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Am I too impatient?
64yr old newbie. 45 days into learning guitar and I can’t seem to keep up with Tony. I finished the 30 days to play, never getting even close to proficient at anything. Moved on to the 5 day routine anyway. Then did the 5 day challenge. I just can’t keep up with Tony. I know he says the important thing is to keep moving forward, but I’m not sure moving on each day is really forward. I can’t play the daily patterns even at the slowest speed. I don’t have great expectations, but I was hoping for a little proficiency “on anything” by now. My fingers get in the way. While playing chords, the open strings are getting muted. I can’t keep time because I’m too slow moving between chords. Focus on the fretting and I miss the picking string. Very frustrating. All I have to show for it are some calluses. Maybe the benefit of this rant is to just play regardless. Thanks for listening… or reading.
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12 Replies
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Hang in there @Slatewear . Tony is a bad metric to draw comparisons as he has been playing 30 years. Good to appreciate bad to compare.The problem is it is near impossible to find other players with similar time in the saddle from which to compare. I had to jettisen comparisons all together. That is when the search for fun began and progress began sneaking up on me instead of me always trying to wrangle it. I found success itself was fun. I found a way to make the challenge opportunities successful (mostly, I could still get in my own way) even if I only got the count in correctly.
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Thanks for the advice. I appreciate it very much.
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@Slatewear I hear you loud and clear, and I know exactly what you’re saying and where you’re coming from. The reason I say that is because I felt the same way. I felt like a deer in headlights for the longest time. I felt that others were running hoops around me where miles and miles ahead of me and money had started at the same general time that I had.
But here’s what I learned. There were many times that I would never be able to learn the guitar. I decided several things it wasn’t all at once either I decided I was going to trust the process and do the best that I could with the lessons. I did the daily challenges, but I think my main focus shifted a little bit and went more towards the skills courses. I didn’t feel as threatened by the comments that I would read and some of the feeds after a lesson. I put myself out there to others that didn’t know how to play and started asking their opinions and questions and how they got to where they were at what types of things they did. So many people really help me out, but I still felt frustrated I still felt I was behind. But that was me that wasn’t them it wasn’t something that they were doing right now I was doing wrong it was me projecting that they were better than me me projecting that no one was as bad as me or no one was as slow as a learner as me
I agree with @jumpinjeff to hang in there, but you do have to still have fun you can’t just keep being frustrated and feeling unable to Play the guitar because that’s why you’re here.
So my suggestions are:
1. don’t compare yourself out. Why did you want to learn the guitar in the first place? Remind yourself why put a big sign up somewhere put things around that make you remember why.
2. Take a step back do some skills lesson lessons my suggestion would be start with the jumpstart to finger style and flat packing and then the strumming course
3. In the old TAC, there was an add-on that you could purchase called the song vault. Tony tight lessons at the beginner intermediate advanced levels and they were mainly bluegrass songs but it allowed players to practice their skills what they learned in lessons, and to play songs. When Tony Ree fabricated Tony’s acoustic challenge, he and the crew decided that that they wanted to go back to basics, Focus on the foundational skills, and he wanted to Focus more on the aging baby boomers, so there were many things that were not transitioned into the new program. But the song vault he put out on a public site so that the people that had paid for it could still access it. Since then it’s been shared very openly with players like you new players and people that hadn’t been involved with that initially. Here is the site check it out you may find that you enjoy trying to play some songs Tony takes you step-by-step you know section by section and just with the easy ones. https://hub-lkx8655w8n.membership.io/
4. Just trust the system. Here’s an easy way to think of the 10 minutes per day and that the concept is right on the money. If you practice for 10 minutes and someone new comes in the door as a new member you have 10 more minutes skills than they do, and that means that you can help them get started Learning what you’ve already learned or practiced if you play 10 minutes per day seven days a week that’s 70 minutes over an hour and you will be 70 minutes more proficient then you were seven days prior to that the program is set up to where you will see the lessons again at some point and trust me you will remember how you were the first time and what you struggled with and I think you’ll probably be surprised that you’ve gotten better that things come easier to you the second time through, so that’s a testament that you are progressing. It’s funny I heard Tommy Emmanuel say one time that nothing comes easy to him that he has to put in practice he has to break down songs into little pieces and it may be focusing just on two or 3 quarts in their progression you know in a row and working it back-and-forth back-and-forth back-and-forth and then moving on to the next thing he doesn’t just put everything together right away it’s the same process that we’re going through that he has to go through and I found that very humbling when I heard him say that, because I consider him one of the greatest acoustic fingerstyle players.
