Songs to improve rhythm playing

[Dr. Vic]

Come on ! The best (old) school to learn a tight metal playing motion is the 'Deth "Rust in Peace album" !!

Yes, try to learn "take no prisoners"  :twisted: : you have all the fast palm mute + chunky chords you want to improve your rythm abilities !

After that all your metallica would be a piece of cake !


 

[JDC]

I saw mark tremonti's DVD yesterday, on the rhythm section all he basically said was doing down picking to a metronome as fast as you can for as long as possible until you mess up

then do the same for tremelo picking

and no I don't like creed!!! or alter bridge for that matter, but he can really widdly woo with the best of those who specialise in the art of widdly woo

[Spitfire]

i do think that playing fast metal doesnt really help your rhythm chops.. only your speed chops... you metalers should try playing some old school ska, its harder than it seems... its much more than just getting the chords in... and no distortion to hide behind.

[indysmith]

Thanks for your suggestions guys - I'm going to have a look and listen through and get some learning done now!

On the whole slow vs. fast rhythm playing, I find it hard to play tight both slowly and quickly, although errors are less pronounced in faster passages (as obviously there is less room to go wrong in, unless you hit the wrong note).
I didn't have metal playing in mind as a rhythm instructor, and I'm not much of a metaller, but a lot of you seem to think it's the way forward for polishing the chops so I'll have a go!

[Roobubba]

i do think that playing fast metal doesnt really help your rhythm chops.. only your speed chops... you metalers should try playing some old school ska, its harder than it seems... its much more than just getting the chords in... and no distortion to hide behind.

Sorry, you appear to have 'Fender Tele' in your sig. Not a good start.

I never said that you should play ONLY fast metal. Quite the opposite, a broad range of techniques is always better than relying on one technique done well (eg just playing scales in solos would be tedium incarnate). What we ARE saying here is that fast metal helps rhythmic playing, and good technique in rhythm is required to play fast metal riffs well. Furthermore, getting a feel for the music and being able to play in a musical way (not just 'shredding' the strings as fast as you can and hoping that it's in time) is also very much a requirement for all rhythm guitarists, so practising tougher slow stuff is also very important, but requires a different but complementary and somewhat overlapping skill set.

Frankly anyone who says you should just practice on thing is a total knob end.

Roo

[noodleplugerine]

If you can play bleed tightly all the way through, then you'll have all the rhythm chops you'll probably ever need.

I know I can't. :/

[Elliot]

The chug chug chug corner vs. the rest is really making this site tedious.

[Roobubba]

The chug chug chug corner vs. the rest is really making this site tedious.

I'm advocating learning lots of different things. I can't speak for the others on here, but personally I think it's important to have a wide range of skills in the repertoire (and I certainly have a long way to go myself). That's certainly the impression I got from reading the other posts in this thread.

Roo

[noodleplugerine]

The chug chug chug corner vs. the rest is really making this site tedious.

The funny thing is, all the chug chug people are generally very open minded to other types of music, while the anti chug seem to not be :/

[Ratrod]

I strated out as a metal player. I became pretty good at playing metal riffs.

Later I joined a top 100 band playing guitar based music from the sixties through nineties. Less distortion and different rhythms. Those sixties, reggea and the odd ska tunes were an eye opener. I wasn't nearly as tight as I thought I was. I was fortunate enough we had an excellent, reliable drummer.

I've  read some posts advising ska and James Brown stuff. That's also great to do. Little to hide behind and it's so important to know when NOT to play.

Any musician who is used to playing mostly fast songs has the tendency to speed up slow songs in my experience. Threre is a way to unlearn this. Play along to a relatively slow song. Once you got the tempo, cut the volume of the track and keep playing for 30 seconds, then put the volume back up and hear if you're still in line with the song.

I'm not saying anyone should stop playing fast songs. It builds stamina and trains the muscles you need for playing.

[Roobubba]

I strated out as a metal player. I became pretty good at playing metal riffs.

Later I joined a top 100 band playing guitar based music from the sixties through nineties. Less distortion and different rhythms. Those sixties, reggea and the odd ska tunes were an eye opener. I wasn't nearly as tight as I thought I was. I was fortunate enough we had an excellent, reliable drummer.

I've  read some posts advising ska and James Brown stuff. That's also great to do. Little to hide behind and it's so important to know when NOT to play.

Any musician who is used to playing mostly fast songs has the tendency to speed up slow songs in my experience. Threre is a way to unlearn this. Play along to a relatively slow song. Once you got the tempo, cut the volume of the track and keep playing for 30 seconds, then put the volume back up and hear if you're still in line with the song.

I'm not saying anyone should stop playing fast songs. It builds stamina and trains the muscles you need for playing.

Very helpful post, thank you.

Roo

[Will]

The chug chug chug corner vs. the rest is really making this site tedious.

It has in this topic anyway :? Especially as I don't think Indy is that keen on this?

Indy: My playing his been likened to yours, you must ofcourse be a bit better though, I am trying to do the same thing, and enjoying it playing slower things and trying to nail the timing on that.

[Dr. Vic]

The chug chug chug corner vs. the rest is really making this site tedious.

The funny thing is, all the chug chug people are generally very open minded to other types of music, while the anti chug seem to not be :/

^+10 on that 

[Elliot]

I don't disagree with that either and the blame is to be shared by all - lets be nice to one another  PDT_002

[MDV]

I strated out as a metal player. I became pretty good at playing metal riffs.

Later I joined a top 100 band playing guitar based music from the sixties through nineties. Less distortion and different rhythms. Those sixties, reggea and the odd ska tunes were an eye opener. I wasn't nearly as tight as I thought I was. I was fortunate enough we had an excellent, reliable drummer.

I've  read some posts advising ska and James Brown stuff. That's also great to do. Little to hide behind and it's so important to know when NOT to play.

Any musician who is used to playing mostly fast songs has the tendency to speed up slow songs in my experience. Threre is a way to unlearn this. Play along to a relatively slow song. Once you got the tempo, cut the volume of the track and keep playing for 30 seconds, then put the volume back up and hear if you're still in line with the song.

I'm not saying anyone should stop playing fast songs. It builds stamina and trains the muscles you need for playing.

All good stuff.

But a rather different story than before ;)