[Moose408]

I’ll give you a different answer than the others based upon my experience and definition.

A year in I did not feel like a guitar player because I could only play 3 songs from memory. Two years in, I had been practicing everyday but still only knew 3 songs. I then spent 2 months just working on learning songs. I am now up to a dozen that I have memorized and feel like I could perform in front of somebody. I finally felt like a guitar player and the coincided with hitting 500 hours of structured practice.

[Moose408]

Isolation is your friend. Ignore strumming and concentrate on just your fretting hand. Slowly finger the chord, put your hand on your knee and repeat forming the chord. After a few minutes of this exercise, add a single strum after you have placed your fingers. Then pick each string and reposition your fingers to eliminate any buzzing or muted notes. Do this all slowly. Finally add the metronome as described above.

Most chord transition challenges come about because you have not engrained the shape in your brain. The above exercise will help.

When you move on to transitions go back to slowly switching back and forth between the 2 chords.

Above all be patient. I have had a couple chord transitions that have taken me months to master

[Moose408]

I started with a Yamaha guitar and it served me well for several years. It was under $250

[Moose408]

I’m late to the discussion but wanted to point out that the idea of TAC is progress over perfection. Don’t stress on completing an exercise, give it a good try and move on. It will come back around and you will get further each time. If it requires a pinkie stretch, give a try but if you can’t do it, move on. The next time you be able to reach a little further.

The past month is the 3rd time through on these lessons and I’m finding I can play pretty much every one. The first time through I could not even get through the first measure cleanly, so I spent 10 mins and moved on. You are learning skills and techniques even if it is not obvious.

[Moose408]

There is a lot to discuss here.

First, sorry you are experiencing these difficulties. Sometimes life gets in the way. You need to listen to your body and do what you need to do to stay healthy.

Guitar is a journey, sometimes you will be able to consistently practice, sometimes you won’t. Don’t let it get you down. The key is to be somewhat consistent. Just picking up the guitar for 10 mins a day, or every other day, or whatever it is, is going to get you further than if you never picked it up. Every little bit helps.

The secret to TAC is to try your best at an exercise for at least 10 mins. Some you will play pretty good at that the end of the 10mins. Some you will struggle to get through the first measure. Both are OK. Some of the exercises are hard, but they will come back around and the next time you will get a little further. The motto is progress over perfection.

So don’t spend 3 weeks on an exercise trying to perfect it. Try it for 10 mins and then move on to the next. Try to find 10 mins a day to pick up the guitar. Perhaps before going outside and hurting your back. Having a tiny habit and small commitment works,

[Moose408]

The written music and TABs are available for all lessons. Just click on the icon circled in red.

[Moose408]

If you are doing the daily challenge the day it comes out you cannot move ahead. You have to wait for the next day.

TAC is the start of every day’s practice session, after spending a minimum of 10 mins on the challenge I then move on to my other practice items for the day. I have another online school that I use that always has skills for me to practice and I have lessons from my in person teacher. So never a lack of things to work on.

I discovered that I do need to write down my practice schedule for the week or I will end up skipping skills or spending too much time on others. So I rotate through 2 skills each day. The skills are picking, chords, arpeggios, rhythm, aural, notes & scales. At the end of my practice session I work on songs.

So a typical day will be: TAC Daily Challenge, 2 skills, one or 2 songs.

[Moose408]

It certainly helps to have the hand anchored. I’m used to use my pinkie finger on the pick guard and will still use it for tricky songs that require a lot of precision string skipping. My in-person teacher has been teaching me to use my curled fingers and have them resting directly on the strings that I am not playing. I pivot the hand up and down depending on whether I am playing the upper strings or the lower strings.

As for improving accuracy I practice picking every single day. I have routines doing all down picks, all up picks, inside picking (up on top string, down on lower string), outside picking (down on top string, up on lower strings), string skipping, etc. I initially started at 60 bpm and am now up at 120 bpm for most exercises, It is a difficult skill to get good at.

[Moose408]

Share away!

[Moose408]

The 1 and 3 beats in most popular songs have a stronger beat to them so the 2 and 4 beats can be modified

For most rock songs it is the 2 and 4 beats that are emphasized. Playing full strums on 2 & 4 and small strums on the 1 & 3 simulates the snare drum beat.

[Moose408]

Do you actively practice rhythm and strumming? I started scheduling rhythm practice 3 times a week (for 5 mins) a couple years ago and now have pretty decent rhythm. You aren’t going to improve at things you don’t practice.

Tony is VERY good about explaining the timing for the daily challenges, but because you are often focusing on several elements in the challenge the brain will tend to learn the one you are focusing on most intently which is most often the fretting hand. To get good at rhythm you need to isolate just the strumming hand. On the daily challenges try taking a few minutes of muting the strings with your fretting hand and just work on you strumming hand doing the timing that Tony has laid out.

[Moose408]

Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed.

[Moose408]

Reminds me of a story from one of my photography instructors. He asked the class to raise their hand if they could draw. Two hands went up to which he replied “I didn’t ask who can draw well”. He then told the following.

He was driving his 6 year old daughter home from school when she asked him what he did that day. He replied “I taught my students how to draw”. She incredulously asked, “when did they forget?”.

As kids we know how to draw, sing, act, etc. and we have no expectations of how good or bad we are, we just do it. As we get older we start to critique and self-edit ourselves and suppress these skills because we “don’t do them well” when we should embrace who we are what we can do. We have the ability to improve the skills if so inclined or we can just embrace who we are an go with it.

I recall a post by @Loraine where she was hesitant to post videos of herself playing but then realized it brought her joy and she was doing it for herself. Some where good, some where rough around the edges but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. We all need to be more like Loraine.

[Moose408]

I think it is lack of confidence as I don’t think I can sing worth a spit

That’s exactly the point. You did not know how to play the guitar so you signed up for guitar lessons. If you don’t know how to sing you sign up for vocal lessons. 🙂

The difference is probably that we all have an expectation that we should know how to sing, but that is not the case as most of us have never been taught.

My teacher says she gets a lot of students where they spend the first 3-6 months just working on pitch and learning to hear the notes. Humming along as I play guitar as definitely helped me with my pitch but there is still work to do.

Everyone has to start somewhere. Let go of your insecurities and expectations and go for it!

• This reply was modified 4 months ago by  Moose408.

[Moose408]

Sounds like it might help to practice the chords individually. Doing the knee slap test, where you form the chord then put your hand on your knee then form the chord, rinse repeat. No strumming. Adding strumming will actually slow down the learning process in the brain.

Also try the “folded corners” method for placing you fingers, place the fingers in order 1-2-3, then 2-3-1, 3-1-2, 2-1-3, 3-2-1…..finally place them VERY SLOWLY all at once.

Another technique that works well for transitions is to do air transitions, very slowly move your fingers into position while in the air between the two chords. Really exaggerate the mention and go super slow.

Above all don’t get frustrated. It just takes time, but focused practice like described above can shorten the time.