Moose408
Forum Replies Created
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Picking direction is determined by the length of the note and the timing. Whole, half and quarter notes are always downstrokes. Eighth notes are downstrokes on the beat and up strums on the off-beat (the ‘and’ in the timing). So if it goes 1 & 2 3 4 the numbers are downs and the & is up so it would go D U D D D.
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It doesn’t actually say Wagon Wheel on the web site, it shows this week of daily challenges being “Wheels on the Wagon” with the following 5 lessons.
– Dogwood Flowers
– Rock Me
– Wind and Rain
– North Country Winters
– Headin’ Down South
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To get a feel for it, try using your index finger of your strumming hand and just hit strings until you get a sound. Try moving around between the frets, try hitting straight-on vs at an angle, try closer to the neck, mid fretboard, and close to the guitar body. Some spots will be easier than others. Once you can do this with your strumming hand, go back to your fretting hand and just try with one finger to replicate the motion.
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The 90 day check-ins were discontinued after the July 2023 one. They don’t happen anymore.
Just jump into the daily challenges and enjoy.
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I struggled with the C chord for months and still do occasionally. The secret for me was to do dedicated, isolated practice for 5 mins every day for 3+ weeks.
My steps were
– position my fingers and pick each string, if I had a muted string then slightly reposition the offending finger and repeat the above until every string rang clearly.
– keeping my hand positioned I would then press down hard on the strings and then release the pressure, but keep contact with the string. Repeat this 20 times
– I would then lift the fingers off the strings and 1/4” and repeat step 1.
– once I was consistent with that I would take my hand off, put it on my knee then back to the C chord shape and repeat step 1.
I sucked at this for the first few weeks, and then suddenly my fingers were going to the right position.
I know this isn’t exactly the issue you were asking about, but the step 1 is the key. Slowly move and reposition your fingers until you aren’t muting any strings.
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That looks fantastic. Enjoy.
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I just went and watched the lesson and yes he is hitting 2 strings for each strum. It’s not obvious from watching but I can tell by listening to it and the fact that there would not be any change in the pitch if he was only hitting the open string.
As for your fingers, it’s not a hand size issue, it just that you are just starting and your fingers haven’t stretched and loosened up. This will happen, but it will take a while, so don’t worry too much about it at this point. It’s ok to either slide you fingers up, or use your pinky. Most people have problems using the pinky but it’s not strong enough in the beginning, but that works for you then great, you building it up even more.
The goal is here is to give it a good try, but don’t strive for perfection, when you have give it a try, move on to the next lesson. It’s progress over perfection.
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I’m going to get a little philosophical here…
Frustration is the result of unmet expectations. Expectations are a prediction of the future which we as humans are not good at. Most beginner guitar students get frustrated because they think they should do better than they are, and that unrealistic expectation is the driving force.
Learning the guitar is hard, and it takes repetition and time to build up the muscle memory necessary to successfully play. Think of it like going to the gym. If your goal is to bench press twice your body weight, you don’t expect to be able to go in the first day and lift that. A beginner in the gym can typically lift 1/2 their body weight and by adding 5 lbs a week can expect to take months to get their body weight. The issue with the guitar is that it is very hard to measure and observe that “5 lbs/week”. It seems like we aren’t making progress when we actually are.
Tony stresses progress over perfection. Don’t try to get the exercises in the 30-day challenge perfect, just do the best you can and move on. The perfection and improvement will come over time from the repetition.
I started my guitar journey 2.5 years ago, I started learning, got frustrated and quit after 4 weeks because I didn’t feel like I was progressing fast enough. A year later I decided to try again but I had a different mindset, the mindset was, I suck at guitar, I’m going to suck at guitar for a long time, and it is ok that I suck. That mindset helped me get through my frustration and I’m not 7 months into my guitar journey. I still occasionally get frustrated, but I also can look back and see the amazing progress I’ve made over that time which causes me to reset my expectations and continue on.
There is a great book called “The Laws of Brainjo” by Josh Turknett, he’s a neuroscientist and banjo instructor and discusses how the human brain learns new things and the best thing you can do to progress and Tony’s method of progress over perfection fits right in. Here is a link to a podcast he does about frustration
https://www.brainjo.academy/brainjo-bite-how-to-end-frustration-for-good/
brainjo.academy
Brainjo Bite: How To End Frustration For Good (Brainjo Bite) – The Brainjo Academy
Brainjo Bite: How To End Frustration For Good (Brainjo Bite) – The Brainjo Academy
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Welcome and congrats. Just remember progress over perfection.
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Are you improving as you encounter the lessons again?
I supplement TAC with other courses but have stayed with TAC because I find that I’m developing skills that I am not learning elsewhere and I continue to see improvement. I plan to stay until my improvement wanes.
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The goal is progress over perfection.
Spend a minimum of 10 mins a day on each lesson and then move on. You will struggle with most of the lessons, but just do the best you can, if something is too hard, don’t worry just give it a try and then skip it. Most of the techniques come around again and again, and you will get a little better each time.
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You are basically playing scales. Once you know the notes in a given scale you can play those notes anywhere they reside on the fretboard. The C major scale is the most straightforward as there are only whole notes (no sharps or flats). It goes C D E F G A B. So any whole note on the fretboard is part of the C major scale.
For other keys you just play the scale corresponding to that key and any note in that scale would work for that key.
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Sounds like you are not on the right page. I did a video walkthrough that shows how to see all of the monthly challenges. It’s in this thread towards the bottom.
https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/replay-daily-challenge/
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Well said.
(although I’m suspect about your comment about the F barre chord. I’m resigned to fact that I may never master it. 😛)
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The book is fantastic. This time through my guitar journey I’ve really learned a lot about the science of learning and have applying those techniques and it has change my mental attitude as well. I’m have really progressed in my guitar abilities since reading that book.