Image: 2001 - A Space Odyssey Painting by Hal Hefner
How to improve your rhythm: the oldest musical question that our rhythmically challenged ancestors have been asking themselves since they first figured out how to bang two sticks together.
Maybe you are searching for this answer because you’ve gone your whole life believing you just don’t have rhythm (great news - that’s false. You can train it. Keep reading.)
Or maybe you hold the beliefs that resonated most with my own when I was starting out:
Music is freedom.
There are no rules.
Play from your fucking heart and run like a wild child through the primordial musical jungle.
And regardless of the strength of those beliefs, our jungle-dwelling ecstasy soon slams into something rigid, mathematical, and more than a little intimidating:
The monolithic presence of Rhythm.
It stands ominously out of place, demanding respect:
“Play in time. Use a metronome. Count to four. Now do it again. And again.”
For a long time, I was tempted to sidestep all these mechanical constraints.
Who needs that when you can just VIBE?
So I stumbled through frustration after frustration as a musician, until I guess I had shaken the Musical Tree of Knowledge enough that one of its fruits finally felt enough pity for me and dropped down. And in its wise, musical fruit-like way, it said:
“The foundation of musical freedom is rhythmic discipline.”
True story.
Just like writing poetry requires the necessary understanding of the rules of language, music has a structure that needs to be respected and understood before we are allowed to run freely through its garden of liberated expression.
Let’s get brutally honest about why your rhythm actually sucks (mine certainly did) and explore six principles that will transform your sense of time from a stumbling block into the cornerstone of your musical foundation.
————————
The 6 Rhythm Killers:
Rhythmic Neglect:
Failing To Make It Your #1 Priority
Visual Domination:
Trusting Your Eyes Over Your Ears
Memory Dysfunction:
When Bad Rhythm Is Just Bad Memory
Metronome Ignorance:
Rejecting Your Most Honest Teacher
The Speed Trap:
Racing Past Accuracy
Dead Foot Syndrome:
Avoiding Your Best Timekeeping Tool
————————
Rhythmic Neglect: Failing To Make It Your #1 Priority
You improve what you focus on. You focus on what you prioritize. So, if you want to improve your rhythm, make that the priority of your practice.
When practicing, it’s normal to fixate on what notes come next, whether your tone is good, or trying those fancy licks that'll impress your friends. The flashy stuff is fun — I get it.
My not-so-fun advice:
You need to dedicate a good portion of your practice sessions solely to your rhythm.
Don’t worry about perfect sounding notes, cool techniques, or (God forbid) playing fast (more on that later).
Instead, focus on whether or not you are playing consistently in time. You have to understand that this is the single most important aspect of actually playing music.
If you’re not playing in time, you’re not playing music.
Period.
Don’t just take my word for it. Let’s consult some folks way smarter than me — the ancient Greeks.
Long before music became a modern mood-enhancing drug (to pump up your workouts, increase your chances of getting laid, or ease the anxiety of riding a metal death cage called an elevator), it held a more esteemed place: as a mathematical art.
Plato and Pythagoras outlined a four-part liberal arts curriculum called the Quadrivium:
Arithmetic – The study of numbers.
Geometry – The study of numbers in space.
Music – The study of numbers in time.
Astronomy – The study of numbers in space and time.
Their understanding of the universe revolves around numbers, but note what they deemed the defining characteristic of music. It’s time.
Music cannot exist without time.
Shift your mindset to this priority when you practice, and you will immediately start improving the most important element of your playing.
Image: “Abraham teaching Astronomy to the Egyptians” by Antonio Zanchi
————————
II. Visual Domination: Trusting Your Eyes Over Your Ears
Musicians often get stuck staring at sheet music instead of actually playing music.
But the visual always impairs the auditory.
If you're looking, you're not listening. And if you're not listening, your notes will be off, your rhythm will be off, and you'll be playing by sight instead of by sound.
It's like trying to dance while reading a manual on how to dance — it doesn't work.
We all know the trope of a blind person developing superhuman hearing. That's because when one sense is removed, another takes over.
