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Share your wins, get unstuck, or see how others use the TAC Method to create a fulfilling guitar life!

  • Being stuck on a level

    Posted by PapaMinou on May 7, 2021 at 8:26 am

    Being stuck on the strumming pattern lessons for a couple of weeks. I just have difficulty achieving the sweet combination of moving from one chord to another and achieve the correct sound. The exercise with Tony right now seems so unachievable. It felt good shooting is out…

    I’ll go back practicing.

    Bill_Brown replied 3 years, 9 months ago 6 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Alisa

    Member
    May 7, 2021 at 9:30 am

    I hear you. Chord transitions is a long-term project. Remember what Tony says in his introduction video: consistency, not mastery. We don’t get better by playing the same thing over and over again, and it can take months to land a chord transition perfectly and consistently. You can’t be playing the same lesson over and over for months; you’ll die of boredom! Or, more likely, just quit. It’s ok to move on from a lesson after getting a C- and not an A+. These chords will come back in other lessons and the daily challenges. You can practice them there as well.

  • Loraine

    Member
    May 7, 2021 at 4:01 pm

    Hey @PapaMinou I so feel ya on this. I struggle with strumming in general, because my chord transitions are slow or I try and rush and the chords aren’t clear. I will say however that they have gotten better. I slowed it way down and used a metronome. As I was able to transition with the metronome and strum pattern I went up 5 bpm on the metronome and did the same thing over. And over until I was transitioning on the beat, had clear chords, and had the strum pattern down. Then I would bump it up another 5 bpm and start all over. I’ve gotten better, but I still have to keep really working on it daily in my practice.

    It’s okay to move on from the lesson (sometimes a break is necessary) and try something new. You can always go back to the strumming lesson later.

    Hang in there and keep plunking away!

  • AttyTJ

    Member
    May 8, 2021 at 9:20 am

    @PapaMinou ,Every Thursday and Friday lesson is a new challenge for me personally. Sometimes (like yesterday) the Chords are there and understood, and moving is easy (G, C, D) and I don’t have to look. Sometimes (like a lot of the Accidentals) even getting my head around Diminished Chords and replacement 7th’s is like being out in Deep Space 9, let alone my fretting fingers, and then add the playing hand. Wheeeeew!!

    But over time, they come, and become more part of what I know. Many times, the Goal is: understand the pattern, play it with my eyes closed. Do I get it every time? No, but I get it sometimes, and my chord progression and formation is improving.

    Guess it is like getting to Carnegie Hall. . . . . . . .

  • PapaMinou

    Member
    May 8, 2021 at 4:43 pm

    I appreciate so much that you have taken the time to reply to me essentially expressing my frustration. Maybe I just needed the venting… I went back, started to fiddle with the controls and found out that I could reduce the speed of the exercises (I did not know that). It is doing the trick; it restored some control and I considered myself unstuck. I am still not where I want yet but the fun is back. And when it happened it started to get better.

  • Michelle-PSL

    Member
    May 8, 2021 at 5:45 pm

    I hate to use the old line @PapaMinou , but practice, practice, practice.

    And also patience, patience, patience.

    YOU WILL GET IT!

    Something that was helpful for me – I had to embrace each strumming pattern one at a time. I could not move on to a second until I had the first one down pat. And then I had to use it with a song.

    Unfortunately, I still find myself going back to the old faithful D DU U DU. And have a hard time using 2 patterns in the same song…

    • PapaMinou

      Member
      May 8, 2021 at 7:34 pm

      Unfortunately, I still find myself going back to the old faithful D DU U DU. And have a hard time using 2 patterns in the same song…

      @Michelle-PSL I was going to say: “I’ve been there” … but I can’t It’s I’m still there! LOL

  • Bill_Brown

    Member
    May 8, 2021 at 8:40 pm

    Hi @PapaMinou , I had a similar problem when I went through the Strumming courses. I realized that strumming patterns are actually much harder than they appear at the surface – especially when you have to try to actually execute one 😱. What I decided while going through the course is that 1) I’ll have to work on this as time goes on, and 2) I’ll have to really work on this as time goes on🤔. My point is that there was no way I could master (at that point in time) the strumming patterns presented in the course – but I needed to move on to see other types of strumming patterns and at least get familiar with and be able to recognize them. We can’t master things as quickly as we’d like, but we can become familiar and have an understanding of those things😎 Then at some point in our journey, things will start to click🤩

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