can go along with your picked notes, which makes them even easier to perform!

Next, you should be able to count up and down either very fast or very slow. There are many ways to do this, and the best way depends on what kind of song you want to make sounds in. Some songs require an exact number, while others just have a rhythm pattern built into them.

Last, and arguably one of the hardest to master, is using different chords to create musical phrases.

What to play

A rhythm guitar part is any melody or riff that does not have any lyrics. These can be very catchy and fun to play!

There are many songs with just bass, drums, and rhythm guitar playing parts. This type of music is sometimes referred to as “bass-balloon rock” because the only thing in the song other than the instrumentation is some really long notes for the bass line.

Other examples of this type of music include anything by The Beatles, Muse, or even an up-tempo version of The Police’s famous cover of Living Next Door To Parody. (Note: They replaced the word ‘police’ with ‘policeman’ due to controversy.)

Rhythm guitars do not need to contain a full bass note every time there is a new measure. It can be broken into shorter segments or none at all while still creating the same effect. Some artists like to use short rhythmic figures to add flavor and variety to their riffs.

The length of each individual note will matter less when you are able to quickly repeat what you have already written. That way you do not have to worry about running out of space before your next rest.

General tips: Use your left hand to pick off of the strings as they reach the bottom of the fretboard then move up the neck.

How to play

Now that you have your starting equipment, it’s time to start practicing! First off, how to play rhythm guitar is very similar to learning any other instrument — practice, practice, practice!

Just like with most instruments, practicing comes down to two main things: technique and practice.

Technique is what musicians call the skills needed to properly execute an individual note, chord or passage. These are mostly pertained to your hands (strokes), feet (rhythmic patterns) and fingers (string types).

Practice is simply going through the steps above over and over again until you can do them as quickly as possible without losing quality. The more you practice, the faster you will get!

There are many ways to learn rhythm guitar techniques. You can pick up beginner books and go at your own pace, or take private lessons from a teacher or musician who knows the craft.

Know your songs

Now that you have learned how to play some chords, it is time to learn how to use those chords in context! This is what it means to know your songs. You must be able to connect each note with a phrase or a licks pattern or even a full song structure.

You will probably start by learning an easy chord progression first, like the ones we practiced before. Once you are familiar with those chords, then you can move onto more complicated songs.

Practice as many times as needed until you feel comfortable playing them. When you do eventually get tired of practicing, there are plenty of resources out there to help you. Many guitar websites offer free lessons every day!

Something crucial when practicing is to always listen to music while doing so. Technically speaking, this is called ear training. Make sure to focus mostly on hearing the notes, not reading anything too much.

Song structure

When talking about rhythm guitar, what kind of songs you are playing and how they are structured is very important! In music theory, we refer to this as song structure.

In song structures there usually an introduction, a verse, a chorus, and then a conclusion or rest period. This rests typically happen after either the pre-chorus, outro, or both.

The guitar can be considered the lead instrument in most songs due to its use in creating harmonic and melodic progressions. The bass line is typically notated first, followed by the drums, the guitarist, and finally the vocals.

Usually, the guitarist will play either a rhythmic figure (um/uh) or a chord progression that repeats throughout the song. These riffs are built off of tonic–dominate chords such as A, G, or D with minor or major thirds attached.

Interludes occur when the main part of the song comes to a halt and something new happens. An example of this would be if the song has a crescendo at the beginning, then it stops, and then the next section begins. Another reason for these breaks could be because someone else takes over the instruments, like the vocalist does during the chorus.

Writing your own songs is a great way to learn more about music and the guitar.

Record and perform

Now that you have your feet wet, it’s time to record some music! There are many ways to learn how to play guitar, but one of the most fundamental is rhythm guitar.

You can read more about what rhythm guitar is here or watch our video below!

By now, you’ve probably picked up a few chords and learned how to strum along with songs. You may also have experimented by playing individual notes while listening to music.

But what if we told you there was a way to add another layer to your guitar skills? We would say that you should be able to not only recognize and be able to play each note, but you should know when to put them together into phrases and rhythms.

That is something that comes much later in life for most guitarists. It takes practice and repetition to work on this. But once you do, you will radiate confidence as you pick up the instrument.

Luckily for you, we have some tips here for you to try out.