[jumpinjeff]

TAC taught me how to play all the songs. Learning songs is why we go through the prep to be able to play them. I needed years of prep before I was ready to play the songs I desired to play. TAC uses songs to train you how to play the guitar but it leaves the finger choreography to those more suited to teaching that. I spent a year trying to learn finger choreography before I joined TAC. The only thing it made me was frustrated and determined. TAC was the fix.

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @Rickva , you have identified one of the hardest things about learning how to play guitar: psychology. Your psychology is ready to get it down pat….your fingers and hands and elbows and shoulders are not. Training the body to be ready for what the mind wants to do is TAC’s super power…..while engaging the mind in a sneaky way. Every time I put the guitar down in the past was because of the disconnect between body and mind. Mind was ready to go go go…body was not.

[jumpinjeff]

Without keeping time go slow very slowly. See if you can slowly make to reach. Mess around with your hand position and see what different things allow you to do in the reaching department. Most of my initial trouble was trying to go too fast, too soon.

[jumpinjeff]

Nicely done @Marky !

[jumpinjeff]

Hi David @TWTX , this is a great question and the answer is super fun: think of where you move pick in relation to the sound hole as your effects pedal for acoustic. Plunk the string at the 12th fret and then again by the bridge. Where you play is where you like the sound being made. Lastly integrating changing that tone in a call and response way by playing by the bridge then answering above the sound hole and vice versa, is one of those special sauce things that can take playing scales into new fun territory. This is one of the concept I did not have to force….just knowing it was there made me want to find a way to utilize it.

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @jean.laurin58gmail.com I like the direction @JeffM.22 is going. I watch Derick Trucks play and he uses three fingers and a coricidin bottle on his ring finger. What is cool is when you put the bottle on your pinky with a little practice you get a wicked reach with the bottle covered pinky on the high E and the B string. Other strings less so but there is a whole universe to explore with that technique.

[jumpinjeff]

the more experience you have collected the deeper into a lesson you can dive. We all have the same presentation by tony, same material, same day, but what I heard in a lesson Challenge the first time and what I hear on the 30th time is as if it were an entirely new lesson. I found the beauty of TAC in how I was engaged initially having little previous experience. It was an understandable path to an end goal without having to plan the trip. All I had to do was keep walking on the path. Easy? noooo! Fun? Wayyyyyy!!!!

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @crabbyblue11 , Lorraine nails it with the advise about getting a whole bunch picks, different thicknesses, different shapes, different materials. I even made one outta mother of pearl and another out of turtle shell (road kill). After ten years of messing around this is what I found. For strumming when am struggling I use a Dunlop Nylon .60 mm. When I loosen up I like fatter picks 1.5 to 2.0. I feel more in control of dynamics (tone and volume). I really like super hard wood picks 1.5 to 2.0. Snake wood and Amboyna are my favs. When I was learning how to balance a pick the Dunlop prime tones were my ticket. Higher priced but grippy. After learning how to ride a pick (I say that because it was like learning how to ride a bike, find the balance point and you are good to go; until then you keep falling off) I found the best overall was the Blue Chip Pick. These are the premium priced picks. 50.00-ish for the TD 80. They are a lovely feeling pick with nice sound but they are slick. The best cheap overall, if you don’t want to think about it much or spend much is the Dunlop Ultex 2.0. I liked these because they were stiff giving control and there was a rough opaque coating that made them grippy at a time when that was super important for me. Combine that with the Dunlop Nylon .60 and that should get you through everything for under 5.00. It is a fun and relatively inexpensive way to experiment with tone and technique. That is my plug for buying a bunch and messing around. You can do no wrong here. Fun is the goal

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @BarbaraM , I have been at the place you are describing. The honest, quick answer: keep going. I found later the thing that moves me out of that phase. Had to go through it a few times to figure it out. What is your most favorite thing you play on your guitar…right now…today? When it all turns gray, go back to that to reinvigorate with saturated color. For me early on it was the finger picking waterfall exercise in G (and I am a flatpicker). I loved the sound but more importantly for me…I loved the tactile experience. So what is it..,your favorite thing? Dig in a little and find out why…then follow that rabbit hole in the context of the daily challenges and see where it overlaps. I hope that makes sense. Additionally, there is a whole underlying question here but it goes pretty deep. I remember when Tony asked me Why I wanted to play guitar. I would answer and there was always a follow up why. It took me a good while to figure out what was the power source driving my desire to learn. Getting in touch with that ended my slow descents into gray. This was kinda difficult. The results worth every bead of worry I sweated out! : )

[jumpinjeff]

I remember that feeling when I wanted to get it right from the get go right out of the box. What I did not understand is that when everything is needed…I could do not wrong. The only wrong there was in my journey was when I put my guitar down. @dennis16runbox-com , you could work chord transitions for the next 10 years and you may be a player like Bob Weir. What I found helpful was TAC gave me direction without having to strategically plan my own learning path and encouraged me to have fun playing…Play in the challenges, play when I was participating with other musicians, play when I was struggling to get my bar chord F clear and ringing like a bell. TAC removed the chore of learning and my anxiety surrounding whether or not I was getting it wrong or right. All I had to do was the minimum. Pick up and play,…play by having have fun. Do something difficult even if only one part and celebrate. Then do it again. This is how I passed 10 years in doing what I thought was impossible. Tony makes the complicated plain. I was the wrench, my thoughts getting in the way of my own success. As long as you are picking up and “playing” everyday everything else will fall into place. This is the zero challege. Do this for a period that is long enough that it becomes second nature or odd if you don’t. Recognizing the importance through direct experience is key. While doing this you will learn quite a bit without even knowing you did. So relax settle in…you can do no wrong, except for being idle.

[jumpinjeff]

that is cool stuff right there @SoCal_Ian ! I did not know this.

Great example of determination exemplified!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  jumpinjeff.

[jumpinjeff]

Hi Kathleen, I do like the idea of posting questions/observations in the Forum. I like even better posting a question in the response area for Daily Challenges. It is where I would get the fastest redirect. I looked outside of TAC for info because I was impatient. Everything I needed was here but I needed to see it differently as well to penetrate my skull…on the thicker side! I don’t know if I sped up my process or maybe even slowed down the progress I was seeking but gained on the intellectual side of music. Tony sneaks all that stuff in without detection but as you do more and your pattern recognition kicks in you will begin to recognize it. At first you see it but don’t know what you are looking at…lessons go by (this was a frustrating time for me but I was not being duped or fooled I was being primed, set up for success if you will, hampered mostly by my expectation getting in the way of my fun in the form of frustration), you gain experience and then when a lesson returns you begin to see things you did not see before. It is my perfect learning model. Maybe for you too if you look at it a little differently.

[jumpinjeff]

good stuff there. I will reply on PM. Sorry Dennis for getting off track on your post.

[jumpinjeff]

You earned a solid 2 cents from me, copper, not the zinc ones. How many years did you pull wire? (side bar)

[jumpinjeff]

Glad you still have access and post. It was like you were reading my mind!!