Replies – Forums – ted_h – Page 5 – Tony's Acoustic Challenge

ted_h

Member

January 20, 2022 at 1:53 pm in reply to: Cancer, Practice, Shop Purchase and Return to TAC Completed

Welcome back, @Terry B! Congratulations!

ted_h

Member

January 13, 2022 at 6:14 pm in reply to: getting bored

Some physical books:

“Parking Lot Pickers Songbook” is a good resource for bluegrass and gospel standards. It generally has the lyrics, the notes for the melody, and the chords for each song.

I also really like “The Daily Ukulele Songbook: 365 Songs For Better Living“, which I bought to learn the uke but I use for guitar all the time, too. It doesn’t have the guitar chord shapes, but if needed I look them up in my other resources.

And I totally agree with others about looking for YouTube lessons on songs you like.

Ultimateguitar.com is a site with crowdsourced tabs and chord charts. Accuracy may vary, but I use it quite a bit when I’m trying to learn something new.

Have fun branching out!

ted_h

Member

January 11, 2022 at 2:13 pm in reply to: First TACiversary!

Oh, I forgot! Goals for the next year:

Improve flatpicking speed and accuracy and commit a few “standards” to memory
Learn some modern, percussive fingerstyle moves
Play some songs at open mics, virtual or otherwise
Improve singing and playing at the same time and post some songs with vocals

Mainly I want to get over my self-consciousness of playing for others.

ted_h

Member

January 11, 2022 at 10:26 am in reply to: I’ll Fly Away: Finger picking attempt

That was beautiful! Your tone on that guitar is amazing! Solid rhythm on the fingerpicking. I really enjoyed the part with the slides when you went up the neck.

I love the arrangement! Is it yours?

ted_h

Member

January 11, 2022 at 10:20 am in reply to: Dust in the Wind + vocals 🤘🏼

Another fabulous recording! I’m super impressed at how you’re able to sing so well while rocking the Travis picking!

ted_h

Member

January 11, 2022 at 10:16 am in reply to: More evidence I have too much time on my hands.

Good tune! Well played! The lyrics made me chuckle a lot!

ted_h

Member

January 9, 2022 at 7:22 am in reply to: 1st TACiversary a week ago

Happy TACiversary, @johnny67! Congratulations! It sounds like you’ve really enjoyed your guitar playing!

ted_h

Member

January 7, 2022 at 9:52 am in reply to: Cord Completion

Hi, @dogman!

A few other ideas:

1. I find that my fretting is very sensitive to the position of my thumb on the neck – my instinct is to have my thumb farther towards the headstock (or wrapped over the top of the neck), but on the difficult chords if I am conscious to move my thumb to the area of the neck right behind where I’m trying to put the pressure, I have a lot more strength in the fretting fingers. Experiment with that a little and see if you get any mileage from it…

2. You could also tune the guitar a half step down and then put a capo on fret 1, which reduces the string tension and brings the strings a little closer to the fretboard.

3. If you have chonky strings, you could try a lighter gauge, although sometimes that requires some adjustments to the neck depending on the guitar

And sometimes things might just be a little buzzy, which makes your playing more charming and human-sounding! 🙂

ted_h

Member

January 7, 2022 at 9:39 am in reply to: Help for untalented old beginner

It’s all good! Enjoy the sound when you hit a good note. And speed comes with experience.

I feel like, at the beginning, you’re way better off slowing everything down. Slow the tempo down or skip notes to simplify the tasks. Then, each day you play, your brain and spinal cord build up new circuitry, and weeks or months down the road certain things just start to come easy. “Muscle memory” is a real thing! I think that’s why the TAC emphasis on consistently playing for a short time on a daily basis works so well.

Hang in there, and it’s great having you in the group!