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One year and then some
I’m a little late with my one year TACiversary story. Started October 2020.
Learned a lot. First and foremost established a practice pattern where I get at least ten minutes in at least five days a week. Only exception was a week of travel this past spring. Proud of that. Many days I’ll play an hour, occasionally longer but not often.
My routine is to warm up with the weeks speed challenge drill every day and then practice the daily challenge for around ten minutes unless it gets really good sooner than that. I then move on to spend 10-20 minutes on the techniques courses and then another 10-30 minutes working on a song. I’ve gotten in the habit of having at least one finger picking song and at least one flat picking song that I’m working on. Don’t practice them both on the same day as yet. Usually try to learn two measures at a time and then go back and play through the whole song up to the last two measures of the day.
<font face=”inherit”> I’ve noticed some improvements over the past year. 1) Now that the daily challenges are </font>recycling I’m finding them easier to learn within the allotted ten minutes. 2) I’m learning songs faster. For example I returned to a fairly straightforward but for me challenging fingerstyle song I hadn’t played in over a year (Dust in the Wind). Within ten minutes of playing I was at least as good as I was when I last played it and already working through some of the places that were sticky before. 3) My improvisation has gotten more melodic and less scalar.
I’ve read some other folks stories in this forum. Some have said goodbye after a few years. I ask myself what my criteria for moving on would be. I figure that if I can consistently play the daily challenge perfectly at the appropriate tempo with less than ten minutes of practice every day, day after day without mistakes then I’m no longer learning this. I would include playing the speed challenges accurately at the max tempo in this. Therefore I think I still have more to gain from Tony’s method.
Goals for 2022:
1) Solidify technique
2) Develop improving
3) build a “set list” of songs
So here is my plan for next year:
1) Continue the daily challenge every day for ten minutes or until perfect
2) Go back and start the Fretboard Wizard course (I got part way through and then stopped a few months ago) Do this when time allows
3) Once FW is done go through the jamming techniques courses, also when time allows
4) Keep practicing songs when there is time but expand to at least four I’m working on at a time and build a list of songs to cycle back to and polish up. Do songs when done with Daily and the FW stuff when time allows.
5) also feel good if I get at least 10 minutes at least five days. Make an hour or more something that happens and causes joy not a goal that I feel bad about when I don’t have the time.
Happy Picking Fellow Guitar Geeks!
Mark
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4 Replies
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Congrats on your 1 year TACiversary @markvguitar !! Sounds like you’ve come far in the past year, but you still have much more learning ahead of you. You have a full arsenal of things to do over the upcoming year, and I have no doubt that you’ll succeed based on history. Keep up the great work!
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Congrats and thanks for also posting details of your routine. It really does feel like progress has seeped in to your playing and with that loop round into year two you can tell you’ve moved on.
It is an interesting question to ask about when you move on. I’m 8 months in. I have already made some substantial improvements but I have a long way to go. I will definitely renew and I also hope they will reissue fretboard wizard. Perhaps after a few years it may feel like Tony’s taught what you need to move to the next phase of the journey. One thing I can say is it has been the best 150 bucks I’ve spent on music in a long time. Good luck with year 2. I’d be interested to hear where you think you are after looping round the dailies for a second time. 🤟😎🎸 Darren – Moonhare
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Happy belated 1st TACiversary 👍🎂👍 @markvguitar 👏👏 Wish you many more🤩
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Thanks everyone for the kind words of encouragement! I failed to mention that one of the biggest things I’ve gained in the past year is the fun of enjoying music whether playing or listening. I’ve been introduced to several artists via the acoustic Tuesday show that I may have heard of but wasn’t really paying attention to that have increased both my listening enjoyment and influenced my playing. Grateful for that as well.
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