You get some people who want to learn to play guitar and automatically want to learn how to play them fast and wild lead guitar riffs and I myself like to play those kick butt leads too. I also like to play some good hard driving rhythms.
Rhythm guitar or any rhythm instrument like the drums which keep the beat of the song going or the bass guitar which also helps keep the rhythm of the song going is key to any song. Without rhythm or a beat to a song , you wouldn't have much of a song.
Rhythm guitar is fun and it usually means playing chords to a song but not always. Some rhythms are just notes repeated over and over again which give some songs some pep and drive. I like playing rhythm because I can add in my own flavor of notes and still keep the rhythm going smoothly. It's nice to add a little bit of me into the rhythms I am playing because it brings out the creative juices in me. It doesn't matter if I am doing a cover tune or or one of my own songs, I'll always add in some little tidbits into the rhythm I am playing because it's fun and it all stems from the mood I am in at the time. If your not having fun playing guitar then why play at all and if your not adding a little bit of yourself into the music then what's the use of playing.
You get some players who have to learn and play songs note for note. This means they have to play a song perfectly. This to me is a bore and does nothing for my personal playing at all. Sure if your doing a cover song it's got to sound like that song but not note for note because it takes all the fun out of it. You got to improvise a bit. So I say to you beginners out there, learn the songs, learn them until they sound good but put a bit of your own flavor and mood into it and you'll enjoy playing the song a whole lot more.
I can understand beginners wanting to learn those pentatonic scales so they can blast away the clouds but concentrate on playing clear sounding chords and incorporating some single playing notes off those chords to create some solid sounding rhythms. Once you get those open chords and bar chords down then your ready to start burning up the fretboard with some tear up leads. So if you want to be an all around good guitarist get them rhythms down first.
You'll always see and hear about the lead guitarist in bands and they do deserve the recognition that they get but many of them will tell you that they have a good rhythm guitar player behind them to help spice up their leads. Even though some rhythm guitar players don't get the recognition, their still an important part of the band.
