TAC Family Forums

Share your wins, get unstuck, or see how others use the TAC Method to create a fulfilling guitar life!

  • Showing Off My TAC Routine

    Posted by wailin on April 29, 2021 at 12:14 pm

    Hello, my beautiful TAC Family!!!

    I wanted to share the routine that has helped me improve more in the past 3 years than in the previous fifteen years of unfocused guitar meanderings.

    1.) How many days per week do you play?

    I’ve committed to playing 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, for 20 minutes a day (and band practice once a week!), because this is an amount of time that I can realistically achieve. Weekends are for family activities, but I often get some playing in, which is BONUS-FUN TIME.

    I have an oven timer, which I set for 5 minutes. I start with the week’s warmup for five minutes. As Tony says, this really gets your two hands talking to one another. When Tony hits the muted strings, designating the time signature, I tap my foot and try to maintain the beat throughout the exercise. This has helped with my timing immensely. I try to increase the speed of the warmup as the week progresses.

    Next I do the day’s lesson, three sets of 5 minutes, one minute rest in between (when I stretch, sip coffee and pet the dog). I try to increase the speed on each 5-minute interval or work on precision or posture. If I have extra time, I delve into one of the in-depth courses. Now I am working through Fingerpicking Boot Camp.

    I end with a high note (pun intended), usually playing a song that I am working on or improvising over one of Tony’s rhythm tracks. If I have more time available, I always play longer. If not, I proceed with my day, guilt-free, having a feeling of accomplishment.

    2.) What time of day do you play?

    I play first thing in the morning, while I have my coffee. I find myself bounding out of the bed, looking forward to getting some playing time in. Once in a while I get up really early to go skiing and my alternate plan on those days is to play after dinner.

    3.) Where do you play?

    I play downstairs in my Man-Cave. No one can hear me down there so I am free to make mistakes and work on new things without any performance anxiety. I have guitars and pictures of my favorite guitarists hanging on the wall, a music stand, lots of pics, a capo, and, of course, my laptop. It’s my HAPPY PLACE!

    4.) What was your guitar life like before having a guitar routine & how has implementing a consistent guitar routine helped you?

    I had a book with a CD on fingerpicking but it was way too advanced for a beginner. I struggled for years to learn a couple of songs that never sounded good. Sometimes I’d see a song lesson on Youtube but I’d quickly get frustrated as the teacher ran through the song too quickly without breaking it down so I could understand what he was doing. I had no idea what a basic strum pattern was. The guitar would often sit in it’s case for months at a time, unplayed.

    —TAC gave me a routine to develop the physical skills necessary to play chords and licks and to get my timing rock-solid. BONUS: Fretboard Wizard opened my eyes to basic theory!

    —I never thought I’d be able to improvise on the guitar but after a few months of TAC I started really looking forward to Wednesdays, when we learn a scale and improvise over a backing-track. This is so much FUN!

    —TAC helped me enjoy the journey instead of wondering if I would ever arrive at “guitar mastery.” Now I know that I am a lot better than a year ago and I’ll be even better tomorrow but mostly I just enjoy playing right now. The consistent daily improvement I’ve been seeing and the encouragement from my fellow TAC members has made guitar playing super-fun.

    My wife has played violin all her life but I never played with her, embarrassed by my erratic timing and poor technique. About a year after starting TAC, she convinced me to go to an open mic to play 3 songs with her. On the second song, a really good banjo player jumped up on stage with us. What a blast! Afterwards I asked the banjo player if he wanted to be in a band with us and he said, “Heck yeah!” A really good guitar player and singer overheard the conversation and asked, “Can I be in the band, too?” Now we have a band, The Honey Badgers, and have played 3 gigs so far! My band members are always encouraging me and they are impressed by my consistent progress. What a blast!

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

    My dog, Cody, always follows me down to the Man-Cave each morning, wagging his tail. He never mentions it when I hit a bad note! Who’s a good dog?

    Kinga replied 1 year, 12 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Bill_Brown

    Member
    April 29, 2021 at 12:33 pm

    Hey @wailin , 👍 👍

  • Kinga

    Member
    February 19, 2023 at 6:38 pm

    HI Bill. I am just coming to the end of my yearly subscription with TAC and I haven’t improved at all. It’s pretty demoralising. But I think the routine is pretty key right? I have no man cave to disappear into in the morning but I am going to work out a basic routine and try to stick to it… enjoying the day. I started learning “perfect” by Ed Sheeran today and really enjoyed it. Thanks for letting me know about your routine. Kingsley

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