Do you practice chordprogressions and rhythm?

[Jimi75]

Most guitar players I ask practice scales, licks, scales and licks and speed, yes speed. I hardly ever met a guy who said, well I practice chords, fretting them accurately and fast enough in chord changes. Never met a guy who admitted the difficulty in going from a major to a diminshed to a ninth chord plus playing that change with a cool undergoing rhythm, let alone the difficulty of playing a song with more than three chords per verse, quick changes, uptempo, without getting totally confused.

Having a good rhythm feeling and being able to play to a metronome seems to be only 50% of a good rhythm work. At least you have to be able to fret the chords and the changes and this in my opinion needs a load of work and practice. I have always practiced that, but it could be more, way more!

A couple of Ray Charles numbers that we want to play with the band, showed me that I need more practice, so I divided my practicing routine into solo and scale work and I leave entire sessions for rhythm work only.

What's your attitude towards rhythm and chord work?

 

[oldguy]

I'm always looking for new chord voicings and ways to make a melody happen with chord changes. It can sound better than a lot of flashy shredding to my ears.

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

I am currently working on fingerstyle blues played on electrics.

Quickly and accurately fretting are a necessity and take up a lot of my practice time. I work really diligently to get each note in the chord to sound cleanly, fully, & sweetly. If you are picking single notes or pairs or triples out of a chord it sounds bad if one of them buzzes, doesn't ring fully, or is sharp or flat. You might get away with one such note while strumming a 5 or 6 string chord. I takes me a while to get through some songs. I'll work on a chord or transition or fingerpicking touch for as long as needed before moving to another song.

Rhythm is paramount, but it is of a rather different sort than strumming. I am not currently working on scales or licks at all.

When I move on. I plan to get clean, funky rhythm playing under my belt before moving to soloing. I don't really like to play "licks" except in the context of a song. Of course one has to practice the bits and pieces and them practice getting them to flow together, but just to practice licks for licks sake seems rather strange to me.

 

[Jimi75]

Don't forget to vote.

 

[wingsdad]

I don't think I've practiced scales in the past 30 years.

Honestly, I don't 'practice' guitar regularly. I just play, and when I do, rhythms and chordwork are what I mess around with. Trying different voicings, with standard tuning or open G- or open D-tuned guitars.

So I voted #3.

The only methodical 'practice' I've done lately is dobro, working with 2 video 'professors'.

 

[tunghaichuan]

After 20 some odd years of plinking on the guitar, I decided it was actually time to learn something.

I'm currently working out of two books, both on rhythm and chord changes. One is called Easy Rock Rhythms by Dave Rubin, the other is a speed and thrash metal method by Troy Stetina. It has been a very humbling experience so far; the metronome has been very revealing.

It has been very slow going as it is hard for my hands to make chord changes. So rhythm is all I'm working on right now. No scales, no licks. Just learning to chord in time with the metronome.

tung

 

[marnold]

I voted the first one figuring "with the time I put in." Guess I should read all three options before voting! I practice chord changes in no small part because when I first started playing guitar that was one of the hardest things for me to do. As a bass player, I always wanted to smack guitarists who couldn't seem to keep the beat to save their lives.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Yes and I still suck until I really memorize a song and the progressions, rhythm and tempo, and drill the heck out of it until I no longer have to think. Grrrr! It is likely the most frustrating aspect of my playing to me. I do not yet have the ability to sit down and start playing a song, and naturally come up with good strumming/picking/arpegiating (sp?) patterns on my own that work without really studying and practicing. I think I spent a good deal of the last year of my lessons on learning scales/modes and techniques for leads, and have not correspondingly developed my rhythm playing and right hand.

I do practice regularly now (though I did not for a good long time) and it hopefully will come with time. So I voted practice regularly.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

I am currently working on fingerstyle blues played on electrics.

Quickly and accurately fretting are a necessity and take up a lot of my practice time. I work really diligently to get each note in the chord to sound cleanly, fully, & sweetly. If you are picking single notes or pairs or triples out of a chord it sounds bad if one of them buzzes, doesn't ring fully, or is sharp or flat. You might get away with one such note while strumming a 5 or 6 string chord. I takes me a while to get through some songs. I'll work on a chord or transition or fingerpicking touch for as long as needed before moving to another song.

