-
Hello @[email protected] (ps, I don’t think your “nickname” is working. You need to get rid of the “@” symbol and the period),
So, I am now confused. @tailsawaggin and @Moonhare have made nice comments helping you to understand Tony’s method as opposed to other methods. Tony is teaching us to play guitar. Others just teach us to play a song. It’s amazing to see someone shred a cool song but they can’t play the guitar at all. Other than that song, they don’t know what to do with the strange object in their hands. Some people can learn a few songs and just take off from there. But those who can’t need Tony’s method.
I just need to say that I love the comment that @tailsawaggin made. He said “doing what they say to do got a lot easier after some time here with Tony. Tony’s program is sneaky, too – I just do the daily lessons, and songs get easier to play.” See, that’s because we are learning guitar and we don’t even realize it. Anyone who can play a guitar can pick up a song very easily if they can figure out or are shown the chords. Then there are embellishments and bass runs and partial chord shapes… all kinds of things that give a different and unique sound to a song. Again, once we see what the players are doing in a particular song, we can imitate it easily if we can play guitar.
All that having been said, the part that confuses me is your statement “Third, a lot of the lessons Tony is treating the viewer as if they never played before. I know he is trying to keep it light and fun, but at times it seems a bit basic.” Then @tailsawaggin says “yes, this program is aimed primarily at beginners, so the lessons are fairly ground-level.” If you all can play all the daily lessons easily, then you are an accomplished guitar player, so I don’t understand why you have spent the money to join TAC. But if you are learning even though you have played the guitar for years, why do you think this is aimed at beginners? A very large percentage of TAC members have played the guitar for years. They are people who weren’t able to continue progressing and continue gaining new skills for whatever reason. Now they are learning new skills and honing old skills. And yet, beginners are able to follow the material and learn from the ground up with the very same lessons. So yes, Tony needs to make sure everyone understands the terms and concepts he is using. But hey, one of the biggest problems I see with any type of instruction is that the instructor assumes his audience understands all the terms or concepts they are teaching. It has nothing to do with the lesson being for beginners, it has to do with actually being a good teacher and not someone who can’t relate to his audience.
Anyway, there are a lot of people who find that the standard ways of teaching guitar don’t work for them. However, Tony’s method works for everyone… well, except the person who judges TAC harshly and bails. So I guess I have to amend that statement to: Tony’s method works for everyone who tries it instead of judging it. I have never had a single person say that TAC didn’t help them after doing the daily lessons for just a month or two.
I played the guitar for 20 years before coming to TAC. I learned more in the first 6 months than I had in 20 years. And that is a common story among TAC members. Everyone has an opinion. Mine is that Tony’s method is the best… period, bar none. Segovia himself couldn’t teach anyone who didn’t already have mad guitar skills. I’ve tried so many different methods and instructors, online and off. Nothing worked for me until I started using TAC. See, it’s not about what Tony teaches or what you think you are learning. It’s about the doing… what Tony gets you to do causes your hands to learn guitar in spite of your head trying to sabotage your efforts.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I hope this helps you. I hope I haven’t stepped on any toes. Sometimes my opinions come off too strong. If that is the case, I apologize.
MG 😀