jumpinjeff
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My passion for guitar and the time spent working on the great music puzzle replaced, Ceramics, Painting, Reading (I have not read a book in years unless it was about guitars), Car collecting. I think all those things may have been a place marker, holding my time so I would be ready to dive headlong into playing guitar. Guitar is now my everything and I am happy.
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@AttyTJ : so cool to read and think about your journey. I had a blast when we got together IRL and just won’t settle for virtual as long as real world opportunities are available. I wish you fast progress and I would wish you easy progress too but we are far enough along to understand “easy” to the point it makes me giggle. I will surely wish you fun and adventure at every turn on the path and I hope we can make a Winterfest in CO a reality. I am super happy to have been an observer of you progress and really glad I have come to know you. Keep playing, don’t stop no matter what.
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Tony P does a great job of explaining how to hold the flat pick and how to use it in the Flat pick jumpstart course located in the skills section.
Also my personal experience is I held my pick way too firmly. All my motion was too big. Initially I was unaware of how to balance the pick, instead making up for the lack of balance with the death grip. Less Tension, more relaxation, less movement, more sound
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I see the pic too @Marty69 . Very cool. 12 fret is an excellent addition to the guitarsenal. Do you have it yet or are you obsessively tracking every hour or so? hehe.
You really think people leave because they cant post a pic? I know why I am here. I wanna learn to play guitar. I wanna learn it inside out and upside down, backwards and forwards and everything between the lines. Admittedly I may be the odd duck.
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Suggesting to keep present. Just do today’s lesson today. And If you still have time do this weeks warm up challenge too. It is a doozey in the best of ways. The past is the past. Your immediate past involves a fantastic trip. As long as you return to tried and true practice you will hit your stride when you do. Play for today, play for the moment at hand. Look forward to seeing what you missed when it rolls around again. You can feel the anticipation building, right?
All you lost you shall regain. Regain the same way you gained it to begin with….10 minutes at a time (wink). Overdo is as disadvantageous as underdo. Settle in, start walking, the path is clear.
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in the beginning it does not matter. The first set you buy will start developing your ear as to what sound you want and what sound you don’t. I play D’Addario EJ 16s on many of my guitars. They are inexpensive, and after about 10hours of playing they sound pretty much the way I want to sound. After you try those try the SantaCruz Light strings. They are balanced tension strings and coated. They are expensive but last 3 times longer in my experience. The balanced tension strings may feel better for your fingers? (I’ve been told)…you decide. Then try some Elixirs. They are coated and are too slippery for my liking but others swear by them, again, you get to decide. It would be useful to know what gauge strings are currently on your guitar. To keep the same set up (the way the guitar plays, sting height) the replacements should be the same gauge.
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What’s up @JoeyKaye . Welcome to TAC. Wishing you fast progress.
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Its been too long Ernesto! Glad the guitar is back in your arms. Wishing as alway peace and fast progress.
Say, there must be a story in how you put down the guitar for two years. Whatever the reason I am happy you are back.
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Wa’sUp @chuckson : Yes the hand cramp thing is a bummer. Here is the quick and dirty. When it starts to hurt, stop playing. When it stops hurting, play more. Over the course of time and time on the fretboard, you will learn how to precisely place your fingers, you will develop rock hard calluses (this is important to understand…the harder your calluses are the less pressure it takes to make a clean note) and you will develop an intuitive understanding of how little you actually need to press in order to obtain the sound you want. In the mean time play the daily challenges. They are a fantastic way to get your fingers in shape. We are not born with our fingers in guitar shape enough to play guitar. Be patient. Focus on your effort. Leave your outcomes/assessments for later evaluation. If you are having trouble with a chord play the chord in time and release in time. On and off. Then when you have a feel play on for two beats and rest two beats, then four beats on and four beats off and so on. This technique of on and off will also start honing your senses so that you learn what the least amount of effort it takes to make the chord sound you want. Most of all find a way to have fun while you are getting your fingers in shape. Of everything I said, this last thing is the most important of all.
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🙂
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Just remember to do the difficult moves you have to be in shape. There is a good volume of instruction out there on how to play songs but there is very little out there on how to get into the shape you need in order to execute the choreography necessary to play what you want to play. TAC is the only place I have found (and I have looked extensively) where that is the focus.
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You have accurately observed that TAC method is not a song learning platform. I find its value to be in learning how to play guitar, which is different than learning how to play a song. TAC is the Gym, not the Game Field. Without it I would not be able to play the songs that I decide to learn.
Fun seeing you the other day @Ron-N on Michael Watts show! Be well and play constantly with effortless reckless abandon!
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I have a strong feeling that the answer is both. The strings will oxidize regardless but if you put dirt salt and sweat on them the oxidize faster. Even strings that are never played will go dead from oxidation. Here is the advantage for coated strings. Less exposure to oxidation and resistant to the agents accelerating oxidation. If I were going to play a certain guitar once a week only (as if) I would use coated strings. I wipe stings down frequently every coupla hours or so. You would be amazed to see the dirt that comes off of strings after 3 hours of playing. I would put my string time for uncoated strings around 80-100 hours.
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It is noisy when it is on full blast. I would turn it off or down if I were playing. You could have a conversation no problem but you know something in whirrrring. Way less loud than a vacuum cleaner for sure. More like the sound of a quiet clothes drier.