First TACiversary, mixed results

[Greg_F_Lee]

@mikeguarnier

Thanks for the encouragement and advice about the Dailies. Here’s what I originally wrote:

“By January 2021, I was “all in” with the Challenges. But they took a lot of time and supplanted FBW and the others, now called “skills” courses. In February, I settled into a routine of warm up exercises, Daily Challenges, and practicing a small number of songs. Long gone were any thoughts about finishing FBW and other skills courses… Although the Challenges hopefully were helping me improve, they seemed random and one-off and not like a coherent learning strategy that was moving the ball.”

But I now might try to find time (at least 10 minutes) on the Dailies. Your observation really resonated with me. That Tony’s lessons were connected in a very subtle and counter-intuitive way. That “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.”

Now it come down to finding the time to warm up, do the Daily, do FBW, and hopefully play a few songs. I guess that’s part of the fun! 😎

Greg

[N-lightMike]

You are so welcome @Greg_F_Lee (and @mkjohnsons ).

Yes, that’s the fun of it. Not only is it fun because we don’t have to fret (hehehe) about what ro do everyday in our parctice, but we don’t even have to worry about getting better of if we’re “good” enough. The daily lesson is our excuse for whatever negative stuff our head is trying to feed us. Wee did the lesson? Then we did it right for that day.

Sometimes, I’m feeling so good about my guitar journey and I’m so involved in what I’m doing at that time that I hardly notice the daily lesson. I did it, but I can’t remember doing it at the end of the day except it’s checked off on the TAC site. Other times, I’m feeling discouraged about something, usually my ability or progress, and the daily lesson becomes huge. It allows me to counter the negative feelings and say “I am a guitar player and I am getting better because I did my daily lesson today”. I can’t forget that I did the daily lesson on days like that because it was the highlight of my guitar journey for that day

Anyway, I’m glad you are having more fun. I loved what @Raye had to say. Thanks for starting this thread.

MG 😀

[the-old-coach]

Greg-

Huge Thank You for your post here.

It is me- (and maybe it is most of us?).

I’m 6-months in TAC, still loving it and having fun. But I must admit- it seems like the “new car smell” is maybe going away at times. I think that in itself is part of the learning process.

Your post here is dead-on for many- if not most- of us. It is very detailed and inspiring.

And the answers(!)- WOW- fantastic, insightful, inspirational. The responses you have received tell the REAL story of TAC.

This is a really long thread- and getting longer. I have read every word of it twice through. Every word. Twice.

Once in a while threads like this come along- and the responses and thoughtful contributions remind us of things. To me they seem like they are a mirror back into our own selves.

This is just-plain fantastic stuff. It’s real. It’s heartfelt. It’s helpful. It’s a reminder hat learning guitar is NOT “required reading”– it’s a fun-choice, a JOURNEY that takes me to a different place each practice session. I love it- it’s the ultimate definition of “me time”.

Thank you for your original post– it’s GOLD.

Mark

[Greg_F_Lee]

@mark , you’re too kind! I think we newbie guitar players are constantly asking the questions “What’s next?” and “Why don’t I seem to get better?” And the answers are different. For me, it’s learning music theory through Fretboard Wizard, trying to squeeze in the Dailys, and playing and learning new songs. (After this week’s Acoustic Tuesday, I need to learn Wagon Wheel.) But whatever we do, we should remember to have fun and know that just doing it will slowly increase our guitar skills. Day to day, we might even notice slight improvements. @MikeGaurnier , @dr_dave , and others have emphasized that we should enjoy the guitar journey.

By the way, as you’ve already noticed, this TAC community is what really makes the TAC program so great.

Greg

[the-old-coach]

👍 Famous unknown quote– “You can’t know which direction to go until you actually know where you are” 😉

• This reply was modified 3 years, 8 months ago by  the-old-coach. Reason: the other stuff that shows up when you italicize a word

[N-lightMike]

🤣👍

[Cadgirl]

I was at the same cross road not that long ago (i’m sure a lot of us were). Try to finish Fretboard Wizard, it’s a toughie but worth it. I’m redoing it myself, I am determined to write my own composition. I swear I thought the same thing when Tony would talk about “in the key of this or key of that”, I’d think… what the heck is he talking about. The fretboard wizard explained it all to me. I’m still not real clear on it, but I’m getting there. I am really getting inspired by some of the songs I hear on “play for us”. Listen to a few of them, it might also be inspiring to you. My thoughts to you…. Try to do the challenges, only 10 minutes. I don’t mean 10 minutes to play it smooth. I mean 10 minutes from the start, even if it’s fumbling and slow. Keep a list of things you want to do for the day. It’s could be something like:

Daily Challenge 10 minutes
Pentatonic Scale 5 minutes
Blues Scale 5 minutes
Freight Train 5 minutes (by the way… Freight train is a HARD song).

Track it, tracking will make you accountable. You can do this.

[Greg_F_Lee]

Thanks for the advice and encouragement, @Cadgirl ! It’s always good to know someone else has had the same struggles, i.e., with the various keys. I’ve virtually started over with FW and I seem
to have learned more than the first time (although I hadn’t made it past the “Foundational
Five.”) I do track my playing on an Excel spreadsheet (I’m a CPA) but I hadn’t thought of having a to-do list other than in my head.

I may have to try a different approach with the Dailies. My idea of doing them; at least for the licks, improv, and rhythm; is to memorize them. This usually takes a half hour or more and is a bit intense. Maybe instead of memorizing, using the tabs might be a quicker way of doing them.

Thanks, again, the encouragement from the community really keeps you going!

Greg

[jumpinjeff]

its how I leaned them @Greg_F_Lee , the great thing is it takes less and less time to get things down these days and not just the lessons but any other playing too. I remember it being pretty time intensive for a while and then the time to learn gets shorter and shorter in a surprising way. It was if critical mass was achieved and the door just opened.

[sahardellamorady]

It seems like you got lots of replies, I just want to say wow what a supportive community, Beautiful to read and seem OF course I had no time to read them all but it is lovely to see and hope Greg you have benefited from all this love.

Peace

[Greg_F_Lee]

Thank you @shaktiness ! The support from the community is heartwarming and helpful. Best of luck to you on your guitar journey. Maybe we’ll see you perform on the other discussion board.

Greg

[sahardellamorady]

yes love too do that soon but I will give my self just a few months to warm up and then for sure. Which discussion group do you mean?

[Greg_F_Lee]

The board is a “forum” called “Play For Us! at https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/forum/play-for-us/ . (sorry, don’t know how to make a hyperlink on this system)

You can get to it on the left side navigation bar on most screens. It looks like a little word balloon.

Play for Us!