5. I nearly quit guitar at the end of my second year of trying to play and it wasn’t but a short period after that then all of a sudden things started to click into place. Cell the biggest nugget that I can pass on to anybody is don’t quit before the magic happens or the miracle happens or whatever it is or how it happens for you.
Good luck
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Thanks Loraine,
I try not to compare, but I thinks it’s natural. Plus, as a retired sale rep, I’m very goal oriented and expect results. This has been humbling.
Tony also says to trust the system, so that’s what I’ll do. I didn’t know the song file existed. I’ll take a look.
But for now… on to today’s challenge!
Thanks again.
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I started out as a 64 year old newbie last year and now a year later I am amazed at the progress I have made. It doesn’t happen in giant leaps, but in tiny steps. Since the challenges cycle around just wait until you revisit a challenge and realize how much you have improved since the first time you tried it.
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Major thanks John,
This helps a lot. Nice to know there’s others going through, or have gone through, what I’m feeling. Looking forward to see where I’ll be after plucking away for MY first year. Good luck on your guitar journey.
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Thanks for writing this… you saved me from typing the same thing!!! I’ve been at it about Six weeks. I ponied up and bought a Taylor guitar (and a baby Taylor as I travel). They sound GREAT and I really am looking forward to “playing” something not just “practicing” pieces. I’ve learned the basic chords, sans “F” but can’t transition quick enough to keep up with a song. I did the 30 to play and five day starter (twice). Now trying to get through a week challenge. Question (for anyone) are the weekly challenges individual, of do they build upon one another. Meaning should I go back and start at the beginning?
Cheers,
ABBO
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PS, I’m 69
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Hey @goabbogmail-com Welcome to TAC! Congrats on 6 weeks! The lessons introduce a new concept every week, so they are independent in that sense. Pay attention to the skill introduced in Mondays lesson. That will be the major force for that week’s lessons. The scale will be independent of that, but it will compliment the foundational skill introduced. The weekly lessons, annd therefore the independent lessons are dependent on each other for the purposes of having a full tool box of foundational skills that will cover most basic skills necessary to learn songs and play different styles.
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I’ve always wanted to be able to play guitar, always. I’ve gone through phases where I learned rapidly and and years, yes, years where I’ve pretty much not improved and have quit many times. But for whatever reason I always have come back to give it one last try. After retirement I became serious about trying to improve my junkie guitar habit. This course has helped me take all of that old accumulated guitar muscle memory, unrealized guitar and music knowledge and finally begin to realize my dream of actually playing like I have always dreamed of. I’m currently rapidly in an explosive learning faze and loving every moment of it. My advise is learn the basic fundamentals, strumming patterns, basic chord 4 major chord patterns for a couple of music keys- C, G and D. Key of C chords C,F, G and A minor and practice a couple of strumming patterns so that you feel comfortable using the 4 major chords. Practice the C scale also and be sure to think each note name and you pick it. You can learn enough guitar music theory by reading up on guitar music theory on many online articles. will you be dazed and confused, at first you bet you will. But all of that knowledge will be available to transfer to your guitar playing hands and anyone who picks up a guitar and participates in learning to play a GUITAR PLAYER. Do not give up.
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BTW I turn 79 on the 15th of this month. You are never to old to become a picker.
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There are a lot of us old guys (and girls) on here, I’m 66 and started TAC a year ago, started guitar about 18 months ago. I’m still a beginner but I’m amazed at the things I’m capable of now. Guitar is a hard instrument to learn, it just doesn’t come quickly. Just like you’re not going to knock a Nolan Ryan fastball out of the park if you had never played baseball. You would be fortunate not to get injured and it would be miraculous if you made contact with the ball in your first month of trying.
Everybody is at their own level and will learn at their own pace, no two are the same. Try to be a slightly better you tomorrow than you are today, that is the only thing you should compare yourself to.
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