[jumpinjeff]

You seem to be progressing faster than I in these early stages. I love the recognition of being capable of playing the first ling or the first measure. There were days for me when I joined when the best I could do was that 10min. struggle session with the daily of the day (10 min) and then I would go back and play the Monday warm up challenge until somebody would throw something at me….(lots of repetition for me to learn).

I will also say that it took me a long time before I was confident that Tony’s program would work for me. I continued to practice self instruction to my own detriment. I had a light bulb moment when I realized I am paying for this teacher I may want to do it the way he is suggesting. It was then that I put my head down and just did the lessons as they came, that was my first priority. After that I would usually work on songs I wanted to learn. Once I figured out how scales and chords where the same thing just different intervals and the nature of how music is built around tonic centers followed by triads followed by pentatonic scales followed by octave scales followed by subdivisions of tonal half’s and thirds and that a fretboard is circular not linear my world changed. It took me longer than most. My long learning times were related to stubbornness, I am sure of it. If I were to do it again, I would really drill the daily challenges and work less on learning how to play songs. The learning of songs may have been also what slowed my progress. Truley the songs I wanted to play…I was not physically capable of playing. There is a benefit though, I did remain engaged and connected and strung together 400 days and change on my longest streak. That benefit is noteworthy and must be acknowledged. I put that description of when my playing world began to change to illustrate a point. When I started I had no idea at all the points of information that I needed to know were so many in order to play the way that I wanted. Now that I know them, I am glad there are so many as it makes the experience all the richer. Also when I started I would not have been able to understand what that was talking about. If you don’t, no worries, keep hanging around and you will. I will make sure you do if that is where you want to go on this journey, as long as you are around (and I am too).

Learning guitar is harder than eating an elephant. Where do you want to start eating. Does it really matter or is it important to just eat because the whole thing needs to be digested. That is my after the fact macro view. I would have hated hearing that at the start though, even if it was true for me. I had many many people lend their knowledge and experience because they loved music. I would not have made it without them. Found them here on TAC!

[jumpinjeff]

@PickinmyPocket : Hey there Michael,

I will take a stab at an explanation. The Blues are like moonshine. All those bands you mentioned are like a Pousse Cafe cocktail. For learning purposes a bartender first learns how to pour an ounce into a shot glass. Then after you can pour and ounce accurately and precisely, you learn how to make a Pousse Cafe.

Blues are foundational as opposed to highly decorated. If you take the decoration out of the Rolling Stones you get Muddy Waters.

How did your strong dislike for the blues develop? I would not play Ripple (Grateful Dead tune) for years because it reminded me of church music. I figured that one out.

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

[jumpinjeff]

I have never met a bass player I didn’t like. Welcome @Knowtown

[jumpinjeff]

Whats up @MartyP ? Great question. I spent a good deal of time figuring this out early on in my journey. What I have seen and heard: strings do change over time. Different strings age differently. Santa Cruz strings, as much as I complain about their high price, have a coating process different from others. Santa Cruz coats the metal wrapping before the strings are wound. If it is longevity you are looking for this is probably the best option. Other end of the spectrum is my personal favs, D’addario phosphor bronze. These strings will change tone even when they are not played. The bronze oxidizes and losses some of the sparkle over time. I get about 100 hours out of the Phosphor-bronze strings. There are folks who prefer the more percussive sound of the “dead string”. More often than not I will unintentionally break a string somewhere in that time frame and be forced to change out the strings anyway. I love changing the strings on my guitar. It is my chance to look inside, peek under the hood as it were, do a good exterior clean, paying special attention to the fret board, check the fasteners on the tuning machines. It reminds me of when I would spend hours under the hood of my car, when I was a kid, just messing around, getting the lay of the land.

[jumpinjeff]

Hi @Paul_B , I forgot to get to your question….I am working on Santana’s Europa. It is one of those songs that is a complete tonic story, I have been working on it for 6 years. I will probably never stop working on it because the more I work on it the more I unlock new secrets. Here is an example, I found a way to play melodically on one string and all the frets in a minor third for a 12 bar cycle. This song has been my ear trainer, finger trainer, and mind expander.

[jumpinjeff]

days seem like mere hours. : )

[jumpinjeff]

that might be less about your strings and a reflection of stable humidity in your guitars’ environs. Strings for sure stretch when they are new and the stretch can be done all at once at the time of first tuning (manually) or it can be done slowly over time by continually tuning for a few hours.

[jumpinjeff]

for sure @langerking , it is sad. Apologies for ranting on your comment. My disdain for musical suppression is hard to contain. Yep that is a trigger for me : )

[jumpinjeff]

lets see, Eagles model or Grateful dead model. I am going with the successful grateful dead model. In 100 years nobody will know who Don Henley was and people will still be singing Robert Hunter songs. Don, you have gone too far. What Don does not recognize yet: He is robbing Future Peter to pay Paul today. I end with this. Those with a creative font overflowing like the gold of sunshine will not worry, their creativity secures the future. Those who got lucky and stole with sporadic creative flow will guard like a Doberman (Zeus and Apollo come to mind).

[jumpinjeff]

by the time I drive to the lesson and count the drive time home I could have played two lessons with Tony plus had a 30 min jam sesh. Don’t get me wrong, I have a fantastic teacher there is no way I would have been able to learn as much in weekly face to face one on ones as compared to the Daily Challenges here. It is hard for someone starting out to see how much is covered here. Heck I have been at this for 9 years and I still pull deeply embedded musical truth out of the challenges. : ) If I could design a perfect plan it would be TAC Challenges daily + deep dive and rabbit holes in the forum + 1hr a week private + One strum circle or jam sesh with live other people weekly. That is direct perscription from the guitar farmacy. This is for years 1 – 5

[jumpinjeff]

You have it right @langerking : just a matter of when. Keep after it and it will improve.

[jumpinjeff]

I was able to use the forums to reconcile the reality between my physical limitations and my hearts desire. Thank you Forum Folk!

[jumpinjeff]

Headed for lightspeed now Moose, buckle up! : )

[jumpinjeff]

the bar reprents the nut. There are 5 opened shaped major chords. Once you move out of open territory you have to remember that if moved up three frets the Em pent shape (now a Gm pent shape due to the location change) will have what use to be open strings now covered on the fret where you put your index to bar for an Em shaped Gm scale. I am not saying you should bar this but keep track of it as a point or reference. My index likes to have a good home base. I will bar for raking or tritone effect but I don’t leave it barred.

[jumpinjeff]

Moose, good catch I was getting ahead in order of lessons. I will point out one thing to consider. All the pent shapes are chords, in fact every pent scale has within it a chord/triad and once you are aware it is easy to see the corresponding CAGED chord shapes in every scale shape. Kinda cool. I would go further by saying every chord/triad is the foundation that the Pent scale builds on by adding two notes. That is then the foundation for the Octave scale (two half steps) when two more notes have been added. Root Note, Chord, Pent scale, Octave scale. That is the hammer and nails of improvisation in order of complexity.