timing and rythem problem

Iv been taking guitar serious for about 3 weeks now, many times before but always quit, anyway, my chord changes are smooth, but my rythem is off. I start out fine, but it doesnt take long to fall out of time with Lisa in her lessons. And it gets alot worse when the band comes in, almost as if something in the band is catching my ear and causing me to slip into another rythem. I dont know how else to explain it. Iv tryed slowing way down, using a metronome, it just keeps happening. Any suggestions?

When you say you are slipping into another rhythm, are you saying you are playing out of time or you start playing a competely different rhythm?

At your point in your learning, I think it's common to have issues with rhythm and timing. Experienced players have these problems from time to time too :).

I would suggest simplifying the rhythm. Try playing along with all down strums right on the beat. You could even try playing along with down strums only on the first beat of each measure. You can even put your guitar aside and try following the rhythm tapping the table or patting your hands on your lap. Before you can get the rhythm and timing down on your guitar, you need to hear it and feel it in general.

Good for you that you are trying to fix this now. Developing good timing and rhythm early on will really pay off down the road!

It seems I have the issues with the rythem pattern of bass note first strumming. I notice after a few measures I am hitting the bass note when she is hitting the rest of the notes. but after a few hours of more practice it seemed alot easier to keep in time. So maybe I finally "got it" lol. Thank you for the advice, Im sure Ill be back when I run into my next problem lol

Originally Posted by: ridefree72

It seems I have the issues with the rythem pattern of bass note first strumming. I notice after a few measures I am hitting the bass note when she is hitting the rest of the notes. but after a few hours of more practice it seemed alot easier to keep in time. So maybe I finally "got it" lol. Thank you for the advice, Im sure Ill be back when I run into my next problem lol

Glad to hear you got it straightened out. For something like that, practicing slow is really helpful. Hitting a string, strumming a chord, hitting a string, strumming a chord, etc. is not a trivial skill and the kind of thing that you can't do up to speed if you can't do it slow.

Congrats on getting past this hurdle!!