TIPS FOR TODAY
If your chords are buzzing, your fingertips hurt, or everything feels clumsy — that’s not failure. That’s the normal breaking-in process.
Rhythm guitar asks a lot from your hands: new shapes, new pressure, clean strings, steady strumming. Your fingers simply haven’t built the strength or calluses yet — and they can’t build them without days like this.
Remember the science of motor learning: the goal is not to get each challenge perfect before allowing yourself to move to the next one.
We want regular, imperfect exposure to things just outside our ability.
So don’t chase perfect chords. Chase small wins: one clear note, one smoother switch, one pattern that feels a touch less chaotic than yesterday.
Those micro-improvements stack faster than you think.
Stick with it. Your hands are learning even when it doesn’t look pretty.
YOUR SAMPLE WEEK OF TONY'S ACOUSTIC CHALLENGE
5-Day "Stop Dabbling, Start Playing Guitar" Challenge
- THU: Rhythm
- FRI: Transitions
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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.
My main reasons for not progressing further in acoustic guitar were long work and commute hours and I play in an amateur classic rock band. So any free time I had was spent learning and memorizing my bass and vocal parts for the band. I am now retired and have more time to focus on more aspects of music. I am pleasantly surprised that, even though I do know how to play chords, strum and even finger pick an acoustic guitar, I have learned new things this week! Thank you!
Great lesson, have to go over and over again to get up to speed but having fun learning what I need to achieve my goals, your explanation of simple does not mean easy will stick with me always, thanks
Really enjoy how the lessons are connected together. Looking forward to learning more about how playing scales connects with rhythm chords.
MY FINGERS ARE BLEEDING – I’m lovin’ it !
Bar cords. I can do them, but not up to tempo for most songs.
Alright I’m in!
After four days it’s obvious that I am already beyond where I was last week at this time. To say I was skeptical would put it mildly, because I started my guitar journey almost 4-1/2 decades ago right after high school with an unknown dreadnought with high action that actually sounded decent but was a finger killer. The guitar allowed me to sing along enough to and try to impress the girl that I was chasing after at the time. An Ovation was gifted to me a couple years later which I still have.
Fast forward a couple years and I met the woman of my dreams but after showing my limited rhythm chops, she didn’t seem overly impressed. I soon discovered her previous boyfriend was a professional musician whose livelihood came from the guitar.
Well I won her heart, but lost my love of playing guitar however I never lost my love of wanting to play.
Retiring early in the pandemic, I picked up a cheap Yamaha for $100 & started tinkering again. We moved to a 55+ community a couple years back, and I discovered that several members were getting together and having a jam session. I went in and realized I probably could keep up, so now play relatively regularly but still stuck where I’ve been since the early 80’s.
Looking forward to Tony’s lessons and seeing how his methods work on an old rhythm guitar player!
The rhythm part is easy, and I have that down. My issues are: 1) the requisite finger work for the earlier lessons; and 2) difficulty is when I need to move down the neck to do the other work on chords/notes further down the fretboard. That is not an easy thing. I mostly just play by ear, can’t read a lick of music notation. While I can strike some good sounding notes further down, I just don’t have a clue what they actually are. So, that’s my dilemma as we stand today.
I actually feel like I have made progress in these challenges so far. For me, if anything it’s schedule that sometimes makes consistency a little bumpy. My big concern for example is that I’m traveling to Japan for 3 weeks in November/December. That’s a lot of missed challenges. I’m hoping my travel schedule over the next year won’t mean that I’ll be wasting resources.
Awesome rhythm lessen, I made music on the guitar tonight for the first time ever!
I have tried to play for years. I can do chords and chord transitions but get la Zy in understanding and incorporating rhythm. I am not practicing anything really consistently. I am actually behind on my lessons. Today is day five I am still working on the previous days lessons and day four. I am enjoying them though especially day three. Here as we enter the days between- Jerry Garcia born August 1rst, 1942 died August 9th,1995.
I feel my lack of progress in my guitar playing is due to both not playing daily and not learning new skills. Playing the same d songs.
Consistency is my biggest challenge. Having the time and energy to play every day and learn something new every day is a challenge for me. This week has been great, as I haven’t missed a day, and I’m enjoying learning again.
Nice basic strumming lesson, an area I need to improve. I’ve enjoyed the first 4 parts of the 5-day challenge. Looking forward to tomorrow to see how it all comes together.
In TAC, do you introduce a new song each week? How do you choose which songs to use for TAC?
Clear direction for sure. So much out there. Where to start first, next and so on. Building on previous lessons learned.
Definitely a lack of clear direction. I feel like I’m just making stabs in the dark at times.
I’ve been playing chord progressions for years (and years)..this is the most impressive change in my playing in a matter of 4 days!!! It’s amazing what a little focused practice can do for one’s playing (and ego). Thank you, TAC team!
Great lesson today. Boom Chicka is how I learned way back when I started guitar, but tying it all together now within this 5 day challenge makes me feel like I am more of a musician now than before.
Chords in general and changing chords has been my biggest source of frustration. I have short fingers so on the ones where I have to reach I tend to mute other strings, especially the high E. It’s getting better but it really slows me down when changing chords.
Not doing the repeats? I am kinda confused.
This #4 lesson was the easiest for me since I mainly just do chord changing along with trying to learn bar chords. I’ve never had much experience doing scales. But after the first three lessons I can see I really need to start doing them. My slowest chord change is from G To C. It’s gotten better over the years but there’s still a hang up there.
John,
one thing that can help is to make your “G” using different fingers. Instead of using first index and middle, try middle, ring and pinky. It may seem a little awkward at first but trust me, you’ll get it down in short order. What this does for you is make the “G” to “C” transition easy because all you do to switch from “G” to “C” is keep your middle and ring fingers in exactly the same position they’re in and move them from the 5th and 6th strings down to the 4th and 5th strings. Your first finger frets the “C” note on the 2nd string and there’s your “C” chord. It really is a lightning fast change. To go back to “G” just move your middle and ring finger up to the 5th and sixth strings again and add your “G” not on the 1st string with your pinky. Super fast!!! Believe me, it’s worth the effort.
I’m really impressed with Tony’s teaching method, especially the way he starts right off with simple scales and a little “down-up, down-up” flatpicking runs. Very nice!
That was the easiest one for me since that’s basically been my bread and butter for me for 40 years. For me I’d get stuck when things got hard, so I wouldn’t do scales or solos, and just settle on doing chords in the open positions or barre and then capo as needed.
I don’t like to use a pick so my lack of progress is getting over that. I went back and did the exercises again without a pick and I can knock the lessons out pretty easy.
Ahhh! This was the most fun lesson so far! I was so excited to see I already knew all of those chords. Still working on smooth chord transitions though but I’ll get there.
I just don’t think my playing sounds great and I really struggle to make smooth transitions so I lose time.
That, and pressure of life.
Some things you can do to help on chord transitions: visualize the chord before switching to it. Don’t play the fourth beat of the measure before the new chord, use the time to switch chords instead. Focus on getting part of the chord for the first beat, and only strum on those strings, then finish moving the rest of your fingers (or getting them out of the way of any open strings). Keeping rhythm is far more important than hitting the right notes, and these tips will help you keep the rhythm while you get better at making the chords!
Enjoying these videos and seriously considering buying in with the current discount making it affordable. I primarily play a 1977 Takamine Classical guitar and also have a Taylor Mini. I prefer the nylon strings and fingerpicking. I have issues trying to use a pick. Does your course have significant information for learning to use a pick?
Hi Rae! Great question. TAC does teach flatpicking (using a pick) as well as fingerpicking. So you will learn this. We’d love to have you join us.