[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Just echoing the comments already here, @GuitarGeni but yes, please please take this as a very well meaning comment. Non musicians don’t realize this kind of statement as a potential annoyance, they just truly appreciate the level of play and they are using words that show they perceive your music is coming across as “effortless”.

I would take it as a very nice compliment. Your years of hard work, diligence and persistence have brought you to a well earned level of play that others perceive as effortless. You alone know how difficult it’s been to get to this point, so you alone might smile and receive a really great pat on the back!! Big Win 🏆award to ya!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Ooooooo Noooooo! First of all, is your guitar OK?? You said you dropped it to smack the perpetrator in the nose… I’m hoping your guitar didn’t suffer. Secondly, which arm was the injury? Fretting hand or picking hand? Are you still able to play? Lastly, when is the funeral service for your ex kitty???

If he is still among the living… I’d invest in some kitty earplugs yikes. Your audience is far more critical than mine. Lucy could care less if I play guitar and Charlie kind of cringes each time I make a mistake-like she knows I’m making a mistake. Yes somehow she knows?!?! Anywayz they’ve never inflicted bodily injury so I hope you and your guitar are both doing well after the bad review…..

To answer your question about what to do with a kitty such as that, maybe you should switch to banjo for a few days. She might enjoy the guitar better after that,hehehehe

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Carol-3M-Stillhand.

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

At least you can sometimes retrieve wayward guitar picks from the lint trap in the dryer… You’d think all the lost socks could be found in this same way. Go figure???

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@campfire, no worries, you are not alone!! This is a skill that is not easy to master and it can take alot of practice before it becomes easier for you. I found some of the songs in the “real world challenge” to be very difficult to pin down the key and/or the chords, but hey I am still a beginner at this skill as well.

I’d say keep practicing the Fretboard Wizard exercises (practice is usually the correct answer). And one thing to add is to look up on YouTube “What key is the song Let it Be”, find the song, make a play list of about 10 songs in that same manner, so by the time you listen to each song you might have forgotten the right answer…. Once you are ready, listen to each song and try to figure out the key. It helps to use slower softer songs, and/or songs you like to listen to. This is just a suggestion to give you extra practice at the same Fretboard Wizard style exercises, using all kinds of different songs.

Best wishes, and keep trying- it gets easier I promise!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@JJM Welcome to TAC and also welcome to the guitar geek world!! Congratulations on completing the 30 Days to Play!! Big Win for you there.

If you’d like to learn your first song, might I recommend the Skill Courses here at TAC? That section is directly above the “Forums” and below the “Daily Challenge” on the side menu bar. Many of the TAC Skill Courses utilize a complete song as the framework for learning the skill set for that course. And each course is complete with printable TABS and a series of short video lessons from Tony Polecastro. So you will be learning a complete song and polishing up a focused set of guitar skills at the same time!! Another big win x2!!

Best wishes and Happy New Year!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Happy New Year 2022 @KristyG and Welcome Back!! Nice to have you back and doing what you love!! May the new year be filled with tons of guitar learning for you.

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@NW7 it’s a double edged sword for sure…. Yes it’s great to be able to grab a guitar at the music store, or in front of your friends, and just “play something”. So maybe try for 1 or 2 of your favorite songs to have as “back pocket” songs that you can play with your eyes closed.

That said, I have found that I only have the mental storage capacity for about 10-12 memorized songs…. Everyone likely has their own limits on that, but there will be a limit to how much you can keep playable from your back pocket. So there’s nothing wrong with playing off of some music or a song sheet (lyrics with chord names above the words). Being able to sight read, or just play from a peice of paper is a very very good tool to have in your toolbox too.

One year for Christmas I took my old battered Christmas song book to the acoustic room at the guitar store and just sat there and played it through cover to cover a few times. It was kind of awesome and I got alot of nice comments. One person said they thought it was piped in music until they passed right next to me and saw me playing. One of my happiest guitar memories, hahaha

So I’d give it a try to learn one or 2 songs, but honestly do whatever helps you to play and have fun at it.

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hi @Wandalee and congratulations on completing your 30 Days to Play!!

Might I suggest you check out the Skill Courses section, right below the Daily Challenge link on the side bar. It’s chock full of self study skill courses with a variety of topics that should suit most people. I’d say it’s almost like having private lessons with Tony P.

Best wishes on your guitar journey!!!

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by  Carol-3M-Stillhand. Reason: sentence structure correction

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@riccsnet in the past I had tried the notebook thing, and I printed out each day’s daily challenge. I found 2 different methods which were both helpful but neither one was very “index-able” in order to find a specific exercise after the fact…. which is why I stopped printing/organizing them, haha

The first way was to organize the daily lesson printouts by weekly chunks. This was pretty awesome because every other week focuses on flatpicking (Not my genre) alternating with fingerstyle (now that’s where it’s at!) Also as you progress through any given week, the 5 lessons for that week sort of have a common theme, same key, same open tuning, the riff goes with the Friday chord progression for that week, etc etc…. As the weeks passed, some of the material would be repeated, but not always the same 5 together in one week as originally appearing, so that made it confusing in my notebook method :/

The other way I tried was to print and group all the Monday lessons (Riffs), then the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday ones all separated since each day of the week focused on a riff or a chord progression or a certain set of key chords, etc.

