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Question: to TAC Veterans
How to approach to Weekly Challenges? I am about 4 weeks into the Daily Challenges. So far it seems they ramp up from Monday until Friday. Usually I can get the first 3 days under my fingers (to some degree) fairly quickly. From Thursday on it starts to get “iffy” for me as a beginner. I might be able to pick up on the first line or maybe only the first measure of the challenges late in the week. In order to keep progressing would you say that it’s sufficient to have played through most of the first couple of days’ challenges? Tony says to give a minimum 2 days per week or 100 sessions annually so I’m wondering a bit how this plays out
Until now I haven’t had to miss a day of playing, not even on the weekend. But I won’t be able to go 7 for 7 forever! it will happen at some point that I will have to miss.
I’m pretty sure that if I miss a whole week that I would just skip that week, but what if:
Let’s say on a Thursday you missed Mo – Wed in a given week: would I not start with Monday’s challenge and go in order? Or would you start on that Thursday?
I’m thinking if I want to get the essence of the teaching for the week that most of it is in the first few days. The end of the week is typically a twist or just adding polish to what you have learned earlier.
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7 Replies
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@langerking, we have all been there. Back in the early days of my TAC ride, when I missed a few days, I would try to play catch up and double up on exercises until I caught up, but quickly found out that is a loser’s game. So, I just started letting some fall on the floor and rebooting the next week with the new series.
I would recommend just picking up whatever exercise you want to focus on for that week and working on it and just let the rest fall off the table. They will come back around at some point down the road, usually in about a year or so. TAC is not really sequential in that you have to do every exercise every week in order to reach a certain level – it is more focused on showing up every day and trying something new outside of your comfort range to develop the underlying skills and knowledge that will then enalble you to play songs, or whatever.
Hope this helps.
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The daily structure of Mon-Fri with technique, lick, improv (think scales), rhythm (think chords), chord transition assigned to each day is somewhat additive but not exclusively. Thursday is the core of whatever song or style being presented for the week. Friday is the spice on the top. Monday technique helps build the skill needed the rest of the week. Wednesday is the long term skill building that will help you through many songs not just that weeks. Tuesday is a chance to learn a little piece or phrase that applies to that week but transfers to many other songs. I occasionally on the weekends will look at the process by day over multiple weeks, particularly to look at Monday technique exercises and Wednesday scales. I have some exercises in which I am particularly weak. Most involve a rhythm (like Mississippi Timing) I will re-visit routinely.
As the weeks start to come around again, I’ll be comfortable with for example technique and give it less effort but give the chord transitions more. Early with TAC my hardest day was the lick (Tuesday). Over time the Wednesday improv day seemed hardest. Now it is Chord Transitions for me.
As @ChuckS says, “TAC isn’t sequential”, but it is structured. But to speak to your example, if it were Thursday for my first weekly session I’d go with it for 10 minutes. If I couldn’t do it, I’d go back to technique Monday and see if that helped. So @langerking …. If not I’d move on and know I’ll do better next time it comes around. The key is the regularity of the habit that builds your muscle memory. There art no shortcuts so keeping fun in the process and not competing with others or your own expectations mitigates any frustration.
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Helpful advice, guys! Thanks! Just wanting to make sure I was understanding the structure and purpose of the lessons day by day. I think I was close but now I grasp it even better.
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You seem to be progressing faster than I in these early stages. I love the recognition of being capable of playing the first ling or the first measure. There were days for me when I joined when the best I could do was that 10min. struggle session with the daily of the day (10 min) and then I would go back and play the Monday warm up challenge until somebody would throw something at me….(lots of repetition for me to learn).
I will also say that it took me a long time before I was confident that Tony’s program would work for me. I continued to practice self instruction to my own detriment. I had a light bulb moment when I realized I am paying for this teacher I may want to do it the way he is suggesting. It was then that I put my head down and just did the lessons as they came, that was my first priority. After that I would usually work on songs I wanted to learn. Once I figured out how scales and chords where the same thing just different intervals and the nature of how music is built around tonic centers followed by triads followed by pentatonic scales followed by octave scales followed by subdivisions of tonal half’s and thirds and that a fretboard is circular not linear my world changed. It took me longer than most. My long learning times were related to stubbornness, I am sure of it. If I were to do it again, I would really drill the daily challenges and work less on learning how to play songs. The learning of songs may have been also what slowed my progress. Truley the songs I wanted to play…I was not physically capable of playing. There is a benefit though, I did remain engaged and connected and strung together 400 days and change on my longest streak. That benefit is noteworthy and must be acknowledged. I put that description of when my playing world began to change to illustrate a point. When I started I had no idea at all the points of information that I needed to know were so many in order to play the way that I wanted. Now that I know them, I am glad there are so many as it makes the experience all the richer. Also when I started I would not have been able to understand what that was talking about. If you don’t, no worries, keep hanging around and you will. I will make sure you do if that is where you want to go on this journey, as long as you are around (and I am too).
Learning guitar is harder than eating an elephant. Where do you want to start eating. Does it really matter or is it important to just eat because the whole thing needs to be digested. That is my after the fact macro view. I would have hated hearing that at the start though, even if it was true for me. I had many many people lend their knowledge and experience because they loved music. I would not have made it without them. Found them here on TAC!
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Thanks so much, that is great answer and I’m quite sure it means a lot more than I understand right now!
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Words of wisdom (as per usual) from JJ. Couldn’t have said it better myself.
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@langerking With regard to the daily challenges, you can begin on any day. If you miss a day or a few days, simply start on the day you can play. Just do the best you can for the minimum of 10 minutes, then mark the lesson complete. You can still work on it, but the goal is to simply give it your best shot. You will continue to improve in your skills and playing. The lessons eventually come back around, and what you’ll notice is that you pick up on things you couldn’t do previously, and the lesson seems to be easier to pick up on concepts. This cyclical learning is a great way to judge how you’re advancing.
Keep on plunking!
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