Well, the honest answer would be - you need a teacher. But if you can’t or won’t have one - there are some people here who can be helpful if you share your playing.
@Alexeyd 'was thinking you might say that 
I went down that road and it was an un-good fit (they were perturbed that I wouldn’t exclusively study with them, that I was practicing their lessons and usting Guitar).
I’m surmising that finding a good match with an online guitar teacher is not all that different from finding a good match with a counselor…inn both cases it’s bloody expensive (dollars, time, self doubt) from mismatches until “yeah, this is great!”.
Perhaps when I start level 2 beginner I’ll search for a well matched instructor…
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@judi you’ve emboldened me. I’ll put up a video, at some point, or maybe I’ll remain clothed and check out @mathsjunky 's idea of using Garageband–Now I’ll go looking for “the rest of the news” in JG…
Thanks all for your help.
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what ?? 
@mundeli, if you’re willing to work with an on-line teacher, I’d highly recommend one of Justin’s approved teachers. You might recognize some of the names from the community. I’ve been working with Richard since last year, and he has been fabulous. I’m familiar with Lee and Lieven as well, and would have no hesitation in engaging either of them. In my experience, they are open to other learning sources — though the will let you know if they think they are not good! Also, while of course Richard knows Justin’s pedagogy, he does not simply rely on Justin’s lessons. Everything I’ve learned has been a personalized addition to what Justin offers on the web.
Regarding your potential video: if you’re shy to do the video format, you could potentially post a sound clip (I’m not sure of the technical way to do that in this community platform, but a quick search will provide an answer I’m sure). No dress code for that! 
Until you feel ready to share a recording or have a teacher, you may be interested in trying Yousician for a month in addition to the Justin Guitar app just like @MacOneill does. As far as I can remember, Yousician tell you feedback about your rhythm like too late, too soon, perfect.
Thanks @math07 and @MacOneill for the Yousician suggestion. That is, indeed, exactly what I’m looking for, but it is $140/yr ($100 with present discount).
I’d love to see something like that included in @JustinGuitar app in a future release!
(I’ve a quick tutorial forthcoming on how I checked my latency/on the beat/earliness, on a Mac, but it’s not “Real Time”, as Yousician in.)
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You will know if it sounds right to you. You are the keeper of the beat. Dialing in your sense of time is a huge part of finding your own voice. Sometimes a little behind or ahead of schedule can be a really cool vibe.
That said, if you are still a little early in your journey, try four down strums per bar until your legs are less wobbly.
Again, tanks to you all. I’m a nerd, so I nerded out.
(I learned that it is very hard for me to intentionally play off of the beat.)
Here’s how I implemented @mathsjunky 's suggestion to use Garage Band.
@CT I agree–being able to be off beat ever so slightly (eg J.J.Cale) can make it very interesting.
- Open Garage Band
- Configure to use laptop mic and speaker, turn metronome up loud
- Record track (which will also record the metronome)
for this demo, I used the “G” string - Turn “Flex” on and look where played beat is early or late.
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I hear you loud and clear on this question/foundation! You must master yohr rhymic foundation which means staying “with the beat”, but that’s only a piece of what you need to develop.
In order to round out ykjr rhythm playing you really have two options.
- Memorize the rhythm patterns
- Learn to read rhythm sheets
Either way, i woud and have and do focus on a metronome and Play 4 bars of 8th notes, again with 1/8 note triplets, 16th notes, etc moving in and out of these subdivisions.
I truly believe if you start slow (not too slow) 50 or 60bpm and aftet you can repeat say all varations 5 times without messing up you have solved any rhythm problem.
Nice job! I should give credit to Justin though, the waveform idea came from him. Possibly it was a Blues Immersion lesson, I can’t recall right now.
thats why I always wait for the Black friday to take my yearly subscription at half price
you should just try it with a monthly subscription at the beginning if you really want that feature to learn 
I am going to run counter to much advice offered here.
Firstly, let me say, rhythm is all important, the fundamental of music, and having a good sense of rhythm is something to develop and always be working on.
However, you’re four months in to learning to play guitar and trying to use a computer recording and waveform pattern to inform you - to the millisecond - whether you are playing in time. That does not sit well with me. It is far too technical and robotic at your stage of learning.
