How you do after 12+ Months of TAC?

[Rainbow-trout]

I have shared your concern about making progress as well. I keep my subscription with TAC for the very reason that it gets me picking up my guitar at least 5 days a week. I like the format in that each day is organized into different techniques. Also, consider delving into the “Skills” area for targeted lessons which you can come back to easily to achieve more mastery. Honestly, the last three years on my guitar journey involved studies outside of TAC. Justin Guitar has been another one of my mainstays for learning music theory and other important skills. He also does a lot of song tutorials if you’re interested in that. Consistent playing and learning over time has paid off.

[jumpinjeff]

The answer to this question all gets down to what your goals are. Playing most 3 or chord songs, after a year is doable. Are you going to be able to play Landslide like Lindsey Buckingham or Wish You Were Here like David Gilmore…probably not. But you may be able to play a recognizable version of the songs. The best way I can describe the daily challenges is they are like a gym. You walk into a gym for the first time and you see weights and machines and you begin. You don’t start the first day with big weights you begin by learning the movements and as you learn the movements you slowly add weight. When you achieve your fitness goal or if you are training sport specifically reach proficiency in your sport you still hit the gym so you don’t lose what you have gained. Some of the guitar exercises are pro level exercises but can be broken down to levels that even a beginning player can play. It is why on TAC there are people who have been playing for years training right next to people who have just started. As you may have discovered TAC is not a place one comes to learn the choreography of how to play songs but rather it is a place to learn HOW to PLAY guitar. It is a place to train fingers and hands and mind in preparation for the Choreography of the finger dance when learning and playing a song. Without this component of training I was stuck in choreography limbo and ready to give up. I kept trying to learn songs I was not capable of playing and it was soul crushing. I have been here 7 years and I can play 95% of anything I want to play. 50% of stuff I want to play I can play without ever having heard it before. That last 5% beyond my current reach is reachable by persisting with the Daily Challenges and advancing methodically over time to my goal. Now you know why this multi year guitar trainee is happy to be here. I get to show up everyday and never have to think about what to do next. It is my personal training guitar gym. The biggest advantage is I keep getting better and closer to my goals. Why have I not reached my goals you may ask. I have over and over and over. I just keep making new ones. In the process I have become the player I have always wanted to be and then some.

[N-lightMike]

Wow, I think that might be the best analogy for TAC yet, @jumpinjeff . I will definitely remember the gym analogy. And to combine that with dancing rather than some other sport is spot on.

MG 😀

[N-lightMike]

Hello @MiRu ;

I totally get you. Two levels, guitar skill and money!

So, here’s the thing: guitar?… yeah, it’s gonna take waaaaay longer than you wanted. It takes waaaaaay longer than anyone ever wanted. That’s exactly why soooo many people stop playing it, or just mess around with it for years without ever getting hardly any better.

Ok, so $200 is a lot of money to me. I’m not one of those who can layout the cash for a $3500 guitar. And then save up my pennies for a custom built guitar that costs maybe $15,000. I bought a sub $500 guitar, and that took some effort. Then, I saved up my pennies for an $800 guitar. Yeah, that’s my “high end” guitar. So to me, $200 to belong to a guitar community for one year is a serious investment. That’s why, after 2 months of using TAC, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to stay long enough to get what I wanted.

What I mean is that only 2 months told me that for the first time in 20 years I was making progress that I could notice over just a couple of weeks. This was working. And I was learning things from the community that I would never learn otherwise cause I’m not a musician who gets to hang out with other musicians and pick things up. So since I was within the 90 days, I got my money back for my year and I signed up for lifetime. It was like buying one of my more expensive guitars, but at the time I was able to pull it off. And sure enough, I would not have made it to the 3rd, much less 4th year otherwise.

So I totally get it that it is simply too pricey for some people to pull off.

But, now back to the skill. From other TAC members, I realized that it took 3 – 5 years for someone to become a “real” guitarist. Self-sufficient, as you say.

So focus on what that means and learn that, self-sufficiency, while you are here with TAC. Yeah, it would mean that you finally moved up off the pile of “beginning” guitarists. But how good do you really have to be to NOT be a beginner? A beginner is beginning, that is, they have close to zero knowledge and close to zero skill. So, it doesn’t take much. It’s more of an attitude.

The second thing it would mean, is that you know how to continue making progress and always having fun… on your own, somehow.

That’s what TAC has done for so many. It gets them picking up their guitar as often as is possible for their circumstances. And it’s gives them direction so they know what to do with their guitar when they pick it up. AND, it makes it fun from the beginning. AND, it does that continuously, day after day, long term.

If you can duplicate that on your own, you are ready to fly from the nest.

I hope this helps.

MG 😀

[Cadgirl]

@MiRu , I think TAC gets you
started. Gives you the daily exercises
for your fingers. Introduces you to
different methods. But, Tony doesn’t really
introduce you to songs. He wants you to
be able to put a song together on your own.
That’s my take on it anyway. If
you go to my profile page, I have some sites listed that I use for learning a song
and you’ll be surprised how the challenges have helped you out. Good Luck with your journey.

[N-lightMike]

Well worded, @cadgirl. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter.

MG 😀

[ChuckS]

@MiRu – Patience my friend. You can’t learn to play guitar overnight or in a year or multiple years. That is why so many start and then end up giving up. Nothing in life that is worthwhile is easy. Even if you look at the TAC membership and see who has logged on most recently (by state or however you want to sort it) you will quickly notice that only about 15% – 20% actually log in on a regular basis. Not a great statistic, but those 15 – 20 % who do show up on a regular basis will all tell you they are getting there slowly but surely. I suspect the other 80% are having a different experience.

