[Moose408]

Here are last week’s challenges

Nov 27 Boogie – https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/day-1-boogie-2/

Nov 28 Bassman Bobby – https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/day-3-high-and-lonesome-2/

Nov 29 High and Lonesome – https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/day-3-high-and-lonesome-2/

Nov 30 Hammer the Hurt – https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/day-4-hammer-the-hurt-2/

Dec 1 Jimi’s Chord – https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/day-5-jimis-chord-2/

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[Moose408]

This was a tough week for me and I’ve been here 7 months. I tried them all but there were some I couldn’t really do, so like you said, just mark them complete and move on.

Momentum is important but also recognize that all weeks won’t be like this one.

[Moose408]

In the left menu if you click on Skill Courses it will show the 5-Day challenge.

Here is the link

https://tonypolecastro.com/five-days/

[Moose408]

You’ve only been playing for a couple weeks. I’m 6 months in and still struggle with strumming and rhythms. So don’t worry too much about it, have patience, it will come.

A thin pick will definitely help in the beginning. Something around .45, you should be able to almost bend it in half without much effort.

[Moose408]

I didn’t know this even existed. I found 26 in my city, although only 5 have been active in the past 2 months. Need to start exploring surrounding cities.

[Moose408]

I relate to the twerk of the mindset. I started trying to learn guitar 18 months ago and quit after 30 days because of frustration. I restarted 6 months ago with the mindset that I’m going to suck for a long time and it’s ok to suck. That simple mind shift has eliminated all frustration and allows me to celebrate the small winds.

I also suck less every day. 😄

[Moose408]

There isn’t a mechanism for downloading the videos, however you can download the tabs and backing tracks, and then pre watch the videos.

Note, this only works for the lessons in this month. Go to the list of daily challenges, pick one of the future challenges from the list for the day you will be gone snd right click on it. Select open in a new window and it will open and you can then download the tab/backing track and watch the video. Repeat for each for the days you are gone.

[Moose408]

There are certainly skills you get by doing the improv challenge each week. For me it’s learning the fretboard, improving my sense of timing, and pick accuracy. These skills will translate to being a better guitar player even if I never solo.

You can certainly skip any lesson you want, but I would encourage you to try it each week as it will help with your overall journey in the end.

[Moose408]

Pretty sure everyone has been there. For me I just go back to the basics of learning the chord shapes. My goal with every chord is to be able to have my hand on my knee and then raise it up to the fretboard and have all of the fingers go down at the same time into the chord shape. The idea is to have it be muscle memory with no conscious thought.

The steps I do

– place my fingers into the proper chord shape and then press down and release and repeat for one minute.

– I then practice placing a single finger down first, then the other fingers. I do that 10 times, the. I switch and use my 2nd finger first, then do my 3rd finger first. I then will try to put 2 fingers down at a time then add the others. Then finally all 3 fingers. So for a 3 finger chord I do the following patterns, 123, 213, 312, 132, 231, 321, etc.

– I then put my hand on my knee and bring it up to the fretboard and in slow motion try to place all fingers down at once. I will do that for a minute. Then I will try doing it at full speed.

I do this everyday for any chords I am having problems with. It took me 14 days to get the D chord and 26 days to get the C chord. I still have to go back and practice them on a regular basis.

For a song I do a slow motion change for each chord progression. Then add strumming, once per beat, then adding the actual strumming. If I make mistakes I slow it down, as I get comfortable I speed it back up until I start making mistakes and then slow it back down.

It takes time and I’m not where I want to be. Whenever I’m struggling it always comes back to trying to do too many things at once, so I go back to the basics and try to commit the movements to muscle memory, or a simplify it, or a slow it down.

[Moose408]

Some days everything just falls into to place and then the next day it seems like I have 5 thumbs. When that happens I normally pivot and try something completely different on the guitar. But I never skip practice. The picking up the guitar everyday has been vary beneficial.

[Moose408]

Nicely done

[Moose408]

I watch the videos on my iPad. I need to first make the video full screen to make the pop-out icon appear in the upper-left corner.

[Moose408]

Yes, you should start doing the Daily Challenge have the 30-day and 5-day.

If you have more time to practice then as suggested above checked out the skills courses.

[Moose408]

I completely understand the eureka moment. I was a member here for 3 months before I discovered the pop-out feature and it was game changing. Prior to that I would print out the tabs so I could follow along with the video.

[Moose408]

You can find it here under Skill Courses
https://tonypolecastro.com/skills/