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Well, @kirk62 ;
I have spent some time already today leaving comments on other threads. So, when I saw that you had quite a few responses, I thought I’d give it a pass. But, I decided to share your post with my wife since this is the perfect example of how people respond when they first come to TAC.
I was just sharing with her about my learning the TAC method over the last 4 1/2 years. I didn’t understand at first and felt exactly like you do. Slowly but surely more and more of the “idea” sank into my think skull with the help of others like @jumpinjeff and @the-old-coach . I don’t mean to leave anyone else out, I just didn’t take the time to read all the comments since I’ve already spent so much time on the forum today. But, I saw their names and always like reading their comments.
Anyway, what I said to my wife moved me to want to say it to you. Let me continue, first, with the “back story”. As I started to explain, I was telling my wife about my own journey of discovering how this all works. Though I had gotten far better at guitar, had had numerous discussions with other TAC members here on the forum, it was still difficult to find the words since all of this is so counter intuitive.
But recently, I actually read the 2 of the books that Tony based his TAC method on: Atomic Habits, by James Clear and Grit by Amanda Duckworth. Those books helped me to see the science all of this is based on and I became more convinced than ever this is the “right” way to learn guitar.
So what is that? Why did I read my wife your comment? Because we adults forget how to have fun like a kid. It’s really that simple. A kid doesn’t complete a lesson successfully in the way you described; he doesn’t “get it right”. He doesn’t care. The kid doesn’t retain anything he’s been learning. But he simply doesn’t care. So why does the kid keep going? And perhaps even more important, why does the kid keep getting better?
This is so simple. The kid keeps coming back BECAUSE HE’S HAVING FUN!!! I’m not kidding you, it’s that stupidly simple.
Ok, but why does the kid keep getting better? This is so simple it’s trite. The kid keeps getting better BECAUSE HE KEEPS COMING BACK!!!
Tony read these books about how we learn and how we can be successful. He decided to quite face to face instruction and create a guitar learning site that used these principles. You can read these books for yourself, or you can “trust the process”. But here’s the bottom line.
You have joined a site that teaches guitar based on scientific research about how we learn and how we are successful. What do you have to do to benefit from this?
Ok here’s the “secret”. Have fun. Log in tomorrow and “try” to do the lesson and HAVE FUN. STOP trying to do the lesson well. It doesn’t matter. It takes time. You’re NOT gonna do it well at first. So STOP IT!!
Instead, find something in the lesson that is fun and focus on that. And maybe notice something you could improve upon and write that down so you can work on it the next day before moving on. Or not. But move on.
Have fun and keep exposing yourself to guitar challenges and you will get better. Oh, and remember the first part? Have fun? If you do that, you’re having fun in the mean time so it doesn’t matter that you’re not doing it well or that it takes time to learn. Just have fun and keep coming back.
Will you get better? Yes, lots of members to prove that point. Will you eventually start understanding more and therefore retain more of what you learned? Yes, lots of member to prove that point.
So, the main secret? Have fun. The secondary secret? Keep coming back. The tertiary secret? Stop any type of judging or measuring or even thinking. Just play.
If you can remember how to be a kid, you will learn guitar and have fun doing it. It took a lot of scientists and a lot of clinical studies to figure out what the kids knew all along. Go figure. Just remember how to be a kid and you got this.
MG 😀