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So, since it has come to my attention that not a lot of you practice with a metronome, and I think it's very important and really "makes" you a guitar player, I decided to post some of the exercises I do that I feel have helped a lot.
Why is it so important? Because, despite being a lead instrument, rhythm on guitar is just as, if not more important than harmonic content. I can think of several instances where I've heard someone play with good rhythm but questionable note choice and it still sounded alright. Conversely, I can think of tons of examples of people who hit "all the right notes" but had terrible rhythm and it sounded awful. Studies have shown that the human ear detects mistakes in rhythm before it detects out of key notes or dissonance. What's more, metronomes are like ten dollars, so no one with their infinite GAS on this forum should be without one. Find one with a click/beep you can stand.
So here are the basic patterns I practice with a metronome pretty much on the daily. A couple months of these I GUARANTEE will improve your playing. I'll give all the examples in the Aeolian mode (natural minor) but it goes without saying you should practice all your modes this way, and if there are some modes (or later, beat divisions) that you're not comfortable with practice just running them to a metronome first. If you haven't learned about modes yet do so, learning them and how they fit together is essentially what... oh what's the cliche... "unlocks the fretboard". Also, should go without saying but practice them all ascending and descending
1-3-2-4 pattern
e--------------------------------------------------------5---7-5-8-7-8-5
b-------------------------------------------5---6-5-8-6---8-------------
g------------------------------4---5-4-7-5---7--------------------------
d----------------------5---7-5---7---------------------------------------
a--------5----7-5-8-7---8------------------------------------------------
e-5-8-7----8-------------------------------------------------------------
those last few notes are just a little tag line, you can do whatever you want at the end but if you wanna be "correct" it should end on the root note
1-2-3-2 pattern
e-
b------------------------------------------------------------5--5-6-5-6-8
g-----------------------------------------4---4-5-4-5-7-5-7--7----------
d-----------------------------5--5-7-5-7---7-----------------------------
a-----------5--5-7-5-7-8-7-8--8------------------------------------------
e-5-7-8-7-8--8-----------------------------------------------------------
etc, i ran out of space. You should also do this with 4 notes rather than 3
Then your major/minor 7th arpeggios (essentially a 1-3-5 pattern)--even if you don't like sweep picking they're still necessary if you wanna learn to solo with chord tones, which... you really do, once you get it down it's the easiest way in the world to make something that fits perfectly. If you want me to post these let me know.
How to practice them-
Start out just doing one note per beat, set the metronome at a comfortable tempo where you're not rushing or hitting notes late because you couldn't remember what comes next, and just work out a fingering that's comfortable and focus on getting the pattern in your head.
Once you have it memmorized, try doing 8th notes to the beat, or in simpler terms, 2 perfectly spaced notes to each one click. Practice this until you get somewhere around 180-190bpm on the metronome
Then, slow it way down again and work on triplets, or 3 beats to each click
16ths after that, 4 to each click.
Don't be surprised when you try a new beat division if you have to slow the tempo down at first (say you were doing 8ths at 200bpm, logically you SHOULD be able to automatically do triplets at around 130, but it doesn't work that way). Learn to feel the beat division
That's it! once you're to this point you can start makin up little games where you switch beat divisions mid-pattern, switch arpeggios mid-pattern, run one pattern ascending and another descending, etc. All of this will help condition your fingers to do what you want them to do.
Hope this helps
Why is it so important? Because, despite being a lead instrument, rhythm on guitar is just as, if not more important than harmonic content. I can think of several instances where I've heard someone play with good rhythm but questionable note choice and it still sounded alright. Conversely, I can think of tons of examples of people who hit "all the right notes" but had terrible rhythm and it sounded awful. Studies have shown that the human ear detects mistakes in rhythm before it detects out of key notes or dissonance. What's more, metronomes are like ten dollars, so no one with their infinite GAS on this forum should be without one. Find one with a click/beep you can stand.
So here are the basic patterns I practice with a metronome pretty much on the daily. A couple months of these I GUARANTEE will improve your playing. I'll give all the examples in the Aeolian mode (natural minor) but it goes without saying you should practice all your modes this way, and if there are some modes (or later, beat divisions) that you're not comfortable with practice just running them to a metronome first. If you haven't learned about modes yet do so, learning them and how they fit together is essentially what... oh what's the cliche... "unlocks the fretboard". Also, should go without saying but practice them all ascending and descending
1-3-2-4 pattern
e--------------------------------------------------------5---7-5-8-7-8-5
b-------------------------------------------5---6-5-8-6---8-------------
g------------------------------4---5-4-7-5---7--------------------------
d----------------------5---7-5---7---------------------------------------
a--------5----7-5-8-7---8------------------------------------------------
e-5-8-7----8-------------------------------------------------------------
those last few notes are just a little tag line, you can do whatever you want at the end but if you wanna be "correct" it should end on the root note
1-2-3-2 pattern
e-
b------------------------------------------------------------5--5-6-5-6-8
g-----------------------------------------4---4-5-4-5-7-5-7--7----------
d-----------------------------5--5-7-5-7---7-----------------------------
a-----------5--5-7-5-7-8-7-8--8------------------------------------------
e-5-7-8-7-8--8-----------------------------------------------------------
etc, i ran out of space. You should also do this with 4 notes rather than 3
Then your major/minor 7th arpeggios (essentially a 1-3-5 pattern)--even if you don't like sweep picking they're still necessary if you wanna learn to solo with chord tones, which... you really do, once you get it down it's the easiest way in the world to make something that fits perfectly. If you want me to post these let me know.
How to practice them-
Start out just doing one note per beat, set the metronome at a comfortable tempo where you're not rushing or hitting notes late because you couldn't remember what comes next, and just work out a fingering that's comfortable and focus on getting the pattern in your head.
Once you have it memmorized, try doing 8th notes to the beat, or in simpler terms, 2 perfectly spaced notes to each one click. Practice this until you get somewhere around 180-190bpm on the metronome
Then, slow it way down again and work on triplets, or 3 beats to each click
16ths after that, 4 to each click.
Don't be surprised when you try a new beat division if you have to slow the tempo down at first (say you were doing 8ths at 200bpm, logically you SHOULD be able to automatically do triplets at around 130, but it doesn't work that way). Learn to feel the beat division
That's it! once you're to this point you can start makin up little games where you switch beat divisions mid-pattern, switch arpeggios mid-pattern, run one pattern ascending and another descending, etc. All of this will help condition your fingers to do what you want them to do.
Hope this helps
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