Well, I noticed when I started to record multi tracks that my timing can be all over the place. And a good friend asked me to play some rhythm guitar on the CD of children's songs she was making. So I had to strum E and A. Mind-boggling easy you may think but I was all over the place on the first 5 takes... just couldn't find what to follow. I was tapping out the rhythm with my feet (for some reason I can't keep time with just one foot like many do, I have to alternate left to right each beat, then I can) but kept losing the beat I was supposed to follow. To get me to relax, Simon (her concert pianist son who was making the recording) got me to play a song of my own (I'll Be Back - Beatles) and he recorded it just for fun. Took one take! He said, "well, you certainly can keep rhythm!" So we tried again... bit better but he eventually had to do some cutting to get what they wanted. So I have been keeping my eye on it ever since and, yes, I have improved but I really have to focus on it. A useful tip Simon gave me was that I just had to be right on the first beat of the barre, the rest will sound ok as long as that first beat was spot on. That's been a big help and my timing is much better.
So I can see that things are improving but I have my ups and downs. I have found that I am project-driven. I need to find a song to be absorbed by and then I will work for days on it until I get somewhere near what I want. So making videos for the busking threads has been a good way for me to go and I see that Buddy and a few others are wired this way too. So that moves me forward and it can be a fast straight road... or a slow meandering such as the song that's in the can since last week but not yet published. On this one I'm flipping from, yeah that's good to oh cripes that's crap! I guess the only way to find out is to get it up on the thread....
Edit:
I can play that stupid F chord now and it only took me two years to teach my broken hands to work around it. Now I'm attacking the Bm.
Andy, if you are like me, you will find that the Bm is much easier than the F although its the same shape and just two frets down and one string over. I often wonder why that is but is so much easier... you get it for free if you can do the F.