Getting into the rhythm

When I'm playing songs by myself I usually get on pretty well - people like what I play and often sing along but I haven't really been happy with my ability to stick to a beat. It's easier with some songs than others but I have real trouble keeping the rhythm in the right place when I'm jamming with other musicians. I have the chords for songs we play down pat but that beat eludes me just at the wrong time and it's embarassing when you start heading into the chorus on the wrong beat.

Recently one of my friends suggested I should try using a metronome and structuring my practice time instead of just noodling around. After hunting around for a while I decided I'd quite like one that used drum sounds but that seems to be a feature you only get with full blown drum machines which aren't quite inside my budget right now. In the end I found a great piece of software called the that does the job and even added a cool feature I didn't think of - it has the ability to gradually increase the tempo so you can start off slow and build up speed to get more out of the scales practice I do to build finger strength. I've been practicing with the Ultimate Metronome for the last week or so and last night, at a local open mike night, we ended up having an impromptu jam session towards the end of the night. When we were finishing our beers before heading home one of the other musicians told me I had pretty good rhythm for a guitarist! Sarky sod! Still, I'll be practicing with the Ultimate Metronome a lot more in future, it's definitely improved my playing no end.