Week 25: the job of the player who is not soloing

Week twenty-five of a 32-week guitar practice path: comping and rhythm playing as a real skill, whose commonest fault is doing too much.

Week
25 of 32
Days
7
Played as
blues or rock

Everything until now has been one player and a metronome. Playing with somebody else is a different skill and it is the actual reason to get good — and half of it is not playing.

Weeks 25 to 28 all happen on the second piece you began in week 24, not on the app's own backing, because learning to play with people is worth more on real music — and because comping a piece's changes is how you learn them. The central instruction is to play less than feels right, and then record it, since nobody can hear their own overplaying from the inside. Blues comps the piece's form on two hits a bar; rock holds its riff on downbeats and locks to where a kick drum would be. Both then mute the click halfway through to find out whether the time was ever theirs.

Blues treatment

Comping: the job of the guitarist who is not soloing, on the piece you are learning

Your choice of keyShuffle · ♩=88Behind the soloist

The soloist forgives a plain voicing. They do not forgive a change that arrives after they have already played over it — so start by working out your second piece's chords and getting them to land exactly on the beat, before any strumming pattern at all. Comping the changes is also how those changes get learned, which is why this month happens on the piece rather than on the app's own 12-bar.

Then comp a whole chorus of it on two stabs a bar and nothing else. It will feel thin from the inside and it almost never sounds thin on the recording, which is the point: most amateur comping is too busy and the player doing it cannot tell. The space you leave is where the soloist lives. Finish by muting the click halfway through a chorus to find out whether you rush or drag — almost everyone consistently does one.

The daily session · ~26 min

  1. Warm upHands, then the second piece's chords4 min
  2. Play less than feels rightTwo hits a bar5 min
  3. Answer what you hearReact, do not recite6 min
  4. Hold the time aloneClick off, halfway6 min
  5. Jam, one chorus eachSwap roles5 min

Check yourself

Reference

Rock treatment

Rhythm guitar as a job: locking in, and playing less than feels right

Your choice of keyStraight · ♩=100Lock in

Nobody in a band notices a simple voicing. Everybody notices a chord that lands after the drums have already moved — so start by working out your second song's chords and getting the changes exactly on the beat, before any strumming pattern at all. Playing its rhythm part is also how those chords get learned, which is why this month happens on the song rather than on the app's vamp.

Then hold its riff on downbeats only for a full cycle. It feels thin from the inside and almost never sounds thin on the recording, which is the point: most amateur rhythm playing is too busy and the player cannot tell. Guitar and drums lock through the low strings, so set the click to 2 and 4 and feel for where a kick would sit — being in the pocket feels slightly late at first, which is how you know you have found it.

The daily session · ~26 min

  1. Warm upHands, then the second song's chords4 min
  2. Play less than feels rightDownbeats only5 min
  3. Lock to the kickWhere the drums are6 min
  4. Hold the time aloneClick off, halfway6 min
  5. Jam, riff then leadSame tempo across both5 min

Check yourself

Reference

How the week runs

Whichever accent you pick, the material stays the same for all 7 days and the tempo and intent move. Day one takes it slowly, day two chases clean notes, day three brings it to target tempo and into the jam, day four pushes past comfortable, and day five drops back to tempo to record and listen. Days six and seven are yours.

You can switch accent any day without losing your place — it is the same week either way, so week 25 means the same thing in both.

Start today's sessionSee the whole path