Again, both of these ways that I tried are not too index-friendly so If I was trying to find a certain exercise or open tuning batch, or specific key, I had to just keep flipping through the notebook until I found it, that is if I had already printed that one….

These days I am taking the lazy way out and I just hit the favorite button on any of the daily lessons that I really love, or on the ones I haven’t learned yet and really want to go back to and learn. I’m sure there’s alot of different ways to index these lessons so that you can find what you want easily but I’m not really a spreadsheet nerd, haha.

Good luck to you as you work through all these cool daily lessons!!! C

• This reply was modified 4 years, 3 months ago by  Carol-3M-Stillhand. Reason: correct typo

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hiya @Anthony V and congratulations for sticking to it for 15 years!!! And know, that you are not alone with your struggle with the barre chords- I’ve been trying to get that dratted A-shaped barre chord for ages too… Everyone makes it look so easy, that’s true. Although I’m able to get other shaped barre chords by now, that A-shaped one is impossible for me to fret cleanly without deadening the high e string. How do you make a double-barre chord without being double jointed? The standard answer is keep practicing… and I believe there’s at least one Barre Chord workshop here in TAC under “Skill Courses” that’s one thing that might help with Barre Chord technique and finger strength in general…

I’ve also used my own work-arounds for this, and one is to try to practice it on the higher frets with a capo, as the frets aren’t as far apart making it a bit easier to reach everything. Another way I deal with this shape chord is to just play the Amajor open chord using 3 fingers (middle, ring and pinky) and save the index finger for the barre once you move the chord up the neck… Sure, there’s reasons why it’s easier to play it as a double barre chord, but if it’s not possible right now, it’s perfectly OK to find a way to work around that. The take home is to keep practicing, but at the end of the day, play it the way you are able to, and have fun!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hi @HarryH and Welcome to TAC!!

I’m always looking for some kind of comfy ergonomic guitar playing chair myself… at my age, it’s not exactly comfortable to sit and play for hours.

I don’t have a magic amazon link to recommend, but I have found that a regular armless dining chair (without wheels) does just fine, and adding a flat pillow to sit on makes things a bit more comfy. I also use a footrest to elevate my left foot. Even so, I find that taking frequent breaks is a must. Let me know if you find a magic comfy ergonomic guitar chair we could get a group discount 🙂

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hi @robm58 and welcome to TAC!!

I can tell you that you can access the daily 10 minute lesson by clicking on it. When you are viewing the current day’s lesson, all the lessons for the entire month will appear in the margin on the left of the screen. You can access any of the lessons since the beginning of the current month by clicking on them. (Well except for future lessons that haven’t happened yet)

Alas, if you want to go back to any lesson from a previous month, you are no longer able to do so unless you had added that lesson to your list of favorites.

I am not sure what to tell you about your faulty lesson counter/daily streak number, I would click on “support” at the bottom of the main menu list on the left margin of the screen. Hope that helps 🙂

C

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Thanks @Jim_Krozz for posting this!! I am so happy that one of our own, @Kurt G is finally out there performing his beautiful songs!!! I can’t wait for December 17th to hear his very first zoom concert!!! Way to go, Kurt

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@Mark I agree whole heartedly, that as you become better at coaxing the tone from your new 12 string, you will find when you switch back to your 6 string, it will feel exceedingly easy for a few moments until you acclimate but also in the long run as you are working on your fretting hand strength and precision big time as you learn 12 string.

One thing I forgot to mention in my earlier post, is that Taylor Guitars has always enjoyed a reputation for extremely playable 12 string guitars. I believe they now have a few in smaller body styles, ie Grand Concert (Model ends in 2)

I’ve played a few in the store, and I agree, they play like butter. So far none of them have followed me home, (not counting the Taylor custom 9-string)

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@Mark my first advice for you is to hang on to your very intelligent and loving wife. What a wonderful Christmas story, thank you for sharing that beautiful update!!

My second advice for you is to agree with whoever said to learn your wife’s favorite song on the 12 string and play it for her. (There’s always next Christmas to think about, hahaha)

The rest of my advice, is to be patient with yourself and just keep practicing. A 12 string is played exactly like a 6 string, so you just have to build bigger callouses on your fretting fingers (Have you seen the double grooves in your fingertips yet?) and you need much greater left hand and finger strength which have to be built up over time. Most 12 string players keep the entire guitar tuned down either a half step (capo on 1st fret to be in standard tune) or tune down a whole step (capo on 2nd fret to be in standard tune). This decreases the tension on all the strings, making it easier for the left hand to fret the notes, (barre chords are a whole new ballgame on a 12-er), and it also decreases the action which also makes it easier to fret the notes. Bonus benefit, the frets aren’t as far apart with the capo which also makes it easier to reach the chord shapes.

One huge head’s up is that it’s really really hard to play fingerstyle on a 12 string. It’s very difficult for the right hand to pluck both strings in each pair. Which is fine, but you get robbed of the harplike sound of the 12 string and might as well be playing a 6 string, So most 12 string players are flat pickers and pick strummers. That really showcases the beautiful chimey signature sound of a 12 string… I truly appreciate any musician who is skilled at playing a 12 string fingerstyle, because I have experienced how super difficult that is!! This is the reason I was motivated to learn to play with a pick, haha!!!!

Hope some of this was helpful, and glad you had a very merry christmas!! Happy NGD as well 🙂

Carol