-
advice needed for beginner
Hi Glen Miller here
I am new to the site and fairly new to guitar where am I supposed to go after the 30 day beginner course the challenges seem to complicated I can learn them in a few days but they don’t seem to tie together and do they eventually lead to songs?
-
3 Replies
-
Hi there, Glen. The daily exercises build skills and also do a little bit to train your ears. You will apply those skills to learning whatever sort of songs interest you. TAC is not aimed at teaching you songs. It is based on skill development and getting you into a regular practice routine.
Don’t worry for a minute that many of the exercises are hard and that you don’t really “get” them within 10 minutes. The premise is to spend at least 10 minutes of focused practice on each lesson, then mark it “complete.”
If you’re with the program for roughly a year, you’ll be seeing repeats of lesons you already completed. Even though you might not have played that exercise for 40 weeks or so, you will be surprised how much better you do when you see it the next time – then even better the third time and so on.
I just passed the 4 year mark a few days ago. Some of the lessons are still difficult, and many of the “speed challenge” warmups still seem superhuman. But generally I can play most of the exercises pretty well these days, and they begin to “fall under my fingers” after only a minute or two of re-acquaintance.
Many people eventually add on the Fretboard Wizard course (at extra cost) because that builds skills that help you learn songs quickly or even write some of your own songs. It is introductory music theory slanted toward guitar and helps you understand how most songs are constructed, i.e what chords go well together to make common chord progressions that are found in most songs. I’ve taken about 10 trips through the FW course. If you decide to buy it, you’re supposed to have lifetime access, but as programs and websites evolve, it’s hard to define what “lifetime” means. But so far, so good on FW.
-
@gmelectric@rocketmail.com I hear your bewilderment and frustration, but don’t fret. As @dr_dave mentioned, TAC teaches foundational lessons and a practice routine. It doesn’t teach songs, but once you have the foundations begun then you can branch out to YouTube and other sites to learn songs. After the 30 days to play, try the next 6 chords and a minimum of 10 minutes a day trying the daily lessons. You can venture into the skills section and take courses based on your interests. It’s your journey, so you can approach it in whatever way works best for you. I personally suggest the jumpstart into fingerpicking and flat picking courses (and they do teach songs in them).
-
thanks so much for the advice it is much appreciated.
Log in to reply.