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How I TAC!
Hello TAC Community!
I thought you might find it helpful if I shared my guitar routine.
1.) How many days per week do you play?
I try to play my guitar every day, though I set aside 5 days a week to practice my TAC routine. Typically, I set aside the weekends to focus on playing songs and having fun with my guitarsenal! Sometimes life can get in the way during the working week, and I will get caught up with my daily TAC challenges on Saturday.
One big lesson I’ve learned regarding the Daily Challenges is, don’t expect perfection and give yourself a break! After a year of performing my TAC routine, I started to get a little burned out and feeling like the routine was a chore. Reflecting on why I felt this way, I realized that I was expecting myself to master each challenge and that I should be connecting all these lessons together by now. And guess what, I wasn’t! Failing to meet my own expectations made the challenges become a task versus a fun activity. Now I’m back to a good mind set, like I was at the beginning. I queue up my Daily Challenge, spend 10-15 minutes practicing, and when I click ‘Mark Complete’ I have no guilt if I didn’t master the day’s lesson. The goal is to practice, maintain a routine and have fun!
2.) What time of day do you play?
I practice every morning, linking my morning coffee routine to the Daily Challenge. I like the mornings because my mind is clear and unencumbered by all the typical stuff that comes up during the working day. I also found that a morning routine is helpful because work can throw you curve ball and late-night meetings, or projects can disrupt an evening practice routine.
3.) Where do you play?
I play my guitar in my home office. It’s a clean comfortable space that has good seating and access to a nice big computer monitor. This way Tony’s smiling face (and beard) are up front and personal. I also keep my guitarsenal here, so the vibe is music friendly!
4.) What was your guitar life like before having a guitar routine & how has implementing a consistent guitar routine helped you?
Before TAC, my guitar experience was like many of yours. I got my first guitar when I was thirteen, took a handful of lessons, learned a few chords and then I drifted away from the guitar. Over the decades I would occasionally dig my guitar out of the closet, learn a simple riff, try to play a song but always ended up getting frustrated or feel uninspired. The guitar would once again disappear from sight, and quietly await my next attempt.
When I turned fifty-one I decided that I needed to learn something new and was ready to commit to a challenge. Music has always been a passion and I decided that the guitar’s time had finally come! My first attempt was taking live lessons. However, I quickly found that they weren’t working. The instructors didn’t really have a method of teaching you how to practice. And when I left their office, I found that I couldn’t remember half of what they said. Next, I turned to YouTube and several other online courses. Some were better than others and I made a little progress, but still, they didn’t teach you how to practice. As a result, I would learn little bits of songs or a new chord, but I never felt like I was making any progress learning how to play! And then I found TAC.
The beauty of TAC is the in the routine itself and the organization of how the material is presented. Warm-ups, licks, chord progressions and scales; TAC breaks down key concepts into a routine that lends itself to learning how practice. Through consistent practice, I have made significant progress over the past 12+ months and I’m both amazed and proud of how far I’ve come. I am now a guitarist!
My TAC routine has also become a positive habit, a source of ‘meditation’ as it were. Waking up each day and focusing on my guitar routine allows me to kick off the day with a positive activity that is fun and rewarding. Thus, I start each day with a sense of accomplishment!
Finally, having a guitar routine has been a great source of self-development. Learning new things and developing new skills is fun! Personal growth makes me feel good. Thus, my guitar routine has enriched my life in a positive way.
5.) What is the one non-guitar item that is a must have in your guitar routine?
My one must have is Juno! Juno is my faithful chocolate lab companion and guitar groupie. She thinks I’m the greatest!
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1 Reply
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Wow…. very well written and I think so many of us have experienced the same thing, getting a guitar in our teens and then drifting back and forth. Keep practicing and most of all have Fun!
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