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30 Days in – Not sure where we are headed?
I am about halfway through the 60-day money-back guarantee period. I am enjoying the lessons and have learned several new techniques. For example, I can now strum through the chords for “Wonderful Tonight,” which has been rewarding. However, I found it necessary to use Ultimate Guitar tabs to better differentiate the verses from the chorus as this was not marked clearly on the final challenge tab. Also, the final challenge did not incorporate the solo we learned earlier. I noticed similar issues with the “Hotel California” piece, where I had to look elsewhere to put all the pieces together. While I appreciate the chord transitions and new skills, it would be helpful if the challenges integrated all learned parts of a song for a more complete experience.
The main reason I joined TAC was to “stop dabbling and start playing” but so far I don’t really see where I’ve got two songs down and I had to go outside TAC to fill in some missing pieces.
I also have some observations about navigating the site. The dashboard is effective for finding the daily challenge, but arranging lessons that need additional practice is less straightforward than I expected. The “Favorites” feature helps, but it can be slow and a bit cumbersome. I was hoping for a dashboard that not only highlights today’s lesson or challenge but also makes it easy to revisit previous challenges. Perhaps, instead of just favorites, there could be an option to “keep in my daily routine” or an indicator to bring a lesson back up in a set number of days for additional practice.
It seems the current approach encourages moving forward with daily challenges without focusing on perfecting previous ones. While I value the forward momentum, the system doesn’t quite fulfill the expectation of “knowing exactly what to practice each day.” Are there plans to update the dashboard or add features that make recurring practice easier? Is there a better way to incorporate past challenges into my daily routine?
I am curious to know how others have progressed through the TAC system and developed a regular practice routine? How has TAC helped you move from dabbling to playing complete songs? Do you incorporate other lessons or tab apps?
I also feel like I’m flying blind – is there an outline of where we are headed? Are there alternative paths to the daily challenge? So far I like the songs but what if I want to focus on blues or country? Do I stop the daily challenge and work some of the other five day challenges?
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3 Replies
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Seems like we have a few people here dipping their toes in the TAC waters. I replied to another 60 day candidate earlier today. Everyone has their unique expectations when they join a program and mine were definitely very different from yours.
Here is what I think are the reasons why TAC is an excellent system for learning to play and improving your playing skills.
1. focus on playing daily. The challenges are designed for 10-15 min sessions and structured to cover all areas of guitar playing. Most courses are structured thematically and invariably you will get hung up on some topic that is overwhelming and end up quitting. Ask me how I know!
2. it teaches you how to add your own style (or flavor) to songs, how to make them sound more interesting, rather than giving you the recipe to play a popular song from beginning to end.
3. there are many players that are here every day, from beginners to very accomplished guitarists and even recording artists. Tony is actually a quite notorious recording artist.
4. the daily lessons are simple but layered is such a way that novice and expert will not only get something out of them but also easily understand what is expected of them
5. the community is very helpful and knowledgeable
6. TAC gives you excellent value if you look at the yearly or lifetime costs. For me it was a no-brainer. Even if I have to add other lessons to supplement my learning, I will get something out of the daily challenges, the skill courses and song archives for many years to come.
In my opinion the reasons for being here are not
-to learn how to play songs so you can sound like the recording
-because of the site’s excellent navigation features
-for it’s flawless interface full of flashy dashboards. Heck no! Even commenting below the challenges requires a work around
TAC isn’t perfect, it’s full of quirks and flaws. You can’t search here worth a darn. The site isn’t flashy and its Namesake is essentially absent, only rarely making appearances.
But it’s very good at getting novice players to return regularly to improve their playing. The progress actually sneaks up you when you aren’t expecting it.
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BBerry—
TAC should be thought-of as “another part” of your overall guitar-learning journey, working in conjunction with other sources of teaching and learning/lessons/materials. I can’t believe there is a one-size fits all, “we will make you a great guitarist”, website or other source- (inc private lessons).
We all start our guitar journey from a different spot; different amounts of experience/ different skills already in place/ different eventual goals/ etc.
TAC’s emphasis isn’t about “learning to play a song”…… It’s about giving you a broader view– toward learning how to play any song. Learn all the skills and drills— along with playing-along with your favorite tabbed songs- (“spread-out” you learning a bit).
In my 3 years in TAC, I did sometimes wonder “what is this stuff?– why do I need this?“. Then I realized you have to be patient enough to let your brain have the time to take it all in. It just plain …. takes time.
Don’t worry…. the lightbulb moments… and the small wins… will come.
Focus on:
Having FUN with it all.
Learn the huge difference between practicing and playing.
Playing SLOWLY and ACCURATELY is way better than fast– (fast will come).
You learn a LOT right here in this TAC forum- (and there are great folks in here also).
Hang in there
T-O-C
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This reply was modified 4 months ago by the-old-coach.
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This reply was modified 4 months ago by
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I am just about 90 days in with TAC and I agree with the other replies to your comment.
I came here to re-learn guitar after being away from guitar for many years; it seems like this is a common story here.
I am finding that I am learning better techniques and abandoning some of the old habits I had developed being self-taught 40 some years ago.
You mentioned Ultimate Guitar Tabs – I think that is a great place to get “whole songs” AND the ability to transpose those if you wish.
I have only begun to be a bit more consistent with my time on TAC so I will continue to be a member as I can see my technique is improving.
As an aside, as I worked through the tabs that are part of the challenges, I notice that the musical score is there as well to help learn the “notes” of the guitar as well. I will most likely add the fretboard wizard at some time to enhance my fretboard knowledge.
I am modestly OK with theory and can read music (as a vocalist) but I never learned the fretboard connection to musical scores and hopefully will develop this going forward.
Keep at it – you will enjoy increased technique in fingering chords, playing solo lines, barre chords, etc, and ultimately be able to have enough finger memory to pick up a chord chart on Ultimate Guitar or elsewhere and be able to play them much more easily.
I would say this is my 2 cents worth but there is a penny shortage….
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