Image: Blindfold Kiss from CSA Images
Your ears are meant to lead your playing, but that won't happen until you stop leaning on your eyes as a crutch.
The first thing to ask your ears:
Can you hear the beat you’re actually trying to play to?
Start with this fundamental question before moving on to any other challenge. And just like in the previous principle, sometimes all it takes is focusing and shifting your priorities to fix the problem.
Next, if you are reading music off of a sheet of paper or online TAB, try this experiment:
Play whatever you’re practicing from memory so you can focus not on any visual cues but on absorbing the sound of the music with your ears.
Turn the page over or minimize the browser window.
Haven’t memorized your music yet? Well, well, well — that leads perfectly into the next principle…
————————
III. Memory Dysfunction: When Bad Rhythm Is Just Bad Memory
Here's something most people don't realize when they say they have "bad rhythm."
Bad rhythm isn't always a rhythm problem — it's often a memory problem in disguise.
Image: That Scooby-Doo meme
The more I teach, the more I realize:
Memory is the superpower of musical performance.
Most technical struggles on the guitar don't come from a lack of ability — they come from a reluctance to memorize.
Think about normal speech — when you’re talking and you struggle to remember something, what happens?
You pause.
You st-st-stutter.
You lose your timing and it's the same with music.
Those awkward pauses when you're trying to remember what comes next? That's not a rhythm problem; it's a memory problem wearing a rhythm costume.
Here are my favorite tips for memorization applied to music:
Small chunks, big gains - Memorize only the smallest possible piece of the music at a time. For me, this is usually about four notes. Seriously.
Practice mentally, not just physically - Look at your instrument and mentally go through the notes before you play them. While running errands, mentally recite the note names (example: GABC, ABCD, etc for scale exercises) or if you’re a guitar player, visualize the strings and frets. Note: Don’t operate heavy machinery or drive while too deeply absorbed in musical visualization!
Add rhythm to your mental practice - Same as step 2, but now say the names of the notes in a robotic, perfectly timed manner. This is one of the most powerful rhythm-building techniques. I was inspired by famous acting coach Sanford Meisner, who made all his acting students recite their lines first in a mechanical, robotic way. Only after mastering this were they allowed to add any rhythmic or emotional nuance. Strip away everything except the fundamental thing you want to improve: steady rhythm.
————————
IV. Metronome Ignorance: Rejecting Your Most Honest Teacher
If you learn nothing else from this blog post, understand this:
Your perception of speed is unreliable.
Some days, a song feels slow. Other days, after chugging a gallon of coffee, that same song feels way too fast.
Here’s a weird phenomenon I’ve noticed personally:
If I listen to the same song before and after a brutal jiujitsu sparring session, it sounds dramatically slower afterward. My brain literally perceives time differently after someone’s tried to choke me unconscious. Who would have thought?
What we need is a reliable way to know what speed we are playing at. Thankfully, such a tool exists and by now we’ve all heard of it.
A metronome.
Download a free metronome app or, if you're a true hipster, get an old-school wind-up one and let it tick away menacingly on your desk.
Image: Random metronome picture from the internet
This is especially critical for beginners because you don’t even need to be involved in a jiujitsu death match or chug any amount of caffeine to have an unreliable sense of time — it just comes with the territory of being a beginner.
In practice, beginners will fall into two major traps:
The Delusional Slowdown:
You tell yourself to slow down…but don’t. You default to the same tempo without realizing it. Your perception of time isn’t reliable yet, and only the metronome will give you the metrics to understand what’s really happening.
The Comfort Zone Of Rhythmic Death:
You slow down slightly but still hover in your comfort zone — because true, slow deliberate practice feels uncomfortable and we all psychologically avoid discomfort (especially while doing something we thought should be a blissed-out, relaxing musical experience). You have to lean into that discomfort. Be uncomfortable now to be effortless later. The metronome holds you accountable to whatever tempo you set without letting you creep back up to your comfort zone.
————————
V. The Speed Trap: Racing Past Accuracy
Of all the principles, this one was the hardest for me to follow. I learned to play fast early on. There are old videos of me at 14 playing Van Halen’s “Eruption” and countless others of me ripping solos with my thrash metal band.
