How to Play Rhythm Guitar in a Band – Tips and Tricks

Rhythm guitar – sometimes considered the lesser guitar to lead, but once you really get into studying this art form you’ll soon discover that it is anything but!

Lock In with the Bass and Drums

As a rhythm guitarist you have a very important job, along with the bass and drums, to create a solid foundation for lead parts such as singers and lead guitars to soar on top of.

If the foundations of the song are shaky, then the more noticeable lead parts won’t sit right and in the instance of playing live, these musicians will struggle to execute their parts convincingly.

That is not to say that singers and lead guitarists are playing on top of or overpowering you – we are all working together on the same team.

They may just be the part that comes to the forefront at different points in the tune while the rhythm section is the glue that holds it all together.

In order to get those foundations rock solid, you as a rhythm guitarist will need to lock in with the drummer and bass player.

So how do you do that?

For starters, just try looking at them. Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised by how much more aware of their parts you will become when keeping a steady eye on them.

Maybe you never realised that the drummers kick pattern is clashing with your strumming pattern, or maybe you and the bass player aren’t locking in because they are sitting back on the beat and you are too far ahead.

You should all be feeling the pulse in the same spot, no one rushing or dragging, to lock in and to create one ‘tight’ sound.

This will make the groove feel infectious and the vocalist very happy (and will also make them want to call you back for the next gig!).

Be a Mix Engineer, Not a Musician

As a musician we can be very in our own world when playing with a band, often focusing too closely on our own playing and not on everyone else playing around us.

We may not even notice how loud and overpowering our amp is, or that we are playing in the same register as the keyboard which is causing a clash.

In other to be a great rhythm guitarist, try this – be a mix engineer and not a musician.

What does that mean exactly?

Take a metaphorical step back and rather than focusing too much on your own playing, listen to how your guitar sits within the group.

Are you too loud, too trebbly, too bass heavy, too much gain or too much reverb?

Pretend that you’re sitting at a big mixing console in some fancy studio in Hollywood, and you’re making adjustments to each element of a song.

What would you change about your guitar sound?

If this is too hard to focus on while you are mid-song, try voice recording the rehearsal or gig on your phone and listen back later.

When you are purely just a listener without an instrument in hand there will be things that you never noticed while you were playing!

Tone

We’ve just touched on it briefly in our previous point, but an integral part of being a great rhythm guitarist is to understand guitar tone.

So often I hear guitarists who have no idea how to set up their EQ on their amp or pedals, or are completely oblivious to what their guitar even sounds like because their amp is pointed at their ankles and not at their head.

Understanding when to use different types of EQ, distortion and effects settings will go a long way in helping you blend into the rhythm section to create one big wall of sound.

When setting the EQ (that is the bass, middle, treble and presence controls on your amp, as well as the tone controls and pickup selector switch on your guitar), think about what role your particular part for that song is serving.

Are you playing a part that requires a clean tone with a warm sound, or are you playing an aggressive rock guitar part that needs to cut through a mix?

Usually I like to set the EQ on my amp fairly flat (meaning everything straight up), just making slight adjustments to the guitar that I am using, and let the different pedals and pickup selection handle the tonal changes.

For example, in a rockier song that requires a distorted sound I will select the bridge pickup to create a clear tone that won’t be too muddy and step on a distortion pedal with an appropriate amount of gain set up.

If the next song is a little slower and requires a clean tone, I may switch to the neck or middle pickup position and step on a reverb pedal to fill out the sound and to create some ambience.

Study some reference tracks of guitar sounds that you are trying to re-create in the songs that you are playing, and think about what type of EQ, pickup selection, distortion, reverb and other effect settings they have used to achieve that sound.

Register

Register is something that many guitarist overlook, meaning they are oblivious to the fact that the area of the neck that they are playing in may be very similar to a register that the second guitar or keyboards may also be in.

This can create some issues with parts clashing, and result in other areas of the frequency spectrum not being covered efficiently.

For example, if the lead guitar is playing a solo up above the 12th fret, it may be beneficial for you to stay down low to provide that low end beef.

If you were to also play high chord voicings, the tune could be lacking and feel empty. As a general rule of thumb to get you started, play in which ever register the other musicians aren’t playing in.

KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid!)

As a great band once said, keep it simple stupid!

Rhythm guitar is all about simple parts executed confidently with intent, meaning if you overcomplicate things you could loose it’s affect.

Having gaps and rests in your part will allow it to breathe and make even more of an impact when re entering. This will also create more room for the lead guitar and vocal to shine.