TIPS FOR TODAY
Progress comes from momentum, not mastery.
If today’s challenge feels awkward or slow, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to feel. This isn’t a “nail it in one day” test — it’s your first pass at a new motion. Your hands will keep improving every time you come across a similar skill.
Even 10 focused minutes is enough to count today as a win. Our goal is NOT to perfect it. It’s to get exposure to a new skill.
Just get the motion under your fingers a few times at your own pace, and trust that next time you try a skill like this, it will feel a little smoother.
YOUR SAMPLE WEEK OF TONY'S ACOUSTIC CHALLENGE
5-Day "Stop Dabbling, Start Playing Guitar" Challenge
- MON: Technique
- TUE: Lick
- WED: Improv
- THU: Rhythm
- FRI: Transitions
FREE WHEN YOU JOIN TODAY
30 DAY JUMPSTART
All new members start with our 30-day jumpstart to learn the basics. It comes free with your membership when you join today.
3-Steps to Stop Dabbling and Start Playing
Try the Free 5-Day Challenge
Get a feel for the TAC method and see what 10 minutes a day can do.
Join TAC and Build Your Foundation
Start the 30-Day Jumpstart Challenge (included when you join) to lock in the basics and build a daily habit.
Keep Going with Daily Challenges
After the 30-Day Jumpstart, keep improving—one fun, daily guitar session at a time.
I just started your 5 day challenge today today.I used to play and wasn’t too shabby. I haven’t played in 40 years and even something simple seems difficult. I’m really hoping that I can get this. My fingers don’t work like they used to and I’m filled with a lot of self doubt. I have never given up on anything in my life and I won’t now. I already expect my progress to be slow and I’m okay with that.
Hi Tony, I just tried your five day free thing and I I’m struggling a little bit with having fat fingers. I try and push down on one string and I’m hitting two at the same time. I’m working on it and it’s getting there and I finally got through your first lesson where I can actually do that but it won’t let me go into the second lesson if you could help me out with that that would be great thanks. I am a very very beginner thanks Tony
I’m returning to playing my old nylon string guitar after not playing for over 20 years.
I’m retired and am trying out your program. I tend to strum with some of my own improvised picking.
I’d like to learn and retrain my fingers, learn some picking patters (e.g. travis), and be able to play along by ear.
I started day 1 on day 3 and will start day 2 and 3 tomorrow with 4 on Friday and 5 on Sunday.
I am currently taking lessons, and have been for years, but am feeling kind of stuck. I feel like I never truly perfect a song I learn before I go onto the next. I am currently going to school for my undergrad degree in music and then onto being a music therapist.
I’ve been playing regularly for 5 1/2 years, mostly strumming chords and learning the fretboard. This is surprisingly challenging for me, feel a bit spastic. Determined.
Struggled with the hammer on – had to do that a few hundred times….
Day 1 moves too quickly
I am not really new to playing guitar and did the day and finding its moving too fast.
While Brandon may not be fan of Friend of the Devil, I was hooked. At 58 yr old, I picked up my first guitar in order to learn to play Ripple and as a way of settling in to retirement knowing it’s something you can never master. Been practicing daily for three months and am making solid progress I am proud of. the picking of the strings in today’s lesson was new to me. I appreciate the ability to sloooow it waaay down. I can keep up at that pace and not get too discouraged. You have really helped me look at this journey as a series of wins. I am thankful for your teaching style and who doesn’t like learning guitar from a goalie!
I was a good player (solo and in groups) 50 years ago. Since then, I’ve had recent spinal issues resulting in peripheral neuropathy in my hands among other issues. I’m doing this because:
1. I bought a new acoustic guitar just before my illness.
2. I’m hoping this exercise will help with rehabilitating my brain to nerve connections.
I’m having trouble getting my hand (wrist) around the neck and I’m fat fingering the strings. Any exercises you can suggest to loosen up my wrist so that my fingers address the strings directly and not flat or at an angle?
Thanks
Mark
May seem silly to your team but friend with the devil I want nothing to do with. The devil is nothing to be friends with wish it would have been a different song liked the approach.
Brand new player as of January ’26. Learning songs (cords only) in a group setting where everyone is more advanced than me. Most of the bar cords feel impossible, causing me to cheat by only playing parts of the cords, just to try to keep up. I even cheated by replaying ur video several times just to get the strumming. I have a hard time watching both hands of players and picking things up, but will give ur method a try. I like the idea of not practicing but playing. If nothing else, I can use in other parts of my life.
I am coming back to guitar but was never very good
Hi Tony I have been trying to learn to play guitar for about a year following you tube videos and have made very slow progress. I enjoyed todays lesson but struggled with the hammer on.
