[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

You can likely play this in the key of G quite easily, using GC&D chords to strum along as you sing to the little ones 🙂

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

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@jeffbrandeisgmail-com There is no PDF file library of any of the riffs or other lessons. My best advice is to favorite any lesson you’d like to re-visit as they are unavailable after the current week is finished unless you have favorited them. I’ve never tried to download the music/TABs but that’s a thought.

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

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@the-old-coach lots of great comments here already (Love the electrical safety bathtub warning!!)

It’s your decision, but as it’s been said already: It’s free, it’s in great shape, and it belonged to your uncle… And playing electric guitar can be pretty cool!! (I have one that I use for quiet practice, used with headphones). With the narrow neck and low action, it’s easier to learn difficult songs with barre chords.

So with all those great reasons to say Yes, I’d say there’s also a few things to watch out for:

1. You might lose some of your callouses if you evolve to playing mostly electric (or classical) guitar.

2. Don’t forget, you haven’t mastered a song until you can play it on an acoustic….

Somebody asked why they can’t just give an acoustic guitar a similar set up so it plays as easy as an electric- I’m not an expert luthier but I think it has to do with that you can only lower the action so low until you encounter string buzz. The lower the action, the more delicately you have to play to avoid getting a buzz… (But that’s a whole nother party, hahaha!!)

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@jaweaver14 so sorry you have broken your fretting hand!!! Hope you are on the mend soon! And Kudo’s to you for not letting it sideline your guitar journey!!

I have 2 suggestions for you, and you can use either one or both at once if you like (or neither one if you don’t, haha)

1. Try an open tuning or 2. Open G, Open D, DADGAD are all great open tunings to try.

2. If you’re interested in learning fingerstyle, especially if your fretting hand is in a cast, try Giuliani’s 120 exercises for the right hand. It’s for classical guitarists, but it would suit you very nicely as you try out some intricate right hand fingerstyle. Most of these exercises in this book just switch between C major and G7 anyway, so all you’d need is to put your guitar into any open tuning and go thru all the right hand exercises. You will be a master fingerstyle player by the time they saw your cast off!!

Best wishes and get well soon!!!!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@SteveDyer sounds like you are making some good progress!! The 30 Days to Play has some great content for chord transitions- I agree that keep practicing, slow and steady is the key.

When practicing transition from one chord to another, try to look for common strings fretted, and/or common fingers used on both chords. Anchor notes/anchor fingers can help by realizing you have a note/finger in common and you can keep that in place as the other fingers switch to the new chord. Ex: the 5th string 3rd fret (ring finger) C-note of the open C-chord, keep that ring finger right there, because it’s already where it needs to be for the F-chord. That’s your anchor.

Another good trick to practice is to take any chord on its own. Start with a 2 finger chord like Eminor. Fret the chord, and strum. Adjust your fretting fingers until you get a clean chord. Then between each strum, lighten up your fretting fingers just a bit, without losing contact with the strings. Then resume the fretting pressure and strum again. Keep lightening up the pressure more and more until you actually lift your fretting fingers just slightly off the strings, then re-establish contact. Gradually lift your fingers higher and higher between strumming the chord. This helps teach chord shape muscle memory to your fretting hand.

There’s more chord shape and transition drills in the Skill Courses (My Routine section) here at TAC:

https://tonypolecastro.com/courses/your-next-six-chords/#learndash-course-content

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

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@1967kerbygmail.com I have a very very cool (and very free) iphone app called ProMetronome which has a feature called “tap”. All you have to do is tap the “tap” button to the beat of any music/exercise and it will automatically set the digital tempo bpm to the rate you are tapping. (Friday’s Lesson -Chords in Em taps out at 60 bpm with one beat per quarter note)

Also keep in mind that if a quarter note gets one beat, but you want to hear a click on all the eighth notes, your “tempo number” will be twice the value, but the actual speed will be the same.

