Practice routine for playing with other musicians

[Bob M.]

Hello,
I hope everyone is doing well. First, I would like to say thank you to everyone at Active Melody. I signed up at the beginning of December 2025 and have received nothing but encouragement and constructive feedback.

Ok, so I have a question regarding practice with the aim to someday play with a group. I have set this as one of my guitar goals for 2026 and would like some advice on what to focus on. I am doing pretty well with memorizing tunes and have been taking Brian’s music theory course. I am starting to get an understanding of the caged system but still have a long way to go to putting it to good use.

I have always just noodled around on the guitar to, more or less, entertain myself. Part of the reason for this is because I have always been intimidated by the need to keep up with the tempo and rhythm when playing along with others. Now that I have been playing along with a backing track I can also see how unforgiving missing even one pick stroke can be.
I’m not looking to go on tour, but I would love to know I could hold my own.

I’m wondering if any of you might be able to offer any “what I wish I’d known starting out” advice.
I realize this might not be a simple answer, but any direction is appreciated.

Thanks much,
Bob

[Michael Krailo]

If you do play with others, try and find players that have more experience than you, so you can learn from them. Probably starting out as a rhythm guitarist for a band is the best route. That will solve one of your problems right away, because playing rhythm is more strumming than picking individual notes as with lead playing. It still will require accuracy for many types of playing, but the real deal is playing chord changes in time with great rhythm.

The only band I was in was as a drummer during my collage years, and we did not have a rhythm guitar player. Would have been nice to have one. I did play with another really great guitarist just to jam with, but that was never a band thing. It’s a really great feeling to play in a band situation when you have the skills to keep up with the group.

They typically have a list of songs that are played and you must learn them all as quickly as you can to be of any benefit to them. Other than that, it’s a learn as you go situation.

Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.

[Bob M.]

Thanks Michael,
I think I’ll start looking around a bit to see if I can’t round up some other musicians. My church has some pretty good guitarists and might be a good entry point.

[sunjamr]

What worked for me: Find someone to jam with, then start a slow one-chord blues jam. Just take turns doing “call and response” stuff. As you get better, try some 2-chord blues jams.

Sunjamr Steve

[Bob M.]

I like the call and response idea.
Thanks!

[6stringer Pete]

not sure if this applies to you, but learn which pick you use and why you use it. also if you are into finger picking style, think of your fingers as the wings of a bird flying effortlessly among the strings. It takes a lot of time, but don’t give up.

The melody of the notes is what expresses the art of music . 🙂 6stringerPete

It really is all about ”melody”. The melody comes from a language from our heart. Our heart is the muscle in music harmony. The melody is the sweetness that it pumps into our musical thoughts on the fretboard. 🙂 6 stringer Pete

Pete
Active Melody
Forum Moderator

[Bob M.]

Always impressed by finger picking. Thanks for the feedback!

[Andy N]

As a guitarist in a band you’re going to be spending 90% of the time or more playing rhythm, or otherwise supporting the rhythm by playing complimentary parts.
So I’d practice every aspect of rhythm playing from rhythm patterns and timing through to chord and triad vocabulary. Brian’s got some excellent lessons on playing complimentary parts in addition to rhythm lessons.
That would also pay dividends on any lead playing you do too.

[Bob M.]

Thanks Andy,
I can definitely see the value in this approach.

[Bill]

A great way to play with others is to find a local jam you click with. Most towns have something like that for blues, jazz, or even some rock. Maybe an open mic where you could support a singer songwriter type.

I think you need to give yourself grace and keep a short memory when playing with others. I jam regularly at Gypsy Jazz jam and I’m nowhere near the caliber of player those folks are. But I still put myself out there and yeah, I hit wrong notes, sometime don’t hit the right string, get lost in the progression… but the music keeps moving and no one is paying as close attention to your playing as you are. And other players are nothing but supportive (if they aren’t, find another group).

Practicing with a metronome, backing tracks are all good ideas. But once in the room and the tune starts, the kick drum moves air, and the bass thumps it’s a different ballgame. To paraphrase military strategy: no plan survives first contact with the enemy.

