-
Hello @Greg_F_Lee ,
I’m not sure why I’m bothering to make a comment as you have had so many comments. And @dr_dave weighed in at the end. I learned a lot from dr_dave and @jumpinjeff . Any way, here is what I was inspired to say when I read your post.
When you first start playing guitar, with the right guidance, you will see a lot of progress fairly quickly. The reason so many of us came to TAC with years of playing under our belts is because that phenomenon can’t be maintained and we found ourselves deep in a rut. Learning guitar can be fairly quick. Gaining proficiency on guitar takes a life time. What saved most of us from our guitar rut was to STOP trying to “master” the guitar or even any aspect of guitar, but rather to have fun playing guitar.
The method Tony introduced to make that happen was simple. He gave us a fun little challenge to spend a few minutes on every day. Regardless of our ability level, we could have fun and gain greater skill and knowledge… very slowly and incrementally. Being able to play the lesson like Tony was unimportant. For most of us, it would take years to play some of the lessons as demonstrated. But, we had a reason to pick up the guitar everyday and had a suggestion as to what to practice. What we did or did not understand about the process he was guiding us through didn’t actually matter. His lessons were connected in a very subtle and counter-intuitive way. His lessons help us with the full range of guitar skills every single week and over time we learn about guitar and music the way a child learns. Not by organized study, but by exposure to new ideas while having fun.
Tony has explained how and why his approach works. I get it, but I can’t explain it as well as he does. What matters is that I’m sold on spending a minimum of 10 minutes on the daily lessons. I never have to spend any more time than that… for what ever reason. I don’t like it. I’m not good at it. I’m not in a good mood. Whatever, I’m getting the exposure that is having it’s effect on me… over time.
Now, that brings me to your routine. Here’s what you do: spend 10 minutes on the daily lesson. Reserve some time for a warm up at the beginning. Now, if you’re inspired, spend more time. But you won’t be inspired everyday, and that’s great news. Because now you can spend a few minutes on one of the skills courses. And some days, if you have enough time, you could do the daily lesson and a skill course and then another skill course. Here’s why:
You can only spend so much time on any one thing before you’re just wearing yourself out. That’s why these short little bursts work. And why we can actually be making progress on several fronts all at the same time.
Anyway, those are my thoughts and experience. I hope this helps.
MG 😀