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Hi @Tony P, just wanted to say that I am honored to be featured in today’s TAC Family Holler e-mail. A couple of decades back, I had to get rid of a very troublesome habit. It had cost me a lot financially, physically, and emotionally over the previous two decades. Once I finally got sick and tired of being sick and tired, I knew I couldn’t keep going down the same path. It occurred to me that I had been trying to do everything my way. I decided that just maybe I wasn’t the smartest guy in the room, and maybe I should listen for a change. Turned out to be the best realization and decision I had made. I’ve been sober for 20 years now, thank God.
It occurred to me this morning that my progress on guitar can be attributed to the same mindset: Maybe I need to listen to someone who knows more than me. My method wasn’t helping me improve, and I needed a new plan/method or else I ran the risk of just giving up on guitar. That’s why I decided to give TAC a try two years ago. The lessons are structured in such a way to give a well-rounded practice experience, and that has helped me improve and given me confidence to try things on guitar that I never would have attempted two years ago.
One more thing before I close. I think I came to this realization on my own, or maybe I heard it somewhere. There is a difference between playing and practicing. Both are good, but practice almost always requires the use of a metronome, especially when I’m the only one in the room and my guitar teacher can’t see me or correct me. I consider playing along with the daily lesson video to be essentially the same as using a metronome, in that I have to keep up. Maybe it boils down to having someone or something else set the standard. In other words, not just playing things my way. Seems to be a pattern here…
Thanks.