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Help!
Good morning. It’s about 3:30 AM where I am. I am wondering if anyone else is having the difficulties that I am having.
It is my understanding that the object of this program is to “show up” and work on the lessons for a minimum of 10-30 minutes.
Recently, I have been trtying to do the daily challenges. each time that I have logged in, the opening message is that I will be building on what I learned on the previous day. The ssue is that, although I have been “introduced” to a technique, lick, etc., I haven’t actually ‘learned” anything.
Part of the problem is that I dont alway clearly see how Tony’s fingers are positioned (is he plucking more than one string? Which string(s) are his fretting fingers pressing)?
The lessons go too fast for me even when I slow them way down. I practice what is being taught (to the best of my ability) sometimes for an hour or so. The next day, I am fumbling worse than I was at the beginning.
There are several comments from other TAC members regarding the day’s lesson. Whenever I try to reply to any of them my posts don’t go through…even when I just want to cheer them on.
One of the techniques I am very interested in is fingerstyle (I INTENSLY DISLIKE using the pick). I was very excited to see “Ain’t No Sunshine” as one of the songs to learn. Five days later, I was stil working on the technique part and the program was introducing me to a new song (I’m not ready to move on yet).
Does anyone recommend just starting over (after the 30-day thing…I’m not doing that part again)?
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5 Replies
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Good morning! We are all looking for something different in TAC. At first, I thought the challenges were coming at me too quick. Now coming to the end of my 2nd year, I know what interest me.
My suggestion is when you come to a week of challenges you like, save them (click on the heart), so you can go back to them when there is a challenge that you may not like. Or if you want to spend more time on a challenge. If you don’t save it, after about a month, you won’t be able to access it again until it comes up again.
For me, I will still try a challenge that I may not have a lot of interest in, but I have made me a back-up plan for those weeks.
Hope this helps! Steve
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Thank you Steve for your response.
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When I started in the daily challenges, I was also very overwhelmed. But think about it like eating an elephant. How do we eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You know what, as they come around again and again you keep taking a few more bites, now that I’m 18 months in, none of the challenges overwhelm me!
With each daily challenge, just take a bite or two. As many as you are comfortable doing in the 10-20 minutes. Try not to go longer. Mark it complete! This doesn’t mean you did it all, it just means you showed up and did your time that you committed. The same skills that are in today’s challenge, will be needed within the next few weeks. You’ll do better on the next go.
It’s very common to prefer fingerstyle, you’re not alone. But it’s helpful to get along with a pick as well. I’m much more comfortable with picks now than I was 2 years ago. But finger style absolutely can blow away picks! You have 5 times the power (4 fingers and a thumb versus a single pick). And yet the pick produces it’s own unique sound. Also I find it’s helpful for strumming. I haven’t really figured out good strumming technique with my fingers yet, the pick works a lot better most of the time, but I’m playing around with finger strums. Pick strums also sound different, and there’s times you want that sound.
What Bayvu said is fine. You don’t have to emphasize things that are less interesting. I just wouldn’t advise completely setting challenges that you don’t like or approve of aside, do give them the promised 10 minutes at least. They are there for a reason and you will learn something even if you don’t get very far or you think your playing sounds awful. The rewards come from struggling, not from nailing the challenge on the first go! Just give that some thought! I’ve had some breakthroughs playing through songs I more or less didn’t approve of (for whatever reason).
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This was a good question because as a new beginning member I am feeling the same way. Thanks for the helpful replies.
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Responding to:
“There are several comments from other TAC members regarding the day’s lesson. Whenever I try to reply to any of them my posts don’t go through…even when I just want to cheer them on.”
Please take this up with support@tonypolecastro.com. This is a festering problem that they claim is only affecting a few people. I believe it’s affecting everyone who tries to post beneath the challenges more than one time per day. Many are not reporting it and maybe some are not noticing it. I tested it on different computers tablets and phones and it’s the same on every device, browser and operating system. Ergo it’s a server-side issue.
I explained this to support and was told:
Hi again Pete,
It may help to understand that we do not have an in house IT Team. We employ a Company. As such, we are not able to bring issues to them that are not affecting – if not the entire TAC Community – at least multiple users. Otherwise, we are advised of troubleshooting options, as they do monitor all aspects of the site for us constantly. I hope this helps. I understand that it is frustrating not to have your posts go through consistently.
At this point I know it’s multiple users, I’ve probably interacted with at least 10 members who have complained about this. I wish they would all contact support because this is truly a broken system.
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