After being on TAC for 2.3 years and also supplementing with other sites that bring different perspectives and/or teach songs, etc. I’ve come to the conclusion that it takes six things to be really successful at Guitar.

1 – Time – Finally have that now that I am semi retired

2 – Determination

3 – Knowledge and Skill – getting that from TAC

4 – Showing up Every Day – getting that from TAC

5 – Physical Tools (i.e. Nice set of long fingers)

6 – Talent

So, I basically throw away # 5 (I have short fingers) and 6 and instead focus on # 1 thru 4, concentrating on the things I do have at my disposal vice the things I don’t. Does it get frustrating sometimes? Yep. But, I am making progress? Yep. Has TAC helped Yep, big time.

Is TAC right for everyone? Nope, but it sure has helped me and no other site has the same approach as Tony, nor are there any other gurus out that that are as passionate and enthusiastic as Tony nor do any of the others have the same level of positive encouragement. His formula is a winner. I recognized this early on and as a result signed on as a Lifer😀

Will I ever be really good? I don’t know, but I am enjoying the journey and no matter what there will always be more to learn. Hang in there and keep at it. On the days when it just isn’t working, walk away and come back the next day. Just keep showing up. Enjoy.

[N-lightMike]

Excellent comment, @ChuckS . I do appreciate reading how others understand TAC and this very cool guitar journey we are on. Thanks for posting.

MG 😀

[Cadgirl]

@Miru , I found this on hubguitar site. It gives a rough estimate how long it will take per the amount of hours you play.

How-long-to-learn-how-to-play-guitar.jpg 357 KB Image File - Click to view

Options

• Copy Download Link

[Kitman]

Thanks for sharing this chart @Cadgirl . While watching a band and some guitarists perform a week or so ago at a concert, it struck me how much time they must have put into their craft to deliver the performance that they delivered. I was able to more readily recognize what they were doing and why having spent 4 months with TAC. Having been practicing the guitar techniques and gaining more understanding of the guitar and music theory here at TAC, I did a mental check of the time I would need to invest to become more proficient and perform the music I would like to perform. The chart you shared helps give some perspective for that.

Let’s have some fun while we are putting in the time to reach whatever level to which we might aspire! 😎🎶🎸

[jumpinjeff]

I am chuckling: as I read the chart I am about 1/2 as fast as the chart identifies. I have always known I was a slow learner but now I can quantify how slow… .5 . Good thing Tony showed me the way to have fun while I learned.😆

[KayMesser]

Thank you for sharing this chart. I knew guitar proficiency took some time, but seeing these timeframes I might try to increase my daily practice time a bit!

[MiRu]

Hey guys and gals,

thank you all for your kind insights. That coated was very interesting (and frustrating) as well. I must have had gained a very wrong understanding of this course when I saw the ad.

I had to do some expectation management and keep at it. I do enjoy the daily lessons (most of them at least) and an enthusiastic about the next daily challenge (again, most of the time) when I log in.

I keep reading: lifetime membership… Is there a time in year when this is ordered discounted, by any chance? By your experience?

I’m also hawking the Fretboard Wizard. Expensive toys all in all. So a Black Friday or something of the like would be very much welcome. Any experience of that happening?

[Bugman]

I want to learn to play songs! Tac does not teach songs. There are good lessons but Ithink most of us just want to play songs. We will never be professional musicians.

[jumpinjeff]

I totally get what you are saying @Bugman , That is what brought me hear. Can you learn to play basketball though if you have not learned how to run or bounce a ball consistently? Shooting a ball in a hoop is technically playing basketball. It falls short of playing the game. I got here not knowing how to run or bounce and got frustrated because the best I could do was shoot the ball. I thought that by shooting the ball everything else would fall into place but it didn’t. TAC showed me how to run, dribble and shoot (on the guitar fretboard that is). Now I can play any song I want, and most I don’t need the music on a sheet to know how to play. A couple of runthroughs and I got it. My progress was not instantaneous and I found no short cuts. What I found was a methodical way to get better over time that was fun and produced results of which I could keep track. Tracking my results was important for my progress because it was the engine of my motivation.

[Cadgirl]

@Kitman , @Miru, @jumpinjeff I
understand the frustration involved with learning the guitar. You have it in your head that you are going
to be half way decent in a year, maybe year and half, and you’re not. I ran across the ‘chart’ maybe 6 months
ago. It made me feel better seeing a
rough estimate of how long it will take (with the hours you spend doing it). I consider myself a low level intermediate or
high level beginner. Even thou, I go to
other sites to download music to learn, I still like the routine of TAC. It just helps me stay focused. Love the forum, hearing the issues, etc. Also, I think I’m speaking for a lot of
us. We no longer can get together at
someone’s house to just mess around and play the guitar, concertina,
whatever. Then is pretty much as close
to that as we can get. Good luck all.

[HowardM]

I cannot agree more with Cadgirl. I have made guitar playing an integral part of my life and have benefitted from it. I consider myself a low intermediate in playing and a medium beginner in theory, but they both bring me joy.

[Cadgirl]

I don’t know why my posts have been giving a ‘poem’ like appearance when I copy / paste from word? I guess i’ll have to take my chances with answering directly from the forum. I haven’t gotten the pink screen of death for awhile so they might have fixed that issue.