When did you start feeling things fell into place

[jumpinjeff]

Things came together for me the minute I jettisoned my expectations. I was a slow learner. Tony tried to help as well as other members who where saints. It took me 2ish years to realize my impediment was me and my expectation. After that it has been one of the joys of my life. That is when the whole thing started coming together.

[BrandonK]

Thanks Jeff, how are you feeling now?

[jumpinjeff]

Today is the best session I have ever had: 9 year of playing. I could say that about yesterday too. Come to think of it the day before that as well. You get my point!?

[BrandonK]

I sort of understand what you are talking about.

[jumpinjeff]

I will try to simplify…..You can sit and learn song XYZ. If you have a time set in which you learn the song you will always be working against the clock. If you are new and put unrealistic expectations onto an effort you will have foxhole mentality which is antithetical to creative learning. If you set your goal by learning one chord (Em say) you will likely be successful. This is a dopamine trigger. Dopamine will bring you back over and over. Success is intoxicating. Next time having Em learned you learn D. Next time you connect the two. Too fast no reward. You are also developing your guitar physique. There are no short cuts, no trick to this. It is repetition over time….that is it. Play, stretch rest, get better. Take your time, have fun, find the success of every session. Enjoy the learning process of guitar. That is the key to getting better as fast as is possible.

[BrandonK]

I wish Tony would give us songs that were one to two chord to start with so that like you are saying we can start playing. I find over the last 45 days I am just focused on drills and getting a few chords down. I find Tony keeps throwing new information in when I haven’t even been able to do the technique he taught. Which I am reading the book The Laws of BrainJo where they talk about mastering a skill until you can do it unconsciously then you can move on to learn the next skill. With the way Tony teaches I agree putting in at least 10 minutes a day, I am just having a hard time not mastering what he is teaching because when I am asked to do it on demand I am not able to.

[jumpinjeff]

I wish he could wave a magic wand and make me the player I want to be. Does that help my progress or hurt my progress? For best results, leave lesson planning to the Teacher. Just because you don’t see how it fits does not mean that it doesn’t.* Find success even if it is incremental (all guitar success is incremental, we must open our minds to observe the subtle progress) and don’t stop showing up for the Daily Challenge. You are in charge of your mindset. It is up to you. I totally understand what you are saying about songs. For sure. So many free easy choices to find music. Carlos Santana has some extended 2 chord jams and Grateful Dead Fire On The Mountain is an epic 2 chord song. TAC is not a song specific learning program rather it uses songs and parts of songs as learning tools. There is so much music available through casual search. Have you looked for 2 chord songs? I just did a quick search and the first entry to show was “65 popular and easy 2 chord guitar songs with tabs.”

*a prime example of teaching brilliance is the relationship of the weeks in the the last three months of lessons. As we add Kings court in, most people won’t notice how importantly amazing and subtle adding that extra blue note to the improv scale Challenge actually is. What he introduces here was my gateway to freedom. It is the beginning of study on how all notes are connected. It is also fantastically training your ear to hear tonality. I did not figure that out for myself for about 5 years. I always had this weird sneaking suspicion but I could not prove it. Now I can. Point is,… if you just keep doing the lessons you will learn more than you think you are learning.

[BrandonK]

Thanks Jeff,

I just feel what Tony is teaching will help eventually, it just appears to be so advance for someone like me who is just beginning. It’s hard to keep up with the challenge videos for example.

I do my own practice so that I can work on what I feel is foundations principals like practicing each chord I know daily for 10 to 20 reps. Going from my left hand on my lap then making the chord and strumming it. Then going through each chord I know in one rep to transition from one to another while strumming each chord. With the goal to try to play the chords without looking at the fret board so that eventually I can look at a TAB music and be able to play around versus having to look down for each chord.

[Joyfinder]

Hey BrandonK, I get what your saying.

( I love your name so much I named my son Brandon)

and now back to our regularly scheduled posting.

I sometimes feel like that too but in the end, I realize that Tony does not expect us to be able to do this, but he keeps exposing us to new things and we keep stretching trying our best to do them. They come around again, so maybe we only gain a tiny bit of it and the next time around we can do more. Plus playing every day makes a huge difference. He says trust the process and although I won’t lie…sometimes I’m frustrated, and sometimes I wish we could learn the song that goes with the techniques. That being said I have been strumming songs for a few years I could amuse myself but it was getting boring. These challenges are challenging for me, but since joining in Feb. I see a difference in my playing and yet, there has not been a single one I could say I mastered or even close. I truly believe in the end we are benefiting big time from TAC. Be patient with yourself and understand we will have good days and bad days, but we are improving every time we pick the guitar up. I find it helps me to have a song I like to be working on in addition to TAC. I’m excited because I joined a campfire guitar series being held on Friday nights for 4 weeks at the local music school. It is for adult beginners. I’m looking forward to it as it will allow me to practice playing in time with other people and meet other people in my area who are learning as well. Maybe you could find something similar. Hopefully, make a few friends. We are going to get there but we need to keep it fun, fresh and exciting. Celebrate all your small wins because really they are huge wins. Have a great day, and happy strumming.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by  Joyfinder.