Rhythm is paramount, but it is of a rather different sort than strumming. I am not currently working on scales or licks at all.

When I move on. I plan to get clean, funky rhythm playing under my belt before moving to soloing. I don't really like to play "licks" except in the context of a song. Of course one has to practice the bits and pieces and them practice getting them to flow together, but just to practice licks for licks sake seems rather strange to me.

This is exactly what I want to develop and am trying to practice. I just suck though. Ever since I have played music, (in piano as a kid, I would always learn and memorize the right hand first) I have had a good melodic instinct, so finding leads is easier for me than this. (I still suck there too compared to real players, but it is still easier). All in time I suppose. :AOK:

 

[tot_Ou_tard]

Yup Sun, I suck too.

 

[kiteman]

I use chords a lot but I think triads. I use lots of triads in my playing whether it's lead or rhythm.

 

[sumitomo]

Ever Friday I have been trying to learn hispanic worship songs with a group of guys and it has been very good for me.1.I am not fluent in spanish so I have to pay close attention to what others are doing.2.It not music that I listen to everyday.3.I have never played open chords much.4.never played much rhythm much so my strumming sucked.(it has improved so much in so little time blows me away)So this has and is a good way for me to learn.Sumi

 

[just strum]

At the moment I am the lone "I forget about chord and rhythm practice so far...uppps"

I play chords, but don't consider what I do as being a regimented practice routine. The basic chords with some variation.

As for rhythm, the same would apply. What I do is in my head, never got accustom to working with a metronome.

Sometimes these threads point out weaknesses that make one rethink there approach and reevaluate their practice habits.

 

[street music]

After reading Sun's post and then Strum's post, I see Sun and I have similar problems and mine have come from doing what Strum was doing. Now that I am working with our Front POrch Pickin group of players I am learning to stay with other, try and remember chord changes and learn a few songs with them. My mind has trouble with the part of remembering a entire song and I can handle most chords but getting that smooth change at the exact time it is needed takes a lot of practice. So I'm progressing on with the learning part and trying to get back into singing as I play.

 

[TS808]

Over the years I've learned all the chords and periodically do some rhythm work, although mostly it's been working on phrasing and solos lately.

I've always respected guys like SRV who can do some really cool rhythm work as well as solo.

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Over the years I've learned all the chords and periodically do some rhythm work, although mostly it's been working on phrasing and solos lately.

I've always respected guys like SRV who can do some really cool rhythm work as well as solo.

That is what I would like to get to, doing it well enough that one could carry the guitar in a trio. SRV was good at this, and Mayer in his trio work I admire. Getting so that all notes are fretted properly in tune, and ring cleanly, and that the solo or lick part of the work makes good sense in relation to the changes. I was reflecting that the right hand in piano is often that way, moving from one chord, with passing notes in between, to the next chord etc. It might be a good logical way for me to look at how it works, given that on a piano it is all laid out in black and white. That is one of the big challenges for me, I cannot look at a spot on the fretboard and know the note is C or A or whatever, without some calculation. The rest of the problem is simple woodshedding until I can make my hands do it without thinking.

 

[pes_laul]

I do practice chords and stuff but I spend alot of my time writing or learning these wierd scales and stuff.

 

[R_of_G]

i practice rhythm fairly often depending on what kind of stuff i am into playing at the time. the key to playing ramones' stuff right is getting the rhythm right so when i am into playing that, it's rhythm work all the way.

 

[piebaldpython]

I do chord work. Mainly through learnings triad inversions all over the neck for M/m chords, then learning where I can get Dom 7 and m7 chords at different spots via something akin to the CAGED system.
What spurred me to do this is my lack of finger flexibility (something that I do work on); so I practice with a "different ways to skin a cat" mentality.

 

[bigG]

Every time I pick up a guitar, the first thing I do is chord, comp/fill stuff. Good way to warm up, then I'll get into running scales and some lead work and eventually mix n match. Been doing it this way since 1963. Old habits and all that, but in this case, a good habit. Has done me well all these years.

 

[sumitomo]

I was going through some of my old books and I found my old chord wheel.Man I forgot all about this thing,this one was made by Ron Greene,but there are others too,so I thought I would mention it because it is really a good tool in the chord change/construction dept.Sumi