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What Should I do?
<div>Hi Fellow Eddie Van Halen or Neil Diamond wannabes!,</div>
HELP!
I could use a little advice from the community.
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</div><div>It took me quite a while to get through Tony’s 30-Day Challenge, and now I’m working on the 5-Day Challenge. The problem is that I’m still back on the June practices, while Tony keeps releasing new challenges each week.</div><div>
</div><div>Since the app only lets me go back about 45 days, I’ve been using my Favorites to get back to older practices and keep working on them. But the more time I spend catching up, the farther behind I get from where Tony currently is.</div><div>
</div><div>For those of you who have gotten behind before, what worked best for you? Should I keep working my way through the June challenges in order, or would I be better off jumping ahead to the July/August practices and trying to stay closer to the current challenges?</div><div>
</div><div>I don’t mind being behind—I’d rather actually learn and improve than just rush through everything—but I also don’t want to get so far behind that I can’t easily access the older practices anymore.</div><div>
</div><div>Any suggestions would be appreciated!</div>Thanks and Strum On,
Matthew Kimmel
Sacramento, Ca
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9 Replies
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Matthew,
Thanks for your post. I can only speak from my own experiences and challenges, as I am 62 years old and have only been a TAC member for a little over two months. I am new to the guitar, and just completed 6 months of chemotherapy. This treatment put my cancer in remission, but it caused neuropathy in my feet and hands, so playing guitar has been challenging at time. The cancer is in remission, but I struggled with keeping up as well. I noted that Tony constantly advocated to seek progress not perfection. This was challenging to me, but has enabled me to move on even though my method and approaches were anything but perfect. I would encourage you to keep doing your best, and most importantly make sure to have fun.
Respectfully,
David Weber
Kansas City Metro area
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Hi, I’m glad to hear your chemotherapy has put your cancer into remission. I can’t imagine that that feels like finding out that you have cancer and then you have to go through something that makes you feel like crap just so you can feel better and survive. I must admit I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to practicing. I like to feel that I sound a little better that I did when I first started but I have a hard time following his videos when he played when I play with him. Keeping the Rhythm or the beat is the most difficult for me when I’m watching him play. Because it makes me feel like I’m not where I’m at where I should be. But right now I’m working on the Chuck Barry stuff and I’m practicing this the minor scale I think they call them. So I guess I’ll just continue on where I’m at, maybe tomorrow I’ll start something new so I’m somewhat on schedule. Keep up the hard work don’t put down the guitar ever ever again. I’m 60 years old and I feel like my time is running out but I’m not going to let that stop me. I have a whole lot of time on my hands. Take it easy and keep on strumming.
Sincerely,
Matthew
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This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by MrKimm.
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This reply was modified 1 month, 3 weeks ago by
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I would advise one to just go on and jump in to the current challenge. The TAC process does work. The challenges eventually will repeat and when they do come around again you will be pleased at the progress you have made since your last effort. But it is a mindset change to go from “getting it down right” to “do your best for now and move on.” Keeping the fun is more important than mastering the material. I tell myself that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly at first. After almost 2,600 playing sessions i can attest that the joy just gets better.
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Thank you Everyone
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TAC is designed differently than most guitar courses. The idea is that you get exposed to a new concept you spend 10 mins trying it and the you move on.
Progress over perfection.
You are not expected to learn everything from the daily challenges the first time through, but they come around again and the next time you get a little further and then the next time even further. This spaced exposure is what makes TAC work.
Don’t spend time on past challenges, just do today’s challenge, do the best you can even if that is just one measure, then move on. Over time they will get easier and then one day you will realize you just went through the entire challenge on the first pass.
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MrKimm–
There have been some great responses to your question- (and from great people). I don’t need to repeat them.
But if I may add one more “perspective”, it would be to expect — and accept that it’s really OK— to feel like you sometimes have trouble with some of the Dailies. They’re designed to push you a little/ sometimes a lot.
If you could just whip thru every one of those Dailies with no challenge– two things:
1) You’d quit because it’s too easy, and
2) You don’t really need to be here in TAC because you are already a good guitar player.
So give the Dailies and the Skills Courses an honest effort, and keep moving.
Your brain is “getting it”…. behind the scenes. You will notice things start to “come together.
My two cents……
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Matthew,
I’m also new here, having started with TAC at the end of June. Plenty of good responses here already, I’ll just add my beginner’s perspective. From what I can tell, the 30-day Challenge you did is step one, but then you should follow up with the “5-Day Routine” challenge. It’s located in the navigation area on the left, and is a separate course from the regular weekly 5-day challenges. I don’t know if it would help you now, but it seems like from your post that maybe you skipped that. It’s an introduction into how the regular weekly 5-day challenges work, and how best to use them.
I think each of the regular 5-day challenges are in a constant rotation, with no particular “start” other than the beginning of each week. If you miss a week, that course will eventually make the rotation and come around again. So I would just pick up at the current week and go from there. For me, I’ve been working on them each day as they come, moving on to the next one everyday (even if I don’t feel I fully got it that day…) Then on the weekend I try to go back over them again quicker as a refresher. As others have pointed out, the goal of the TAC method is ongoing momentum, not daily mastery. You keep going on the lessons, and when a given 5-day course comes around again, you should have a better understanding of the concepts, and hopefully be a little more proficient at the skills, so you can get more out of the lessons.
Best of luck on your journey!
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I say jump in with both feet, and embrace the lesson, there will be those moments that you will feel good and times the frustration will try to win. Embrace it move on to the next lesson and when you come back you will be amazed at the difference in your playing. This system really works. I am 72 and never played an instrument in my life, now I have a little over a year and a half behind me and am enjoying my guitar journey.
Good Luck and welcome
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Thank you
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