So I don’t think there’s a magic bullet to learn to play with others. Like most things the only way to do it is to do it. And the more you do it the better you get.

[Ben C]

I’m looking into learning rhythm guitar too and playing with other musicians. I’m finding it quite daunting at the moment and realise that playing lead over backing tracks isn’t necessarily good preparation for this.

How has your progress been, Bob? I’d be interested to see what you have found to have worked so far

[Bob M.]

Hi Ben,
I think I’ve found two avenues forward that are promising for me. I initially learned the pentatonic scales and that was great for playing lead over backing tracks but soon realized that I really needed to incorporate some rhythm playing in to my routine. Ive been focusing on learning the chord progressions in different keys all over the fretboard for the backing tracks that I enjoy. This enables me to keep the rhythm and just bring in my lead from time to time in a way that supports the overall feel of the tune without being too busy.

The other thing that I am excited about is the recent opportunity to play with a member of my church worship group and an invite to play along with the band. I’ve only met with her once so far but feel like this is going to open up some doors in regard to what my focus should be.

She also gave me some good advice. She said to make sure that whenever I am playing lead to be intentional about having something to say rather than just playing technically. She gave me some examples of Clapton using very few notes but saying a lot with them.

I hope I will have some more helpful advice as I move forward and get a better understanding of what it means to play with a group.

I would love to hear what you’ve found to be helpful as well.

All the best,
Bob

[Ben C]

Thanks for your detailed reply. I definitely need to focus on chord progressions so will make a start on this soon. I’m often a bit overwhelmed with how much there is to learn. But it’s all part of the fun I suppose!

[Bob M.]

Can definitely be overwhelming. I’ve adopted the attitude that I’m going to enjoy each little victory and good new sound along the way regardless of how small. I also resist the temptation to take in too many other ideas from the endless people offering tips and tricks on social media. It gets overwhelming and makes me constantly compare my abilities to others. Gotta remind myself that I’m supposed to be enjoying this😁

[Michael Krailo]

I think I’ve found two avenues forward that are promising for me. I initially learned the pentatonic scales and that was great for playing lead over backing tracks but soon realized that I really needed to incorporate some rhythm playing in to my routine. I’ve been focusing on learning the chord progressions in different keys all over the fretboard for the backing tracks that I enjoy. This enables me to keep the rhythm and just bring in my lead from time to time in a way that supports the overall feel of the tune without being too busy.

This is very good advice. We all need to work on the rhythm parts and there are ways to make standard rhythm parts sound much better by using a small amount of pentatonic embellishments along with the chords in any progression without overdoing it. There are many rhythm lessons on this site to take advantage of, but make sure you learn harmonized 3rd and 6ths and how they relate to the chord shapes. They work differently depending on the shape of the chord.

She also gave me some good advice. She said to make sure that whenever I am playing lead to be intentional about having something to say rather than just playing technically. She gave me some examples of Clapton using very few notes but saying a lot with them.

What’s the song list look like?

Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.

[Michael Krailo]

Ben C wrote:

Thanks for your detailed reply. I definitely need to focus on chord progressions so will make a start on this soon. I’m often a bit overwhelmed with how much there is to learn. But it’s all part of the fun I suppose!

It’s one of those things we all have to learn sooner or later, but once you understand the concept of how it’s all based off of either the major or natural minor scale degrees, it becomes second nature.

1. Major
2. minor
3, minor
4. Major
5. Major
6. Minor (Relative Minor)
7. Half Diminished ( 1 b3 b5 )

The minor key chords based on natural minor scale degrees:

1. minor
2. half diminished
3. Major
4. minor
5. minor
6. Major
7. Major

So if you can play your bar chords on each corresponding scale degree and get used to locating them, you just have to get the major or minor part right as noted above and you will soon get the hang of it.

Brian goes over all of this in the Essential Theory course that you can access by clicking on My Account link. There should be two video’s: One on Major Chords and another on Minor Chords. That should clear everything up.

Go slow and practice correct technique, and your abilities will dramatically improve.

[Ben C]

Thanks Michael. I’ll check this out. Have already made a start but sometimes find it hard to retain

[Author]

Posts