Daily Challenge Confusion Help Please

[gmhendersonme-com]

There is a theme every week and this week’s theme is Hotel California. As was noted in the 5 Day Challenge, every day has a different “skill” that we work on. You are not expected to master each skill…. this same challenge will come around again and again, and you measure your progress by how much you improve each time this challenge comes around. This particular challenge is a “Benchmark” week, meaning the challenge will come around more often, and you are supposed to take notes on what you could and could not accomplish, and then go back over those notes the next time it comes around. Better yet, take a video of yourself and compare it each time the benchmark comes around. Spend at least 10 minutes a day on each daily challenge, and then move on.

[Leo7]

Thank you. I was thrown off by looking at the different titles on the tablature sheets before watching the video. I see that it will all come together. Thank you. I do enjoy it, but it is much more than ten minutes. Just watching the video, taking notes, and replaying chord positions is about 30 minutes by itself, and that is before I even practiced. Then I feel like I want to go back to the lesson from the day before. All said and done, I’ll probably pushing closer to an hour. If I stuck to just the 10 minutes, I wouldn’t feel like I was getting it. Am I just being inefficient? Or am I getting to hung up on “getting it”? If you have any thoughts on this, I’d appreciate it.

[gmhendersonme-com]

It sort of depends on where you are on your journey and how much time you have. Seems to me that you are trying to perfect each lesson, which isn’t really the goal, unless you already have really good guitar skills. Because each day of the week focuses on a different skill, I can do some very quickly and others take me a long time to even get close to completing. ( and I don’t mean perfecting, but able to do the whole tab….mistakes and all ). So today is the chord day, and I already know all the chords, so the transitions aren’t a big problem. However, the strumming pattern is a challenge, as is throwing in the cross-picking. I’ll try both of these, but certainly don’t think I’ll get either one under my fingers today. You have to be OK with NOT getting it first time !

[Leo7]

Thank you for your guidance. That was really helpful.

[petelanger]

It will all make a bit more sense after you’ve done it for a few weeks. This is the simplest program there is because all you do is show up and do the daily lesson, Mark it complete once you have tried for at least 10 minutes, then do whatever you want. Please don’t put high expectations on yourself! These are designed for players at all levels from beginner to expert. There has to be a degree of difficulty to aspire to. I couldn’t do more than a few measures at first, and very poorly at that. This is normal!

[Leo7]

Thank you. I was thrown off by looking at the different titles on the tablature sheets before watching the video. I see that it will all come together. Thank you. I do enjoy it, but it is much more than ten minutes. Just watching the video, taking notes, and replaying chord positions is about 30 minutes by itself, and that is before I even practiced. Then I feel like going back to the lesson from the day before. All said and done, I’ll probably be pushing closer to an hour. If I stuck to just the 10 minutes, I wouldn’t feel like I was getting it. Am I just being inefficient? It sounds like I am just getting too hung up on “getting it?”

[petelanger]

Good questions Not all weeks will be as elaborate as benchmark weeks are. Since these are repeated 3 times per year, there are even more layers to unpack for all the differently endowed students. First time through you are unfamiliar with so many things. While you get acquainted with TAC it will take you more than 10 minutes, but I would say if you are spending an hour then you are probably trying to do too much. Also practice is not part of TAC, that’s your on your own time. We only play in TAC

Try to watch the first section of the video after the introduction where Tony says he’s showing you how (or “I’m walking you through it). Pause the LEARN video and do that thing the best you can with the PLAY video. We’re not practicing, just doing it 1 – 3 times. If there’s still time, repeat with the next section. If you are past 10 or 15 minutes at this point, mark complete because you have completed the assignment of today. Take a break! (Beginners will only do a small part of the lesson, but next time you’ll find the first section goes easier and you can tackle a bit more.) If you have more time in the day later then come back and watch more of the video. You can come back as many times as you like each day, but you want to know you don’t have to.

Keeping the session at 10 minutes was not possible for me early on, I think I went 20 to 30 minutes usually but now I usually don’t need to watch much of the LEARN video, I can quickly move to the PLAY part. I have already downloaded all the TABs so I can just skip to where Tony shows what we’re doing and then just do. Sometimes I’m done in 3 minutes now. Lessons vary. Wednesdays always take longer because of the scales. Those too go quicker with familiarity.

Don’t forget you can slow down the those videos and play along at your speed!

[Leo7]

Thank you, Pete. That helped a lot.

[petelanger]

You’re welcome @Leo7

Please understand that I am not telling you not to watch the LEARN videos! I have watched all of them many times over. What I’m saying is for your first TAC session of the day, you want to be smart with your time. So only watch what you need to get the first measure, pause and then play guitar. Do this again for the next measure, and so on until time is up (~10 min). Mark complete! Now at some point later that day or another day, perhaps on the weekend you should go back and watch more of the LEARN videos. (You can do that immediately after marking complete if you have the time and desire. Some days you won’t have the time though, but don’t feel bad about it!)

[Leo7]

Yep, I get it. Thank you.