Hi everyone. I’m a 51 yo that inherited a family guitar during the pandemic and have been restarting as a beginner every couple months since. Really hoping the structure here is going to help be build not just float around. Good luck all!
I can’t find the tabs.
i am an old dude, about to retire, finally taking time to learn guitar. total beginner.
Where is the tab ?
Hi, I am brand new. 64 years old and just retired my day job and decided to learn guitar to play at our senior home as a volunteer for Sing a long days as well as family fireside evenings. I am serious, about learning as I just cut off all my long nails to be able to do this. I am a day behind the 5 day challenge but will catch up because we can all go at our own speed. Thank you
I’m a totally new the guitar and it’s a little intimidating to even pick it up, but did today. I’m 70 with fat fingers that seem to hit other strings too. Day 1 in the books but will redo the 1st lesson tomorrow and watch on a bigger screen to help see what strings you are actually picking.
I’m a life time student at 83 YO. You’re so right about the ‘you tube’ sourses as they really cause more problems with learning then ever. I even passed over your “tubes” many times until the quality of the material kept bringing me back. The Five Day starter package looked like a good place for me to finally start to play before I “Kick the Bucket.”
Hello,
I’m a complete beginner. Started about a week ago. Still having major issues with avoiding touching other strings that aren’t meant to be touched in chords or even in single notes. I had to replay parts of your first lesson multiple times to understand what to do exactly but kept touching other strings. I suppose I’ll need to practice that a lot more before going onto the second day. Am curious what I’ll be able to do just after those five days.
I’ve picked up a guitar 5 times a year, played the 5-7 chords I know and set it back down. Same ol’ routine for almost 40 years. Learned some basics when I was 8 years old or so. Can strum a bit, but most definitely a beginner. My goal is to play and sing, and play so others can sing along campfire style. Thanks!
I’m 62 years old. have had a guitar for about 4 years. I stated with a “named-brand” guitar training program for about a year and then my subscription ran out. I’ve been I like to learn cords and put them together in a variety of strumming patterns and it makes me happy. I could do the same thing over and over again and never get bored doing one thing over and over again. But I really want to be able to do so much more. I have big thoughts but not a lot of time. Oh well, that’s me. Thanks for giving me opportunity to expand my capabilities.
Also, a perpetual beginner… took in person lessons for a few years with my daughter, that’s the best I ever got… we could play some basic songs D A G chords, learned finger picking too but now 10 + years later, it all feels Greek to me lol
Complete beginner, though have played a few blues notes, starts and endings.
This lesson just cant get my head around the picking, got the first part down, hammer up, but the rest just goes out the window trying to figure out the rest of the first 2 strings.
I am an intermediate player that plays mostly bluegrass.
68 and always wanted to play guitar.
Fingers have a hard time hitting just one string – gest worse as I move down to higher strings.
I’ll keep at it.
Any suggestions to get my fingers to not hit lower strings!!
Sort of a perpetual beginner. Played a little several decades ago, got interested again maybe 6 or 7 years ago after becoming friends with a blues guy who, at the time, was playing a lot of 3 string stuff. Then got distracted by assembling guitars, 1st the CBG stuff then some partscasters. I have a mechanical background which means I need to break that approach of applying mechanics to everything to be able to play smoothly.
I am a beginner. I had problems following as I am very visual and need to see everything especially finger placement.
I’m brand new and struggling with finger placement
Hi, I’m left hand and I learnt Guitar on right hand guitar ( that was some 20 years ago) so i’m playing upside down and that has been my challenge. I had to make extra effort to learn, everything is upside down. I’m from Seychelles and that so many years agothere was no acces to left hand guitar and it on borrowed guitar ( could not turn the strings around) My muscle memory is like that, so I had extreme dificult to solo, but become failr good on strumming. That is where I’m starting.
Day 1: So far so good! Lol. First time learning guitar…(or at least trying)….brand new beginner. 56yrs old, have been drumming for25+ years…now looking to try something new, learn the basics, have fun with it, and build on it as I go….no stress, no pressure. I have my faith in you and the process!….Let’s go!
Tony I am 62.
I took lessons for about 5-6 years straight, Stopped playing for about the last 7 yrs.
I could move around on the Penotonic scale no problem, and I could move the shapes around by ear. Might take me a little bit to figure out where the shapes went in that key but once I found it I could stay on it.
My issues have always been the same one.
Even here. My fingers hit other strings and mute or buzz them.
Example on this:
Moving between E and A strings. Finger on the fifth fret will mute or buzz the A string on the up. I moved my fingers around and got it to work, basically I looked at your fingers and noticed you were off the fretboard with the top of your fingers. That worked for this. I definitely fall into the perfectionist mentality. Really want to learn to play well and for fun.
