[Cadgirl]

I found it @Moonhare! It’s nice to have it taped to your playing area so you can do a couple of quick exercises. I believe this came from @davefive. He didn’t want to have it shared outside the group. So just for the TAC family. He did a great job on it.

[Cadgirl]

I agree with the others. Do the challenge as best you can and while the guitar is in hand practice for awhile. When I first start playing my brother told me to learn the Pentatonic Scale. I would highly recommend it to you. You’ll always use it and you can go up and down the neck with it. I found a youtube with Tony showing you how to do it. I made a tab for you on the minor scale (follows what he is showing in the video. It quick and easy and you’ll have it down in no time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0Lveo9NicE , if the link doesn’t work, just copy and paste.

[Cadgirl]

Sorry to hear about your issues, but I know where you are coming from. I upgraded to a Martin D28 about 10 months ago. I didn’t realize at the time how big it was. No, I think the world is huge. I have to wrap myself around it to be able to pick and the fretting is also tough. I bought a Taylor GS mini and I swear, I will never buy a full size guitar again. It’s so much easier to fret and strum. I have already talked to a guitar store about trading it in.
In the meantime take some ibuprofen and check out Tony’s exercises. You might find that the strengthening exercises he recommends helps out. Someone posted a cheat sheet for the exercises. I thought I had it but can’t find it. I’m going to put up a post for it and see if that could help you out.

[Cadgirl]

A very good small win. Actually I’ll call practicing 45 minutes more than a small win. Good job on that. I found if i put your guitar where you see it. your more apt to pick it up during the day. Good luck

[Cadgirl]

Thanks so much for getting back with me. @MikeGaurnier this is a 1/4 size child’s guitar. Called a “First Act” It’s great for practicing in front of the computer (doing the daily challenge). I think the glue holding it together is so old it couldn’t handle the new strings. I tried the nylon but it still broke. Now i’m putting the extra light weight steel on and give it a go (since I already bought the strings). I have all the tools to fix it now incase it happens again. If it does…. I plan on tuning it down a fret and using a capo. Just looked it up the guitar cost $29, the tools to fix it $65 (so far). But, the fun of being able to put it back together is a valuable experience.

those keys you see sticking up are actually caps that fit over the strings so kids don’t poke their fingers.

[Cadgirl]

Thanks for the complement @darcelle and @Loraine. This is not an expensive guitar, it’s my nephews old guitar growing up. I think they cost all of $30 / $40 but it wouldn’t be the same if I just bought a new one. If you can see the fret board it’s all gouged up from everyone’s finger nails. It’s really interesting to do some of the repair work yourself. Now i’m on the lookout for a guitar that needs a little repair work. 🙂

[Cadgirl]

Oh, you’ll get the strumming. Since doing the daily challenges i’m much better at strumming (better , not good). I didn’t get it at before TAC.

[Cadgirl]

Good focus, I like to finger pick. Strumming stumps me at times. Seems with finger picking you hit the melody note in the playing so you don’t get lost in the song. Maybe it’s just me? But, I get lost sometimes with the strumming up, up, down, up, up. ha ha ha. Now…. I am practicing with Wagon Wheel strum. So maybe it will all make sense one day. In the mean time, welcome to finger picking! You’ll be adding your own solos in no time. 🙂

[Cadgirl]

I haven’t put the strings back on yet, so we will see. I’m afraid that I didn’t get enough glue between the pieces and it will pull up again. Mine wasn’t pulled completely off so that was a big help. Everything was still lined up perfectly. I used Gorilla Glue and watched a couple of YouTube’s and bought the equipment they used. Ha ha ha… I’m a retired Product Designer so I understand the frustration when something doesn’t go together the way it should. Did you toss the guitar out? If not , clean it off and try again.

[Cadgirl]

Thanks, it is an rewarding experience. At the very least when the Luthier goes into a song and dance about the difficulties of the fix, I’ll know what he is talking about. I would have never tried this on my more expensive guitars. But…. We are on vacation right now , so I have a Washburn Rover travel guitar with me. It seems there is a little too much distance between the fretboard and the strings. Might be a new project in the future.

[Cadgirl]

@Loraine , the guitar I was working one wasn’t my main guitar, nor was it expensive. I just wanted to get it back into working order. I can’t trash it because my brother gave it to me. You had mentioned http://www.shopgoodwill.com in a post and I do watch for guitars now. If I see something damaged I might put in a bid and try to fix it if it’s cheap enough. I did buy my travel guitar from the site, thanks to you. It turned out to be an Excellent guitar with no issues.

[Cadgirl]

It’s not hard to do if you have an inexpensive guitar to work with. I had bought a guitar on an action once that had the bridge pulled up and I sent it back. If that happens again I’ll see if I can get a reduced price and try to fixit myself.

[Cadgirl]

You always have good advise. I’m hoping I have enough glue on the bottom side of the bridge, I guess I’ll see once I put the strings on. I already bought the extra light but now I’m wondering if the nylon would be a better choice. In fact I do have a question for you. What strings have the least amount of tension? The extra light or the nylon?

[Cadgirl]

I’ll find it. And repost. It really was a good cheat sheet. My fretting hand gets numb on me, so I have to stop and do some stressing exercises to get the feeling back.

[Cadgirl]

I have skipped a lot of days and I just started getting back into it. I am redoing the fretboard wizard. That is something that is so worth the money.