Acoustic Tuesday

[Loraine]

hey @JoeT you haven’t told us your thoughts and feelings. My first reaction was shock. Acoustic Tuesday is or was a mainstay of the TAC community and our success. I’ve learned so much from the show.

I truly understand Tony’s family commitments and the changes that have occurred since the 2 boys were born. I also know that major corporate changes typically cycle around every 5 years on average it seems. It is just unfortunate thst we’ve experienced losses of not only the 90 day progress parties, but now Acoustic Tuesday.

Tony’s branching out it seems to a wider audience, and that means we need to adjust to not having all his attention on the current TAC community. He’s definitely distanced himself since developing the new website, but he seemed somewhat touchable still with the 90 day progress parties and Acoustic Tuesday. We, meaning the TAC community were the audience. We won’t have that personal connection as much, but we’ll at least have the past experiences with him, the current daily lessons and other skills courses and Fretboard Wizard, and the tapings of all the Acoustic Tuesday shows to fall back on.

Who knows, maybe his dreams and branching out will have a positive effect on all things TAC. He did say that he wants to continue expanding the lessons on TAC. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. He may even include current TAC members to help him realize his dreams. I know he’s helped me greatly, and I never thought I’d be able to learn guitar or even play anything resembling a song. Guitar hasn’t come easily. I’ve really struggled with it, and I feel like I did as a child with learning disabilities and always having to work twice as hard to just be okay. I’m not a great player, but I’m getting better, and I’m having fun most of the time. I have physical limitations, which would have sidelined me before, but Tony’s positive advice helped me to keep working at it, commit to a ridiculously short amount of time daily, and to recognize small wins, and always to have fun. If he can help others, then kudos to him (as long as TAC isn’t forgotten in the process or placed on a slow burner in the rear and forgotten about).

I’m interested in your thoughts Joe.

[dbvirago]

As I stated in another thread, I just started today and went all in with a 1 year membership. Not picking on you, Lorraine, but i wish I had gone through the forums before doing that. It’s looking like I’m getting a diminishing product.

At any rate, it’s done now and I’ll give the next year my best effort and hope to get a return off of my investment.

[Loraine]

@dbvirago Please don’t feel that you’re getting less than your membership. Acoustic Tuesday was separate from TAC and run on a different platform and free to the public. TAC began making the recordings of the shows available through the TAC site just as a courtesy to TAC members, but the shows still were free to anyone on the internet and not part of the membership. Many TACers simply liked watching Acoustic Tuesday at the same time as their lessons with TAC. All the archived Acoustic Tuesday shows are available for you to watch online.

[dbvirago]

Thanks, Loraine. I’m already seeing the value. The whole concept is strange compared to any other lessons I’ve ever taken, but hopefully, I will stick with it. I do have a problem with implementation, I’ll talk about in another post.

[jason-ashley]

I am glad to see Tony is taking his advise, and I am sad to see Acoustic Tuesdays end. I am waiting to see what Tony has in store here.

I took the road about two weeks ago with the life time membership and am excited see how I am going to grow here. There are many people here which we can help mentor and give/take advise when we are challenge to grow.

As a side note I joined to improve my guitar skills, which I am currently weak in.

tonypolecastro.com

dbvirago – Tony's Acoustic Challenge

dbvirago – Tony's Acoustic Challenge

[N-lightMike]

Well @JoeT and @dbvirago ;

I think this is a great move as we are the beneficiaries.

Since he is reorganizing his time, the TAC community is getting more commitment from Tony. There was talk about new lessons, now we are getting them. We’ve gotten a whole new lesson week every month for quite awhile now.

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>Then there are the </font>signature<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> series. I remember when Tony released the first one, Mississippi John Hurt, he said he was going to do more. I was really excited about that. But they just didn’t come for the longest time because he already had a full schedule. Then with the kids coming along, it was even worse. Yet now, even with that extra stuff on his plate, he’s released several new lessons that focus on the style of a particular person. </font>

Now, just in case anyone doesn’t realize, the time commitment of making a new weekly lesson is pretty large. It would take at least 40 hours, like a full time job’s output for a week. And Acoustic Tuesday just morphed. He’s still releasing YouTube content. Every YouTube video takes way more time and effort than most people realize.

So how do I know all this? Simple. Tony expressly told us this on the show. He said he was giving MORE ATTENTION TO TAC MEMBERS, NOT LESS; HE’S NOT WIDENING OUT. The Acoustic Tuesday show WAS widening out since it wasn’t directly supporting the members of TAC in anyway. TAC is about learning guitar, not finding new acoustic artists or new gear reviews.

So he’s cutting away the fat so we get more of his attention. That’s what he said. So anyone who says “Tony is widening out to a larger audience” is implying that Tony is lying to us. But the facts support the statement that he’s giving us MORE, not less, for our money.

MG 😀

[ChuckS]

@N-lightMike is spot on here. I really like some of the new TAC initiatives, especially the weeks aligned towards a particular artist or song style. It really helps tie things together. I will miss Acoustic Tuesday, but it ending is not really that big a deal as I couldn’t really keep up with them all anyhow and really after 500 episodes the subject material was very well covered.

I find TAC overall to be very helpful, so much so, that I signed on as a Lifer after the first season. I also subscribe to another site (on of the ones Tony highlighted in one of the Acoustic Tuesday shows) that is totally different and more focused on blues and the underlying theory and whys of playing various runs/riffs. That combined with TAC has really enhanced my knowledge and skills.

I have seen a few on here bemoaning the forum and complaining that it isn’t that good anymore. My observation is that the TAC forum is much more active and engaging than most other sites.

One thing I would like to see Tony bring back is the 90 Day live Zooms – they were great, especially the breakout sessions where you had the opportunity to interact with other TAC members.

Bottom line: TAC is money well spent.

[N-lightMike]

Thank you, Chuck. I especially like the point that the TAC forum just as it is right now is head and shoulders above any other guitar learning site’s forum. I, too, am a lifetime member and I think it was the single most important guitar related thing I ever bought. 😍

MG 😀

[Sharon_T]

Tony has been in the studio filming a lot of new content. His commitment to the TAC community is as strong or stronger than ever. It takes a lot to make those AT shows and this way he can streamline his energy to be more focused on those of us who are actually paying for the membership. I think if you give it a bit of time you are going to be very pleased with is ahead for all of us.

[Marty75]

To all TAC members, We just saw what happens when “Life Get’s in The Way” Hat’s off to Tony for making family first. I have been a TAC member for close to 6 years. I’ve seen every episode of AT and will miss it. I’ve seen a lot of changes and I expect I will see more being a Life Member. Let’s see what the future hold for us TACies. 😊🧙‍♂️😎

[N-lightMike]

I couldn’t agree more, @Marty72 . I am happy to see Tony put dad responsibilities in first place. Go Tony! 😍

MG 😀

[N-lightMike]

Thank you @Sharon_T . Well said. 🤗😊

[SoCal_Ian]

Only one comment. Only one word. That word? Disappointed.

[N-lightMike]

I couldn’t agree more… when I look at my loss, @SoCal_Ian . But when I look at my gratitude toward Tony for the Acoustic Life I lead, that word falls away. 😊😉

MG 😀

[Marty75]

👍