Rythym guitar troubles (in Off-topic)

Alright so I have been playing guitar for about a week now. I taught myeself some pretty basic stuff like Swing life away by rise against, thunder by boys like girls, and found these too be pretty easy. So last night i got adventurous and got the tabs for the song "guys like you make bad" by blessthefall. I got through the intro and the first verse in about an hour (the lead part). I think I might be naturally better at lead stuff since I have been playing violin for about 10 years now, plus guitar hero suprisingly helps i think haha. Anyway I am having trouble playing basic rythym parts, for example last night I also attempted "runaway" by cartel and pretty much slaughtered it. Any tips or suggestions would help alot I am sure. Thanks in advance. :).

It's hard to explain how to play rhythm well, but it's all about feel, and more importantly, timing. Focus on locking in with the drums, and practice...constantly. A week isn't nearly enough time to get it down, but you'll get there.

Drums are the backbone of any band, because they keep the tempo. When I listen to music, I hear how the other instruments play in tempo with the drums, so the guitarist will start at the beat to the drums, or a half beat. It's kind of hard to explain. I think if you use one of those tempo things, the things that just make a very simple sound repeatedly and you're able to set how quickly or slowly it plays, you'll be able to get there in time, and of course, practice. =)
Good luck with it bro!

Practice. Practice. Practice. There's no other way. And patience. And time!

But also work with somebody else who's playing. You'll improve faster and it's more fun.

Could you guys list some decent rythymn songs that will probally help me the most please :).

I play punk rhythm, the timings are so much easier to handle :P
Plus I play a lot of old stuff like Rainbow and Free.
Songs like Since You've Been Gone, All Right Now and even Wonderwall by Oasis are good starters for rhythm guitar I've found and then you can move up to more difficult timings.

Zog has some good suggestions; what you want are things that are pretty basic in terms of chords and timing; because once you crack it on those you'll find it that much easier to play harder stuff. (It doesn't always work the other way...if you start too difficult you can't always play the easier...)

I'd suggest getting hold of some blues, fast and slow. The chords are normally pretty simple, the timings are straightforward and easy to follow.

Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, BB King, Freddie King and some of the bands who were influenced by them - The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin. Get hold of some old Kinks and Who tunes from the 60s too, lots of easy songs, with great rhythm parts to learn.

Any Megadeth and 80's Metallica have some pretty good examples of tight rhythm playing.

I swear by Wonderwall. It's the most powerful tool in my guitar teaching arsenal. That and the standard I-IV-V blues rhythms, while I solo over them. Gets people excited about being able to play well ;)

+1 JW for the Muddy Waters suggestion.

I use him a lot.

Wonderwall will give you a great base. It did for me. The real technique to master is how you wield the right hand. Faking a stroke (by intentionally missing the strings) with the right hand while maintaining your up-down-up-down stroke pattern is key. Start chugging away (up, down, up, down) hitting the chord on every downbeat and upbeat. Then, try to skip an upbeat up-stroke, but still make the motion, and then strike the chord on a downbeat: since you faked the upbeat and now have your hand in position to easily make the downbeat, you're still in time with the song.

Wonderwall has the following strum pattern: Down, Down, Down, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Up, Down.

If you were to look at this with the fake strokes, where your hand makes the motion, but doesn't strum the strings, it would look like this:

Down, (skip-up), (skip-down), (skip-up), Down, (skip-up), Down, Up, (skip-down), Up, Down, (skip-up), Down, (skip up), Down, Up, Down.

Now, There were a couple of chord changes in that strum pattern that I didn't cover: go grab a tab and listen to it, and you'll see what I mean.

After you master that, it's a good idea to just play a few patterns and try skipping different up and down strums to see what patterns you can make up.

Also, a good tip for the aspiring rhythm guitarist: drop D tuning is your friend! Don't rely on it exclusively, but learning and writing songs in drop D will allow you to focus on your right hand technique easier than standard tuning.

"drop D tuning is your friend!"
/me cosigns

What album is wonderwall off of, I"m a college student so I get free downloads from ruckus. ?

What's the story

It's on the 2nd Oasis album Morning Glory.

Or to give it the full title:
(What's the Story) Morning Glory?

If you have been playing violin for the past decade then you know what you're in store for. Just like you didn't learn proper bowing technique and vibrato et al overnight, the same will be true with guitar. It takes dedication and practice and time. You probably sat around with a metronome and worked your tail off on etudes for years before you became somewhat proficient, correct? Approach the guitar in the same way. Get your rudiments down. Learn your open chords and diads/power chords. Work on things you like and are familiar with at a slow even tempo and gradually build it up. Concentrate on economy of motion, play with a loose flexible wrist as opposed to tensing up and playing from the elbow. If you need to anchor one of your fingers on your picking hand down while you strum to keep from over-exaggerating your movement then do so. You want to avoid swinging your hand back and forth too far...you don't really ever need to go farther away from the strings than necessary. Economy of motion. Try to work on different rhythm figures, a simple open E string and an E5 diad on your A and D strings work just fine. Do triplet figures and whatever else comes to mind. Above all else don't get discouraged. It will come. Hang out with people better at it than you and observe what they do and incorporate their techniques into your own thing. You will progress at the rate you practice even when it seems like you're in stasis. Have fun and don't give up.

If you ever need help or want to discuss guitar related topics feel free to cm me.