Rhythm Guitar Lessons Comparison

Rhythm guitar is one of the most important elements of the band. It may not be as glamorous as lead guitar, but many times it's the rhythm guitarist that sings since they aren't focused on complicated solos.

Taking rhythm guitar lessons can help you become a solid player all around too, so we bought, tested and ranked all of the most popular rhythm lessons, and compared them for you in the table below:

Guitar Lessons	JamPlay	Guitar Tricks	Learn and Master Guitar	Beginner Guitar System	Jamorama
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Rating Our custom rating considers all of the guitar lessons' features, tools, quality, support, and personal & user reviews to save you time!	Rating: 98.2%	Rating: 95.8%	Rating: 82.1%	Rating: 72.3%	Rating: 69.6%
Lesson Format Since guitar lessons are offered in many different formats, we classify each one we review to distinguish between them quickly (online lessons are our favorite).	Online Videos & Community	Online Videos & Community	20 DVDs, 5 CDs, Book & Forum	DVDs & Book or Online	PDFs, Videos & Software
Video Quality If these lessons offer video instruction (and we hope they do), this gives an idea of how well-filmed the videos are.	Extremely High	Very High	Very High	Very High	High
Total Lessons The number of lessons offered by this community/instructor (and the total lesson time if available).	3,106 Lessons 880 Hours	5,000+ Lessons	40 Lessons 20-30 Hours	42 Lessons 20+ Hours	148 Lessons ~32 Hours
Teachers One benefit of Online and DVD lessons is the ability to learn from multiple instructors with different backgrounds, genres and skills.	48 Teachers	45 Teachers	1 Teacher	1 Teacher	7 Teachers
Full Review This table compares the top 5 guitar lessons. Click Read Review to learn more about one option.	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review	Read Review
Beginner Does this product/service offer beginner guitar lessons? This is the most common level, crucial for getting started at any age.
Intermediate Do they also have lessons beyond the beginner level? Once you've mastered the basics, you'll want intermediate lessons.
Advanced Some teachers even have lessons designed for advanced players that have moved through beginner and intermediate lessons.
Song Lessons Want to learn popular songs on the guitar? Some instructors work hard to get license deals to teach you specific songs step-by-step.
Live Lessons The most efficient way to learn guitar is in-person live lessons. Some premium services offer live lessons through webcam & chat.
Tuner Will buying these lessons give you access to a free guitar tuner?
Chord Library Chords are the building blocks of all guitar playing. Having a chord library where you can easily look up specific chords is essential.
Scale Library Scales are great exercises and can expand your soloing horizons. Scale libraries organize them by key and style to save you time.
Forum Forums are a great resource to get answers to your questions from instructors and other students quickly and easily.
Private Q&A Though getting public answers on a forum can be really helpful, sometimes asking a question privately is more helpful.
Delivery Delivery refers to how you will receive your guitar lessons and how long it will take to get access and start learning guitar.	Instant (Online)	Instant (Online)	3-14 Days	5-7 Days or Instant	Instant Download
Price The current price of guitar lessons (not including any coupon codes, trials or discounts we find for you.)	$19.95/month	$14.95/month	$149 + S&H	$97 + S&H	$49.95 or $299
Cost/Lesson Price divided by total lessons. Note: We assume 12 full months of membership for online lessons.	4.8¢ per lesson	4¢ per lesson	$4.06 per lesson	$2.31 per lesson	34¢ per lesson
Best Deal To help you save money, we find deals and coupon codes for each of the guitar lessons we review.	Get 25% OFF your 1st month!	14-Day Free Trial	$149.00 + S&H	$97.00 Digital Only	$49.95 Digital Only
Guarantee The guarantee tells you how long you can try these guitar lessons and get a full refund of your money if it doesn't work out.	7-Day, 100% Money Back	60-Day, 100% Money Back	60-Day, 100% Money Back	90-Day, 100% Money Back	60-Day, 100% Money Back
Visit Site This button takes you to the official website to check out their guitar lessons and get started.

Rhythm Guitar Lessons

Guitar playing is commonly broken down into two categories: lead and rhythm guitar. If you see a band with two or more guitarists it is likely that one is playing lead guitar while the other guitarist(s) play rhythm.

In order to understand their roles more clearly:

• Lead Guitar: a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, and guitar solos within a song structure. It’s commonly the part of the song that stands out the most, or, the main melody.
• Rhythm Guitar: the use of a guitar to provide rhythmic chordal accompaniment for a singer or other instruments in a musical ensemble.

The lead guitar, like the name implies, often stands out in the spotlight of the accompaniment, while the rhythm guitar takes a more backseat role. This is not to suggest, however, that rhythm guitar is inferior to lead guitar. It just serves a different, yet equally important purpose.

Why Learn Rhythm Guitar?

While basic melodies may be easy to play on lead guitar some of the more complex solos found on lead guitar are difficult to learn for beginners. These guitarists are so good because they have likely been working on their craft for years.

With rhythm guitar, meanwhile, a musician new to the game can get on stage much quicker and begin playing. Rhythm guitar allows you to help drive the pulse of the music, known as the beat, which is usually laid down at its foundation by the drummer and bassist, and then enhanced by the rhythm guitarist.

If you often find yourself tapping your feet or hands along to a song on the radio, you already have a great sense of rhythm. Now it’s time to explore it on the guitar!

Rhythm Guitar Fundamentals

The rhythm guitar, just like the electric bass, serves two primary functions:

• To provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments
• To provide all or part of the harmony

When you strum the string(s) in conjunction with the other instruments you are laying down the rhythm of the song. This may or may not be the exact same rhythm as what the bassist is playing. When you play certain chords that fall within the key of the song, you are providing part of the song’s harmony.

Harmony and rhythm are two vital pieces of any great song. Therefore, a good rhythm guitarist, at its most basic function, is able to hold down a series of chords with the fretting hand while strumming to a rhythm with the other hand.

Once that framework is established, then a rhythm guitarist may explore more advanced techniques like arpeggios, damping, riffs, chord solos and complex strums.

Acoustic vs. Electric Guitar

Commercial music has in the last couple of decades leaned more toward electric guitars which also happens to be the easier of the two guitar forms to learn. Electric guitars and acoustic guitars both make great rhythm guitars, though electric guitars are also great for lead guitar making them more of a versatile instrument compared to acoustic guitars.

Acoustic guitar still remains the popular choice for country, western, folk and bluegrass music.

Rhythm Guitar Lessons

In any basic guide, you are likely to encounter some rhythm guitar lessons at the very beginning of your learning experience, which takes us back to why it’s easier to get on a stage quicker by learning the rhythm guitar as opposed to the lead guitar.

Rhythm guitar lessons are available in a number of different formats for a number of different prices. There is a lot of free material available on the Web, and some guitarists have put together some very educational videos on sites like YouTube.

The best rhythm guitar lessons are, however, sold in a combination of book/CD/DVD format. Here you can get expert advice from guitarists in print, watch or listen to the lessons on CD or DVD, and therefore get both a visual, auditory and kinesthetic learning experience.

Popular Genres of Music for Rhythm Guitar

It is important to note that practically every genre of music has a need for rhythm guitar. However, with that being said these genres are notorious for their use of rhythm guitar techniques:

• Jazz
• Funk
• Reggae

The majority of pop music also uses simple, yet extremely effective rhythm guitar techniques.

Conclusion

Though lead guitar gets a lot of attention, rhythm guitar is an essential part of what we have all come to love about 4-5 person bands.

Luckily, all of the courses we have bought offer rhythm lessons. After running them all through our unbiased rating algorithm, we found JamPlay has the best rhythm guitar lessons.