In my view, you would be much better served listening to and being rhythmic along with great music, songs that are all good rhythm. And my main recommendation would be songs that were recorded before computers and click tracks and quantisation and lining up to the grid became part of the recording studio process. Play along with humans … whose music may have slight fluctuations in tempo, a little quicker in the chorus, a little slower in the bridge … Music is a human endeavour, musicians collected together, responding to one another in real time and their energy feeding in to the groove.
Rest your fretting fingers across your guitar strings below fret five or above fret 12 so you hear a fully muted percussive sound when you strum.
Load up a playlist of groovy songs.
Forget chords.
Just play along as a percussionist.
This will help you develop a sense of rhythm better than reading a waveform will - and be a whole lot more fun.
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+1 to what @Richard_close2u said. You’ve already got 2 ears, 2 hands, at least 1 foot to tap to the rhythm, a body to move… that’s all you really need. And they cost pretty much nothing compared to fancy softwares that you have to first figure out how to use, and that would distract you from the music itself.
Don’t get me wrong, softwares have their place in the recording/editing/mixing process, but you will hardly want to rely on them to tell you if you’re playing in time or not, especially in a live setting.
Search a song you like (maybe one you already know quite well for a start), tap your foot to the rhythm and strum along as Richard advised above.
Edit: you could try it with this song (Fame by David Bowie):
There’s mostly one chord played all along (save for the intro and its repetition around the middle of the song) and the rhythm couldn’t be simpler, yet it’s still pretty groovy.
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And I agree with that
that feature is appealing when you start but after a while you realise that you do not need it and it becomes bothersome
I agree with the most recent posts. The best piece of tech is just using a phone to record video of you playing, then watch it back, if it sounds good then it is good. No one in an audience is measuring your performance to the millisecond so you shouldn’t either. Trying to achieve that level of precision will kill any joy out of playing guitar as you’ll either not achieve it or just sound robotic.
My practice is mostly playing along to original recordings which I believe to better (and more enjoyable) than playing along to a metronome. It’s the closest that most of us beginners will get to playing along with live musicians. I’m not saying a metronome has no value but training your ear to the beat of a song is more practical (in my opinion). Again a simple recording soon tells me how well I kept time.
I’ll go out on a limb and say that I bet Slash or Angus Young never got good at guitar by measuring their playing against waveforms on a screen!
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I do agree with Richard, that reviewing exactly where you are compared with the beat is probably inappropriate for someone this early in their journey, so perhaps I shouldn’t have suggested it.
However, I do think there is value later in your journey in understanding where you are. It’s not about being robotic but about being able to push or drag at will. I can’t do it yet, but I will be working on it.
The waveform idea came from one of Justin’s lessons, but I can’t remember where - it certainly won’t have been a beginner lesson
I’m sure Slash and Angus didn’t use that, but I’ll also take bets that they didn’t use tabs or online apps either!
% with all @Richard_close2u says, thanks Richard for putting it down so well into words.
@mundeli mute the strings and strum along with real music …it’s so much fun and useful practice!
Hello all, and thank you so much for your considered, and experiencially informed advice.
In a weak attempt at self justification of investing the time to figure it out, in the past I’ve deceived myself due to “confirmation bias”. I wanted an “impartial judge” to confirm/refute my thoughts about my playing in time before reinforcing neural pathways to nowhere
AND the bottom line for me is music is about having fun listening and (soon?) creating it, and of course music can bring a smile to others → a wonderfully BIG bonus!
My goal is to be able to play like Etta Baker or Mississippi John Hurt, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t use Garageband
…as @Richard_close2u frequently intones, (I’m parphrasing here) “play songs, furcryingoutload!”
Again–thank you all for helping me on this wondrous adventure.
That’s a paraphrase I like!! haha
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I like it.
My only nits are how songs come to you (the inspiration) or how you go about learning and playing those songs is hugely undefined. Sure you can just latch on to a youtube song lesson and play as presented and by rote from then on. No shame there, if that’s all you need or want musically or creatively.
If you start early with learning common chord progressions, chords in a key (circle of 5ths for some) and a touch of ear training (intervals) --it will serve you incredibly well and open most of the musical doors moving forward, including song writing.
As for rhythm, there’s a lot of value in taking a simple song sheet and then “suss” it out in your own sense of time:
Certainly simplifies your song choice inputs and is something to work up to. Capo and/or transpose to your liking or vocal abilities.
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