[jumpinjeff]

only one question from me @Rob503 , did you pick up your guitar and play today. If nothing else follow Tony. It is simple and it works. 10 min. Listen, think, play. Keep those eyes closed. Once the guitar is in your hands it doesn’t change positions. Work on connecting your ears to your fingers. You are going into uncharted waters. Have an adventure. Remember we are all adventuring together with the maps Tony provides. Hang in there. I am hanging right next to you. : )

[jumpinjeff]

The only way I found was through repetition. Picking songs I love was part of the success as I had to play them thousands of times. As I get further down the road, I realize the songs I liked were prototypical. One song applies to about 100 others. By learning one song so well I could wear it intuitively, I was learning 100s of others.

That learning period between when you start and when you are ready to play out is tough to endure. That is one of the beauties of sharing stuff you are working on here. We all know how it goes. Here we look at the presentation and identify what is good. It is less about what needs to improve as that is the point of being here. The presenter is always very aware, more than anyone else, what needs work.

Playing and recording your play speeds up progress especially with learning a song but is not exclusive to song learning. Share you recording or not, that is up to you but the exercise of recording should be worked into your music practices for fastest results.

[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 2 years 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]

That would be cooler than a China Clipper calling Alameda.

[jumpinjeff]

Well Jeez @Loraine Just c’mover and I will play it for you….may be easier. : ) I’ll See what I can get that will demonstrate this amazing concept so captivating me at the moment.

[jumpinjeff]

This is getting to the core of how TAC’s model is different from other systems. You nailed it @langerking . I am pretty sure I could go on for a volume or two on this subject. There are two thing particular to consider. One is: “we all want to play songs.” Why? What is the real reason? Fun? sure but why? I had to first get honest, explore the answer and then find something meaningful to shoot for. It is when I abandoned performative and adopted communicative as my modus operandi. This though is very specific to me. Each finds their own way. Second is Finger Choreography vs Becoming a player. This relates to how I was hampered initially by learning songs. My early attempts were that of learning choreography. I had no idea how the puzzle fit, I was just trying to make one little picture. I became super focused on a result without giving equal focus to how the result I desired was achieved. Do it over and over until you get it right and then continue doing it until you cant get it wrong. That was my mentality. It was too many bits of random info. This old brain could not keep it all straight without context. Another problem was inadequate physical preparation and not having the kinesthetic awareness so that no matter how many times I did it I would not be able to do it. It was like learning how to run a marathon by running a marathon. Sure it is possible but man the next day is a bummer and do you want to do it again any time soon. I had to hunker down and build chops doing chunks of things, put in some miles as it were, in order for me to play what I wanted to play . All the while right in front of me in the form of daily challenges,the workouts were laid out, beautifully plain. It is true I could have taken any one of my intentions songs and broken it into chunks and in fact I did with Stormy Monday, Allman Bros tune, with a teacher, one on one. It was costly dollarwise and I didn’t really know what to do with it…yet. So Tony does all the breaking down and I don’t have to think about it….over time I learned that what I initially questioned, Tony got spot on. Is it my favorite song, Europa? No but it is music that is perfect for teaching. That was my path to get to Europa as I am ready. How do I know?…it is measured by enjoyment. When the dopamine is flowing I know! Final analysis: perhaps my own overemphasis on learning songs hampered my learning. I can see there is a beneficial balance. Could have gotten to where I am today more quickly without my imbalance? probably. I did not adjust fast enough. Eventually I got it.

Fall in love with the process. Let the outcome be what it will be. Control how you play in the future by how you play today. Play without tension, make eliminating tension your ongoing goal. Never chase speed. You will never catch it. You can sneak up on it though a few bpms at a time! This is the path to happy playing. You are finding it, as up your enjoyment it will continue. Play the guitar and the songs will just pour out and you will never have to play another song. Okay now I have to go play my silverstringed wooden box.

Thanks for asking. Wish I could condense it to a shorter version : )

[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