Playing fast is a ton of fun.
It’s flashy.
It makes people cheer.
And if you’re the type of person who willingly steps on stage to be judged by a crowd, that kind of instant validation is like cocaine. (Trust me, guitar is a much better drug of choice. And cheaper in the long run. Kind of…)
Image: "Scarface"
When I started teaching fast solos, I realized something crucial:
Speed is never the goal.
Speed is the byproduct of accuracy.
Prioritizing speed for speed’s sake becomes frustrating and futile. The real key is playing slow enough that you never make mistakes. This forces your brain and hands to rewire for precision. And precision is what creates effortless speed.
The 5x5 System For Good Rhythm
1. Get a metronome.
2. Set the metronome to 60 BPM
3. Take a small chunk of what you're practicing
4. Play precisely with each beat
5. If you nail it five times in a row, increase by 5 PM
6. Keep going until you reach your failure point
7. Stay there until you can play it perfectly
How slow is slow enough?
Slow enough that you don’t make mistakes.
And if you’re still making mistakes, slow down more.
But your ego hates this.
“That slow? I must really suck.”
“I don’t want to feel like I suck.”
“I’ll just push through at this faster tempo even though I’m barely hitting the notes.”
Image: Bugs Bunny "Hyde and Hare"
Shut it down.
Slow down. Play loud. Hear the mistakes. Slow down again. Fix them. Only then will speed come — because now you’ll have the confidence to play fast without stumbling.
This system follows the same logic as progressive overload in strength training:
You start with a weight you can handle with perfect form.
Each session, you add a small amount and gradually build strength.
The same principle applies to having good, strong rhythm. Beginners will improve quickly, while pros will fight for small gains at the upper levels of weight or speed.
The difference is that in the gym, ignoring these principles leads to serious injury, so we take them seriously.
In music, there’s no physical risk — just the risk of sounding like garbage.
————————
VI. Dead Foot Syndrome: Avoiding Your Best Timekeeping Tool
One of the most challenging yet essential skills for any musician to master is tapping their foot to an even pulse while their hands play something completely independent but synchronized with this foot tap.
Your ability to tap your foot evenly is directly proportional to your ability to explore complex rhythms down the road.
This foot tap becomes your anchor, preventing you from drifting in the ocean of rocky rhythm.
The main reason to introduce the foot tap is to establish a rhythm hierarchy. The foot sits at the top of this hierarchy, becoming the master rhythm that every other element follows. Why? Because it’s the only constant element.
The foot tap is the "one rhythm to rule them all."
Imagine you're a guitarist who’s playing and singing simultaneously:
Your fretting hand changes chord shapes according to the song
Your picking hand varies its strumming patterns
The vocals/lyrics shift between sections and tend to ‘float’ over the music
But your foot does just one thing - down, up, down, up - creating a steady foundation for everything else
When first trying to tap your foot while playing, it might seem like you’ve added just another ball to juggle.
You have to remember that the foot is the boss in any musical situation.
Just as a team where everyone wants to be in charge creates chaos, trying to play music where each rhythm competes for dominance creates rhythmic disaster.
Break down your playing and ‘test’ each element against your foot tapping:
Can your fretting hand change chord shapes while your foot taps evenly?
Can your picking hand maintain its strumming pattern while your foot taps evenly?
Can you JUST sing a section of the song while your foot taps evenly?
Can’t maintain a steady foot tap while performing any of these elements? Congratulations! You’ve just discovered exactly what needs more practice.
The foot tap doesn’t lie. Embrace it. Your rhythm and overall musicality are guaranteed to improve.
FROM RHYTHM KILLERS TO KILLER RHYTHM:
Prioritize rhythm in your practice
Use your ears, not your eyes
Memorize your music
Use a metronome
Slow it down
Tap your foot
With enough deliberate practice, each of these six principles will merge into a single integrated skill that you will finally be able to call killer rhythm.
Image: "2001: A Space Odyssey" by Stanley Kubrick
