The strumming SOS is a paid course? Is that the right one?
My suggestion for getting the rhythm ingrained is obviously use the metronome but equally important count OUT LOUD with the metronome. A classical guitar teach taught me this and it made a huge difference
Yeah, from my last 24 hours of research it seems like it is get the metronome running and clap, then have different patterns and clap.
Then do muted strumming
Do muted strumming with different BPM and different patterns
Do all of the above with chord changes.
I will finish off maestro. I have an understand of music notation, whole half quater etc, I guess now it is really just doing a lot of basic stuff with those to make it second nature.
I don’t want to complicate it, I usually do that with everything else.
Hello Mr “no Rhythm” 
Mrs “I’m developing some Rhythm” here 
The Strumming SOS is just great and will help you a lot. Regarding the Rhythm Maestro I followed the lessons but instead of working on the strumming patterns and materials provided on the website I did and I keep on doing my practice on Justin’s Rhythm Book. On the Book you don’t have patterns but 4/4 bars of random rhythms…from the very beginning I could perceive that that kind of practice kind of developed flexibility in my brain, my listening skills (which were really poor) improved drastically and I learnt to identify strumming patterns in songs while listening. If you’re are only half as much desperate with your Rhythm as I was I suggest you start tapping the Rhythms with your hand, without a guitar, so you’ll focus on the Rhythm aspect only. It’s my intention to work on the Rhythm Maestro materials as well, but I perceive them as more advanced while the practice on the Book seems to me a better approach for those who lack the basic skills.
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Thank you for such a detailed reply. Ill grab a book like this and just ‘clap practice’ separately to help improve that.
Hi Jeremy. It is just two ways to show the same thing. No difference in actual music and what is played.
It is a common issue Bret. Strumming SOS is great. All who have taken the course recommend it. https://www.justinguitar.com/classes/strumming-sos
Also try this topic: Counting and keeping time when playing to a backing track - #5 by Richard_close2u
Ad try some of the live clubs perhaps or check out the resources from the club archive:
Are there videos of the sessions? or just the pdf’s?
The recordings are not published, it is a live event. I write extensive follow up notes that give full guidance on the content of the session so you should be able to make use of that.
I’ve only just watched this lesson today and I’m quite shocked to find it in Grade4!
This is real basic stuff and is what students should be doing in Grade1, right at the start of their learning. It would lay the foundation of rhythm right from the start and save some of the anguish about rhythm that some carry through to following grades.
I have an ear training app on my phone that has this kind of rhythmic dictation. You clap or tap along to written notation and metronome. At the end of each exercise it tells you if you were correct or not and also if you were on, ahead or behind the beats and half beats. The exercises get progressively harder and you can up the tempo of each exercise.
I’m not sure if I should name the app because I know Justin has his own apps, @Richard_close2u ?
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David @BurnsRhythm
I tend to agree with you Grade 4 is quite late on for first lesson in the course. I would have thought Lesson 1 should perhaps be in Grade 3 or even Grade 2. As you say the rhythm underpins everything.
I came across it a while ago and thought with a bit nervousness I would give the final test another go, the one with changing chords. Managed to get it right.
I have had the other two lessons on my to do list for quite a while, must get around to doing them.
Michael
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@MAT1953
That emphasises my point exactly, Michael.
You’re at a stage (G3,4,5…) where that exercise should be a piece of cake. “Managed to get it right” tells me it maybe wasn’t altogether easy for you. If you had done this lesson in G1, then it would be old hat to you by now and your progress through the grades would have benefited from it.
I haven’t looked at the next two lessons either yet but this one should be much earlier in the grades.
This lesson was a breeze for me because I did this stuff way back, probably in school. I appreciate that not everyone did that - which is why it should be taught much earlier.
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David @BurnsRhythm
Sounds as though I did emphasised your point.
I used the word “managed” as I had to listen to question 4 a few times to convince myself I had it right.
Your statement about doing this sort of thing at school, is relevant. I didn’t do music at school so my knowledge about music was zero until started to learn the guitar, well perhaps not quite I knew what the notes on the lines of the stave, only as general knowledge thing, had no idea what the notes were in the spaces.
I suppose this shows we come to learning from different musical backgrounds of knowledge so Justin has difficult task deciding what and when. It is interesting though that Richard did rhythm early on in his vintage club.
Michael
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@MAT1953
Richard knows the importance of rhythm, and so of course does Justin.
So why Grade4 before this pops up?
Clapping along and counting out simple rhythms is school kids stuff.
Thinking back…it’s what we did in primary school. When I went to secondary school, most of the kids had no such musical experience. It was grammar school - all about academia!!
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Hello! I’ve at the grade 4 of learning guitar (Rhythim Maestro), and i now i see that after it begins the blues courses… but honestly, i don’t really like blues… so would you suggest to skip these blues course related? Or it’s important? Thank you
Good question Davide.
It really depends on your goals. Are you interested in learning lead guitar, play solo in songs, improvise or play by ear ? Are you interested in fingerstyle or learning new grooves?
If you answered yes to those questions, you may want to check the blues module even if you are not the biggest listener of blues music. As Justin uses that style a lot in the intermediate grades (4,5,6) to teach some interesting techniques that could be useful in other genres.
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I want to be a rhythimic/lead rock guitar player, no solo or fingerstyle… so, what would you suggest?
Hi Davide, when you say “no solo”, do you mean you’re not interested in learning to play guitar solos? Because that’s part of being a “lead rock guitar player”. Or maybe you mean you’re not interested in playing pieces for solo guitar, i.e. not with other players?
If I wanted to learn rhythm and lead rock electric guitar, then I would do the following: in Grade 4, I would skip the acoustic lessons: Solo Blues Guitar with MatchMySound, and the 2 lessons in the Blues Guitar studies where Justin plays acoustic. You can also ignore the “Blues Licks” module, which is a reference library of licks. I would do all the other lessons in Grade 4, though.
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The Blues studies would be a very worthwhile endeavour if you intend to play lead/ rock guitar. Rock n roll has its basis in Blues.
Cheers Shane
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Since Rock and Roll is a derivative of the Blues, the Blues lesson modules are very applicable.