“It’s not an obvious technique but it’s something that pays off big time in terms of musicianship and your overall feel for the music. It just makes music more fun to play.” - Keith Wyatt

We sent this out in an email but in case you missed it, here’s a great practice tip from Keith Wyatt about improving your internal metronome. The idea is to work on this exercise for 30 days and by the end of it you should see some results. If you’re one of Keith’s students, be sure to send him a video showing him how it’s working for you.

Here’s the exercise: start your metronome at 100 BPM. Try to stay relaxed, take deep breathes and tap your feet to the beat. Once you get a feel for the count, turn it off.

Then without hearing the metronome, see how close you can match the beat you just heard. Begin to play a shuffle rhythm on your guitar at the same speed you set the metronome to. Don’t worry about what notes you’re playing, it can even just be the same note over and over again. Or if that’s too easy, try playing a 12 bar blues shuffle as Keith does in the video. After you’ve played through it, turn the metronome back on and compare it to what you just played. Were you playing at the same speed? For a more advanced challenge, try it again at slower tempo.

That’s it, now don’t forget to practice this for 30 days! Your internal metronome will be forever grateful. 

Learn blues guitar online with Keith Wyatt at http://artistworks.com/keith-wyatt

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• How I Got Started Playing Blues Guitar 
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• Transcribing Solos: Learning Blues Guitar from the Masters
• Keith Wyatt's Essential Blues Guitar Players