And honestly I don’t pay much attention to the tempo numbers in the daily TAC lessons. I learn it at a slow steady pace to get it under my fingers, then I increase my speed as much as possible for me.

Have fun!!! C

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

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

It’s amazing how a good setup on an old guitar can improve its playability. It might feel so much like a new guitar that you wouldn’t need to buy a new one.

(I’m kinda anti GAS lately hahaha)

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Wishing you all the best on your future guitar geek adventures, @Guy_H !! You’ve been quite an inspiration to all who have gotten to know you here at TAC. And yeah, you can always come on back if things change. We’ll leave the light on for ya.

Keep on strumming, and we’ll be seeing you around the internet 🙂

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@rdf1967 Oh dear, Randy my prayers are going out for a speedy recovery!!

There has already been some really great ideas suggested here… I’m not sure what style of guitar you enjoy (flatpicking, fingerpicking, strumming, etc) but I think once your hand is healed and you are ready to pick up a guitar again, maybe consider learning to fret with your other hand? Also I agree, the alternate tunings typically offer less complex chord formations that might be good to try.

I can’t say that I know what you are going through. But if you look through some of the old TAC lessons you may notice a splint on Tony’s fretting hand (broken pinky a few years back). He just kept on playing and making video lessons… Way different than losing a finger but point being that he kept playing and adjusted his style to work with what he had. I’d say that’s a great lesson to follow. Don’t think about what is no longer present/functional but rather focus on what you still do have and find a way to make it work. I am hoping you might be pleasantly suprised at what you can still do with a guitar.

Take care, Buddy!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@RealKurt this is so awesome!! You looked very comfortable playing for a real live audience- very very very well done!!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hi @the_old_coach,

If you check the menu bar on the far left side of the screen, you should see a “support” link. I would try that to let them know you are having trouble accessing FW2. Have fun with the course, I know you will have many light bulb moments in store!!

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

I think it’s good to know both the circle of 5ths forward, backwards and upside down, as well as to know the descending scales in order of scale degree.

I have a really cool clock that has the circle of fifths instead of the usual numbers 1-12, so I am always looking at that. For the scales, try doing verbal exercises. Say the letters backwards for 2 octaves: G F E D C B A G F E D C B A

Then start with the next letter and go 2 octaves: F E D C B A G F E D C B A G

Keep it going: E D C B A G F E D C B A G F

D C B A G F E D C B A G F E

C B A G F E D C B A G F E D

B A G F E D C B A G F E D C

A G F E D C B A G F E D C B

This will get your brain super familiar with saying the scale backwards from any starting note without thinking. Very useful during a song.

Another useful mental drill is to do the same thing but in thirds. (Both ascending and descending). This helps with chords, harmonies, and if you get pulled over you can really turn the cards around… hahaha!!!

C E G B D F A C

C A F D B G E C

G B D F A C E G

G E C A F D B G

Etc etc etc.

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

@Daniel_Morin That was a very big win for a very big guitar!! Happy New Guitar Day and congratulations to you 🙂

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

What a great question!! I never thought about fish tanks and guitars mixing before… This was a great discussion with lots of great advice 🙂

I’d keep a hygrometer in the room to monitor the relative humidity and temperature, especially with a fish tank. Too much humidity is more rare than not enough, but it can be just as bad for your guitars. Also I wouldn’t hang any guitars on the wall above the tank… One wrong move and it’s all over, oooops….

[Carol-3M-Stillhand]

Hi @Kitman

There’s a whole load of workbooks of Giuliani exercises and etudes out there, from various sources. I like the complete right and left hand exercises one, but there’s different versions to be found. Just know that there are 120 right hand exercises, (and a bunch of left hand ones too).

Here are some pictures of the Giuliani book I have. It has enough english in there to figure it out, haha!! This book however, has only music notation and no TABs. So whichever one you wind up with, peek inside first to make sure it’s got what you need. (TABs vs Music, etc)