[BrandonK]

Hi Joy,

Thank you for your message. That’s awesome your son’s name is Brandon as well. Must be an amazing guy!

“Brandon is a masculine name of British, Welsh, and Norse origins with plenty of medieval vibes. It is an Anglicized version of the Old Irish name Bréanainn, which itself is said to be derived from the Old Welsh word breenhin, translating to “prince.” Brandon also has roots in Old English, where it means “broom- or gorse-covered hill,” stemming from the word brōm, meaning “broom” or “gorse,” and dun which means “hill.” Brooms and gorses are common wildflowers in Ireland and Scotland, and their lush, bright yellow petals add a sunny tone to the moniker. Brandon may also come from the Old Norse name brant and Old English brand, meaning “fire” and “swordsmith.” Brandon is a classic name with a sharp edge and range of interpretations, making it the perfect choice with a fitting meaning for baby.”

Now back to TAC, I am not saying Tony’s teaching is not helping. It’s just difficult as a beginner to transfer these skills to now playing TAB music with a 2 to 3 chord song for example. I find that I am trying to teach myself chords and how to play songs outside of TAC which is challenging. To the point I signed up for 1:1 private lessons with a guitar teacher starting this week.

This is not about speed, this is about progress. For example the last 2 weeks I have been practicing chords daily 10 reps per. Playing G, D, Em, E, and C. I am slowly getting comfortable transitioning from one to the other. That is a routine I am trying for myself which I was hoping TAC would have had for us. I know we covered G, D and C in the 30 Day challenge, it just went by so fast it was hard to master.

Does that make sense?

[Skyman911]

@BrandonK, I guess it depends on what your expectation of falling into place is. I’m guessing everyone has a different expectation. Pretty sure that 45 days in, I wasn’t forming G, C, D chords very well if at all. If you already have G, C, D, E chords you can easily form after 45 days, good on you. For me, it took about 2 1/2 years before I could quickly make chords and switch without having to think or look at my fretting hand. I wish I could say the same about barre chords. They’re kicking my but.

[BrandonK]

Thanks Skyman,

I am still learning those main chords. I am slowly able to make the shapes on a 4 count.

[Skyman911]

@BrandonK, I did want to mention something that kind of aligns with what @jumpinjeff was saying. I was struggling, putting in 2 hours a day, doing drills, doing scales, and just wasn’t progressing as fast as I wanted given all the practice time I was putting in. I had found a good guitar teacher, and he basically said, “you aren’t improving as fast as you want because you aren’t having fun, and have set your expectations too high”. I didn’t quite understand at the moment. He said, just stop the drills for a while and let’s just work on some fun songs. He kept stressing having fun. Even if I sound like I suck, just keep having fun. After a month or so, my progress took off like a rocket. He said, I know drills are beneficial, but they should be a small part of your practice. Playing songs should incorporate most of your time. Even if the songs are only easy two chord progressions. Hope this helps.

[BrandonK]

That does help, I am trying to learn Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi using G, D, Em and C as the chords to play. I am trying to practice those chords over and over again in the sequence for the song. I am trying to figure out how to shape the chords easily.

[Moose408]

For me it was right at 80 hours of practice, which was about 5 months in. I felt like I could consistently make chords, play a few songs, my strumming still sucked. Strumming fell into place at around 120 hours. That being said, everyone is different and it really depends on how you approach practice. I have a very strict practice routine that varies for each day of the week, each routine is timed (3-5 mins), and I use a metronome religiously. When I don’t do that level of “focused” practice it takes much longer.

When I have a problem with a chord I will include focus time on just that chord into my routine, 3 mins of slow motion placing my fingers without strumming, 3 mins of alternating which finger goes down first without strumming, 3 mins of picking each string and doing micro-adjustments so each string rings clear. It took a week of doing this everyday to get the Dm chord and 5 weeks of doing this everyday for the C chord. For strumming I do 3 mins of a given pattern with the strings muted. This may be overboard for most, but it is what it takes for me to feel like I’m improving and it works for me.

[John_Bolling_Hall]

It takes a while to develop muscle memory, and it also depends on how much you practice. I started at 60, now 64, probably a couple of years before I started getting in the groove. As mentioned in a previous comment, don’t set expectations, just enjoy the journey.

[BrandonK]

I try to do 30 min to 1 hour 7 days a week. I know from what I have read and hearing from other guitar players it’s the 10,000 repetition to master a skill.

[Marty75]

It will come @BrandonK Just keep at it. Remember “Wax’s on, Wax’s off” All the lessons TAC gives us each day are part of it. They builds good muscle memory. Don’t loose hope.

[BrandonK]

Thanks Mr Miyagi lol, I am more a Yoda type person “Do. Or do not. There is no try“.

I am just hoping to get one song under my belt because to just practice drills doesn’t excite me.

[Beatrice]

hey Brandon,

remember, the TAC community has thousands of members with wide ranging skill levels. It’s impossible to have the lessons taylor-made to suit each individual. Some days the practice will be easy, some other days more challenging. And like others have said, it’s not about learning songs, but about giving you the skills to play whatever you want to play with the acquired skills.

So with that in mind, and with your goals and specific needs, you should perhaps try one2one private tuition with a tutor who could focus on what you want? Would probably cost you an arm and a leg though…