Of course it's both, but in terms of guitarists generally and where deficiencies are or may be? Rhythm all the way.
Go to a piano recital or anything for beginning musicians, and this becomes evident. Rhythmic mastery is more essential to the performance vs compromising rhythm to execute pitch perfectly. Each note has a time and a place (pitch). If you play the wrong pitch but maintain time otherwise, basically 50% of a single element is wrong, whereas if time is compromised to accommodate pitch, everything following is somewhat compromised. Basically hurts the entire form of the song/piece being played.
Slightly different values depending on whether you're talking about improv or composition, but generally if you question which is more important, just aren't a single piano recital (especially of an incompetent teacher). Your question will be answered.
|