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Newbie feeling out of league with TAC
I am a complete newbie did the 30 day challenge and 5 day Challenge. Those seemed beginner friendly. Started the January Challenge and find that I am completely out of my league well advanced for where I am at. Tony talks about just being out of your comfort, but I feel way out of my comfort zone. Is this normal when first starting the TAC program? I love the layout just wondering if to advanced for me that I should cancel. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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10 Replies
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mso—
Don’t cancel.
Some of the Daily Challenges can seem pretty tough, especially for a very new guitar-player. If one seems too difficult for you at this point, just give it a try anyway- (~10 mins or so), and look at it as “OK, challenge, you are why I’m here. You may think you are tougher than me NOW, but I know you are going to come around again in say 8-10 months……. and I’ll be waiting…..”
In the meantime, there are plenty of really cool “Skills Courses” to check out, that you can work thru at your own pace.
Acknowledge to yourself that learning guitar isn’t as easy as it looks. It takes time and effort. Lots of both….. YEARS of both.
One last (and the best!) piece of advice…… FORGET ABOUT YOUR OWN EXPECTATIONS AND COMPARISONS OF WHERE YOU THINK YOU SHOULD BE IN LEARNING. Just have fun with it…… It’s all about the ride— not the destination.
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Yes, this is completely normal. Guitar is challenging. I would suggest trying to train yourself to feel okay with being out of your comfort zone. These tutorials aren’t meant to be “nailed” the first time or two around. The “win” is that you are doing whatever you can that day and inside the challenge for however much time you can give it (5 minutes, 25 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever).
If I feel like a challenge is way over my head, I end up picking a small part of it and just trying to improve on that one small part (even if it is 10% of the day’s challenge). Tony says this all the time, but just feel happy that you did whatever you did and that you showed up and tried. Yes, they feel like small wins, but you will start piling up wins before you know it, and you will gradually see how much you’ve grown once you look back after a month or two. Be happy with the small wins, even if it was just you showing up and trying.
The techniques repeat throughout challenges, and you’ll come upon a challenge later and realize that you can do it a little better that time…. and this continues.
I would also suggest taking advantage of the play-along speeds where you can change them to 50%, 75%, etc.
So yes… be okay with being overwhelmed. Do what you can, even if it is just a little. That is kind of the theme of this whole program.
And have fun!
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Thanks for the reply and advice. I really appreciate the information and knowing that what I feel is normal. Will take your advice keep plugging away and look for the small wins and curb my expectations of where I think I should be.
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Know the challenges come around every year and the benchmarks every 3 months. So you will have plenty of time to practice. If it is a challenge you like and want to try again just save it and then you can repeat it whenever you have time.
Good luck and keep strumming.
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I’m “old-school”. I have a huge 3-ring binder full of printed-off Daily Challenges- (yes.. actually printed). I think I saved them (every one) until “the cycle” started coming around again. It’s about 2-inches thick and weighs about 10 pounds. Ridiculous?- Probably to many, but to me it’s MUCH easier that way. No computer/no tablet/no nothing. I simply open it to a lesson I choose and start playing. I really love just opening that big lesson-book to some totally random page– and spend maybe a half-hour focusing on just that one lesson. (It’s funny how quickly I remember them!).
Ya can’t “go back” to the prior-month’s lessons…. so if you ever want to dig them back up, you DO have to somehow “save” them. I printed ’em off….. and have ’em that way. For “old-school” me– that’s the easiest way.
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Same as coach with a huge binder. Just us old folks being.. Old folks. I do bring up the lessons daily but just flip to that days lesson in the binder. I have another binder with most of the Skills lessons in it.
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Welcome to the TAC community!
What you’ve outlined is completely normal. I had never had any experience with the guitar until I started with TAC, and I found it extremely challenging at the beginning. You’ve gotten some great advice from others.
What I would like to add is that if something isn’t challenging then you won’t get better. If it’s too easy then it doesn’t give you something to work towards. Guitar is a difficult instrument, or a challenging instrument, but you can learn to play the guitar. It takes time. It takes patience. It takes effort at the beginning. It seems daunting and frustrating.
But I always tell people don’t give up until the miracle happens. That miracle may take a while to happen. I almost quit at the end of two years because I was frustrated. I could play. I could play some songs at that point, but I felt things were very challenging still, and I felt others were leaps and bounds ahead of me. I was actually going to meet a few TAC members for a three day jam, and I knew I was out of my league. I got a list of the songs that were suggested, and I practiced as many as I could over and over and over and nowhere near perfect. The jam wasn’t great, and I left early. But when I got back from it, something clicked and all of a sudden I just took off in my playing, in my learning and it’s still like that a few years later, I’m not a great player and I’m OK with that, but I can play a lot of songs. I play for the sheer enjoyment for myself. It’s my happy place.. That’s my motivator. You need to find what motivates you and you have to remind yourself often, while you’re playing and then you have to just put 1 foot in front of the other and eventually all of a sudden it just takes off.
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Loraine— Great post as always! (As I’ve said before)— you were the first one to welcome me when I first joined TAC– (back in 2019 I think– at the start of COVID). You have been– and still continue to be– one of the most helpful and encouraging people I have ever met here in our little guitar-world. I don’t know if you realize, but your always-positive, un-wavering, rock-solid manner has helped countless players— certainly including myself— get started, get them back out of the weeds, and get them back moving forward. You carry-around a truckload of good karma, my old friend!
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This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by the-old-coach.
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Mark, thank you for your kind words. I learned from the many that came before me. We’re a tribe of sorts, and we have to help each other in order for us to grow. You also have that gift. Keep lifting others up and helping as much as you’re able to.
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This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
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@msobochangmail-com I know the feeling!
When I started in July of ’24 I went through 30 Days and the 5 Day Routine with relative ease. Not that I was perfect on anything but I had started guitar about 4 months prior and I was able to finish those 2 programs in about 20 days.
When I entered the Daily Challenge I was in for a big surprise….I immediately hit a wall about day 4. But I just stuck with it and did as much of each challenge as I could, sometimes it was just one measure. For many of those early lessons I would do about 5 minutes and then go back and repeat Monday and Tuesday’s lessons. After a while it starts to get better, then the benchmarks come back around and you can go a little further. The skills in many of the challenges repeat over and over. Just hang in there!
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