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  • How I TAC, (or not).

    Posted by TX_DonH on April 30, 2021 at 8:44 pm

    Howdy from Texas!

    IT worker here, so my hours can be inconsistent and sometimes very long. So I TAC when I can. Not as often as I would like.

    1) How many days do I play per week?

    My Goal is 5, but always at least three. (See above note RE: Job) Most weeks it is four to five. I manage to keep this up, even when on vacation.

    2) What time of day do I play?

    Usually in the evenings after dinner. And on most Sunday afternoons. Mostly when the spousal unit is occupied with other things.

    3) Where do I play?

    In my multi-purpose Library\Office\Music\Camera\Storage man cave. (See attached photo.)

    4) What was my life like before having a guitar routine and How has implementing a consistent guitar routine helped me?

    Before TAC, I would occasionally get out the Takamine I bought in college (long story), and play the few open chords I had learned. A few years later, I’d get it out again and start it all over again. When I decided I was at a point in life where I didn’t need quite as much time for kids and school activities, I decided to get serious about learning I began looking at better guitars and came across Tony’s comparison videos. That led me to TAC.

    4a) How have I benefited?

    – I know a lot more than four or five open chords now. I’ll never be a shredder, but I have consistently been expanding my abilities.

    – I’ve learned a fair amount of music theory that had never made sense to me. Before FBW I always wondered why major triads use the 1st-3rd-5th notes but the chord progressions were I-IV-V. (Now I know!)

    -I’ve grown in my awareness of styles and how they fit my musical tastes. My musical taste is eclectic, but I don’t see myself trying to play all those different styles. What I’ve come to realize is the players I would most like to emulate, all use a lot of finger-style playing, even when rocking out. I now make that my focus and and even on flat-picking weeks, I look for ways to incorporate finger or hybrid picking into the exercises.

    5) Bonus: What is one non-guitar item that is a must have in your guitar routine?

    That would definitely be my computer\internet. Everything I have learned has been online. I would love to take live lessons, but with my inconsistent schedule, it has never been in the cards. TAC has been instrumental learning process. (Pun intended!)

    Guitar Geeks, “Yee-Haw!”

    • This discussion was modified 4 years, 11 months ago by  TX_DonH.
    TX_DonH replied 4 years, 11 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • TX_DonH

    Member
    April 30, 2021 at 8:53 pm

    Addendum: Some thoughts about how I TAC that were not included in the challenge.

    Every session I do some warm-ups.

    Every week, I build on the days before. For Example, I will uses Monday’s warm-up as part of every session that week. Same for each day, so by the time I get to day five, I’m running through the material from days 1-4, as well as the key-chords for day five.

    As I did mention above, I try to incorporate different styles in each lesson. Flat-picking week, I may also try the exercises fingerstyle. Fingerstyle week: I’ll do them both fingerstyle and hybrid picking.

    One other thing is I’ve started trying out different chord voicings, to see how they fit with the exercises.

    Keep pickin’ y’all.

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