Moose408
Forum Replies Created
-
Tony includes a link in his monthly email. Here is the link for July.
-
I’m a year into my guitar journey and I still have trouble always picking the correct string. So first off, go easy on yourself and realize it’s going to take time.
Whenever you are struggling with something on the guitar the steps to do are to simplify, isolate, and slow it down. Your brain can’t learn two things at once, so if you are fretting and picking, the brain is going to learn whichever you are focusing on the the most and if you are bouncing back and forth between the two it will probably learn neither very fast.
For picking don’t worry about your fretting hand and just practice the picking. Whatever that pattern may be. Start slow and speed up over time. Use a metronome. The rule of thumb is that if you can play an exercise 3 times in a row perfectly then speed up. If you make mistakes 3 times in a row slow down. You need to practice a skill consistently (at least 3 times a week), to really commit it to your subconscious.
Another tip for flatpicking is to put your little finger on the pickguard. This gives your hand a reference point. Over time your brain will learn how much to move your pick to hit each string.
I spend 5+ mins everyday doing dedicated picking practice with a metronome. Some patterns I can learn in a week. The one I’m currently trying to learn I’ve been working on for 4 weeks. Started at 50bpm and now up to 85bpm (the goal is 100bpm for this song). It’s a process but it works.
-
It’s more about a minimum of 10 mins a day. It’s more about being consistent and practicing every day if you can. I think the 10 mins is because everybody can find 10 mins in a day, but if it said just 30 mins or an hour a day, you would put off practicing because you think you don’t have that amount of time.
When you move to daily challenges there will be some where the lesson is shorter and can be completed in 10 mins, there are a lot that are going to be hard and you won’t be able to do and for these the 10 min rule is more applicable. Do your best, spend 10 mins and then move on. Maybe just learn the first measure, maybe just work on the timing, etc. just do what you can and don’t try to perfect it.
Another suggestion based on you mentioning having to stop the video to figure out what Tony is doing. If it’s technique that’s great, if it’s fretting hand placement, you just be using the accompanying TAB to figure out where your fingers go. I always open the TAB at the same time as the video and mainly use the video to learn the timing and picking hand portion.
-
I struggled with learning the c chord. Some things to try.
– Make sure your knuckles are parallel to the fretboard. This is typically done by moving your elbow closer to your body.
– slide your thumb lower on the back of the neck so your fingers rotate more around the fretboard. Makes it easier to have just the tips of your fingers on the strings.
– slow down. Fret your C chord and then play each string individually. Make small finger adjustments until no stings are muted. Do a final strum then take your fingers off and repeat. Do this for 5 mins every day for a month or more (it took me 7 weeks of this daily practice to really get the C chord)
-
The monthly and even quarterly meetups are no more. They ended last September. There were a couple of ad-hoc meetups this past spring (only one of which involving Tony), but they have also faded away.
-
My frustration almost always comes from one of 2 things. Either my progress is not meeting my expectations, or I’m practicing only skills and not having any enjoyment.
I have solved the first one by just continuously telling myself that I suck at guitar, I’m going to suck for a long time, and that is OK.
I solved the 2nd by adding dedicated practice time to learn songs and riffs so I feel like I’m actually playing guitar. I also supplement my learning with other guitar courses so when I’m really struggling with a specific week of TAC and I have place to go and feel like I’m making progress.
-
Part of the issue sounds like you are spending 60 minutes trying to get through the daily lessons. While that “might” work, it is just going to lead to frustration. The brain learns in brief spurts. You will learn for the first 10-20 mins but everything after that is not going to help.
My approach to the Daily Challenges is to try it for 10 mins, sometimes a little more. Some days I can only do the first line, sometimes I spend the entire 10 mins on the just the first measure. The Challenges are meant to CHALLENGE you and you aren’t expected to learn them in the first sitting, or even the 2nd or 3rd. I’ve been with TAC a little over a year now and have seen challenges come back around that I couldn’t do at all the first time, and now I can get a little further. It is rare that I can do an entire Daily Challenge unless it is very simple (Palm Muting, Double Stops, etc).
As to your original question; I just looked and at 5 months I had done 87 hours of total practice.
– I could play a couple of songs, Three Little Birds, and Mad World that had simple chords. I added 15 mins a day of practice dedicated to learning songs.
– I could read TABs but not at real time.
– I couldn’t solo per se but I felt comfortable doing the Improv day here at TAC.
– I went to my first music Jam session for beginners and was the worse one there. If I couldn’t play a particular piece I would just mute my strings and strum along. I kept at it going every week and it’s done a lot to help me improve. It is basically guitar karaoke, where as a group we follow along to songs on Ultimate Guitar.I’m now a year in and 248 hours of practice and I still don’t feel like I’m a guitar player. But I do recognize the progress I have made and so my daily goal is to be just a little bit better than I was yesterday.
-
https://reverb.com Is where I buy all my used gear. It’s associated with Sweetwater. I have never sold anything there as I do t have anything to sell yet.
-
The brain can only learn one thing at a time, so if you are concentrating on your fretting hand you will struggle with rhythm and visa versa.
The key to learning anything on the guitar is isolation. Just practice rhythm with the fretting hand just holding a chord or better yet muting the strings. Then switch to learning the fretting hand stuff and just strum once per measure. Over time you will get better at both and it will be easier to combine them.
The other key is to slow things down. When using a metronome you should be constantly adjusting the speed. If you play something 3 times in a row an make mistakes then slow it down, if you can play something 3 times in a row with no mistakes then speed it up. Typically you can make adjustments in 5 to 10 bpm increments, although I’ve had complicated rhythms where I had to increase by 1 bpm per day for several weeks to get the timing right.
I also highly recommend the book The Laws of Brainjo, it is great at explaining how the brain learns especially related to guitar/banjo.
-
If you know the key of a song then you know what scale to use for improvising or soloing to the song.
-
I use an IOS app called Andante for tracking my progress, it also gives some interesting statistics.
-
I actually have thought about purposely breaking the streak at 365. I’m trying to figure out if it matters if the streak is the goal. There are some days where I don’t feel like picking up the guitar but do anyway because of the streak. Is that a bad thing? It got me practicing when I might not have otherwise.
-
I always have the TAB open while watching the video. I don’t think I could do anything if I had to rely on the video alone. I typically am trying the tab while listening to Tony and if I get to a tricky part then I will pay close attention to what he is saying. I’m mainly listening to him to hear the technique and tips, not where to place my fingers.
A year in and I can more confidently play the same songs I could at 5 months. LOL. I have recently devoted more practice time to learning songs, it’s a slow process.
-
Ultimate Guitar has thousands of free guitar tabs
-
I use my iPad. Once the video starts there is button that makes the video small, so I put it in th3 corner of the iPad screen with the tab behind it.