Many bands have two guitar players. One plays lead guitar while the other plays rhythm guitar. Rhythm guitar players don't get as much of the spotlight as a lead player, but their role in the band is equally as important. A good rhythm guitarist should have an extensive chord repertoire, the ability to play consistently with the bass and drums, and the creativity to play a rhythmic guitar foundation the lead guitarist can

Choosing Equipment

There is no difference between a lead guitar or a rhythm guitar except the musical parts they play, so a rhythm guitar player can play any guitar a lead player can play. Fender, Gibson, and B.C. Rich are some of the legendary guitars. Gibson Les Pauls tend to be used more in hard rock, while the Fender Telecaster is country and the Fender Stratocasters live in the blues realm. The choice of guitar is personal, as if the choice of amplifier. Rhythm guitar players don't tend to use as many effects as lead players do, but a good fuzz pedal is always helpful, as well as equalizers.

Building a Chord Repertoire

Unlike lead guitar players who play solos often consisting of single-note runs, a rhythm guitar player plays a lot of chords. Chords are the foundation of rhythm guitar playing. Any rhythm guitar player should have a good chord dictionary on hand and practice chords in as many positions on their guitar as possible. A C chord played in the first position, for instance, has an entirely different tonal quality than a C played higher on the neck. It is essential a rhythm guitar player knows several positions of each chord and in what situations to use those chords to compliment a lead guitar player's solo.

Adding Rhythm Figures

In addition to playing chords, rhythm guitar players are often called upon to add fills, also known as rhythm figures, based on single-note runs. Rhythm guitarists will sometimes double part of a guitar solo with the lead guitarist as well, to add harmony, and be required to shift back to the rhythm part of the song without missing a beat. Practice playing repetitive rhythm figures with scale runs in between to help hone these smooth transitions.

A good example of a song that contains a figure that the rhythm guitarist has to maintain during a lead player's solo is the opening riff for AC/DCs song "Back in Black." The song opens with E, A and D chords played in the first position on the guitar, with a single note run in between the chord rhythms that features string bending. The lead guitarist plays these runs with the rhythm guitarist until the lead guitar plays a solo, then the rhythm guitarist will continue to play the single note licks to support the foundation of the song as the lead player solos over the rhythm figure.

See Resources for how this chord/lick combination looks notated.

Chords in Progression

Rhythm guitar players need timing. It's a good idea to practice playing chords in common progressions and apply various timing exercises to help you get a feel for creating rhythmic foundations a lead guitar player can rely on when he solos. Common progressions include the one, four, and five chords in a key, one, three, and five chords, and one, five, and six chords. Playing the chords based on these degrees of the major and minor while alternating how long you hold them out or how many times you play them during a four-count bar will help you develop a feel for playing in time. You might even want to use a metronome when you're practicing.

Mastering the Bar Chord Shapes

An important aspect of playing rhythm guitar is the bar chord shape. There are several of them based upon different chords. A bar chord is a refingered chord that allows a guitar player to use typically his first finger as a bar (which then acts like the guitar nut). This changes the shape of a basic chord so that it can be played on any fret of the guitar to create a new chord without having to do anything more than slide your hand up or down the neck of the guitar. Learning just one bar chord shape will immediately increase your chord repertoire.