As a rhythm player, I do okay with tempo, and it has been one of the things I notice I am better at as time has gone by. But since I have only been playing a couple of years, I find that often, my rhythm playing can be "pushed around" by insistent soloists. For instance,if a soloist begins playing faster than me, I will often compensate without even meaning to. In other words, I'm not trying to "help out" the solo. It's just that I am listening to the solo, so I speed up to be like it. Although the rhythm part is important, the melody is often the part that comes through to my ears, especially if it is played on a relatively loud instrument compared to my guitar (probably FM would say I need to play louder in that case). I think for me I can see some improvement as I get more comfortable with tempo. As with so much else about playing music, this will require more playing and using a metronome when I play/practice rhythm parts.