I started very young and never progressed far. I’ve been dabbling ever since.
Tony played 55 years ago but decided to stat again…bought a guitar and have been gettting back familiar with the instrument…Not as easy as it was when I was younger but am anxious to progress into a guitar player again.
Hi Tony I am struggling on day one Iam 74 with athritis in both hands,can’t seem to get my fingers in the right place on the fret board and hitting the right string but I will persevere.
I have slowed the video down to help me.
What do you think,any tips.
Sorry but I m trying to open the tab. And nothing happened. Trying to slow the video down nothing happens. I m left handed so watching this video I need to zone in the tabs as it’s backwards to me. How do I get the tabs to open clicked on several times.
Thanks, I appreciate the pace. I have used one on one lessons and some online skill development. But it didn’t lead towards playing a song.
This seems different.
Thanks,
Peter
I’m in the stuck class, been trying to play since a teenager with big gap working and raising a family, now 70. Happy to see others like me!
Difficulties are multiple. Fifth fret has a tendency to mute the next string (Starting on e and going to A), managing to hit the next higher open, and with the proper upstroke. Are the upstrokes important? speed related? Seems like hitting down on A from E could work as well.
Hello Tony,
I turn 70 at the end of may. Back in 2008 I bought a Laguna accoustic electric beautiful sound. I try to learn but never really gave it the time I should have , excuses were much easier to come up with. Last November I retired and moved to the Philippines unfortuntely my guitar is months away from getting here. I find myself doing a lot of gardening and decided to finally put a real effort into learning. So I bought a Bromo 6 string from a local guitar store.not bad sounding and the action is low but has a good sound. Where I am at is trining to play chords cleanly having a tough time doing this. I know I can because I have in the past. I really like your approach, and will be signing up when I can get my grip back on the chords. I bought the guitar saturday and I am practicing at least a half hour a night well maybe an hour. My fingers are really fighting me.
Gary
In high school I had gotten pretty good at finger picking blues guitar. Lightnin’ Hopkins was my favorite. Over time I just stopped playing altogether. I never went beyond what I knew. It was boring.
Today, for the first time decades, I tried to learn something new on the guitar: flat picking. Totally awkward! In all my life I had never felt comfortable playing with a flat pick.
As I was doing day one of this 5 day challenge was happy to know that my left hand is still pretty good moving around the neck of my guitar. The flat picking was another story! I was always flubbing the ups and downs . So It was great to be able to slow the video down and stop it so I could see exactly how you were picking each string. I’m far far from perfect. But I made progress and that felt so good.
I was about to sell my Stratocaster but when I saw that almost 12,000 of ‘em were for sale on eBay I thought I should at least pick it up and try to play again. I’m so glad I came across this 5 day challenge.
Twenty-five years since I’ve played. At a point in my life where I have time to do this. Went to the local guitar store and replaced the (rusted out) strings/refurbished the guitar. Too embarrassed for in-person lessons, so this might fill the bill. Fingertips have no calluses, so there’s that….
18 years since leaving entry level guitar, mostly focussed on chords, never thought i could do finger picking -can see how useful in licks for some songs. Chord memory pretty good but big fingers causing some strings to buzz. Looking forward to the challenge -tricky to see where your fingers are pressing the strings without the notes there have to get better set up on ipad or computer rather than phone -i guess looking at the tab sheet before starting would help eh
Ugh! I do not even know the strings so this just went over my head. I’ve had a guitar for about 2 years and started with a popular app, I did about 10 lessons and gave up. I still pay for that app! So at least I know my guitar is tuned! I will have to go back to the first lesson to know what the heck high E and low E means. But I am here!
I’m just getting back into guitar. Never had formal lessons and self taught. I felt totally overwhelmed with the lesson today but… with baby steps… I think I got it!
Hi, im trying the 5 day challenge. I’m bases in West Wales in the UK and 54 years young. I’ve always been a learner with the guitar….over decades….I doubt I even hold the pick correctly or the neck of the guitar…but I’m giving it one last go. I find it very difficult to coordinate both hands, although right handed, weirdly have played clarinet and most woodwind left-handed??it’s a strange one, or rather, I am.¿?
So far, so good! 68 years old living in Germany and still working full time. Used to play 50 years ago – melody line only on a few songs with a used electric guitar. Always wanted to learn how to make the acoustic guitar play the song: baseline, melody, chords. Your program makes it easy to do short practice sessions during the week without feeling guilty. Suggestion: It would helped this beginner a lot if you would have shown how to use a pick!!
Intermediate player who is STUCK
74 years old and picking it back up.