jumpinjeff
Forum Replies Created
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The best guitar is the guitar you love. If you don’t love one, pick the cheapest you can find with a sound you like and start dating other guitars. If you don’t know why you should love one, stick around, keep playing your inexpensive one and you will begin to develop preferences.
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I feel one thing when I play now…..I feel free. When I play I am exploring infinity in a seemingly finite way. Many years of daily effort where itegral to this process. I started getting flashes and glimmers along the way that always kept me chasing the next challenge. I had a mentor who used to tell me that at some point I would not have to think about what the next note is…I would just intuitively play it. I thought he was patronizing me and I was not one of those people….I was dead wrong. It has come to pass. Just in case anyone who reads this may think they are not one of those people who can just play: I have no innate musical talent, what I did get in abundance at birth was determination…..what is the difference between the two? the musically gifted get the freedom in a tenth of the time. Can anyone get this? Yes!! But if you have no innate talent only determination will take you there over time. So much so that time itself becomes just a marker and not a goal.
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Welcome Suzette. And away we go……
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What is music? It is repetition. There are other online teachers out there who do teach how to play guitar but I have yet to find a one that integrates learning from the beginner to the advanced player. The other teachers are great treachers. They are more expensive. For results, the intuitive knowledge of thirds is about mandatory. Without that knowledge you may get stuck in learning just that on your own. If you don’t have that maybe another year of TAC will get you to that place.
I want to touch on the subject of repetition. I intitially did not want nor did I appreciate the value of repetition. It took me a few years to figure out that by embracing repetition I was shortcutting my time to achievement. Music is repetition….the coolest songs have the cleverest repeats. The riff driving a tune over and over then slightly varied is the source of the earworm in the songs we elevate to favorites. It was a watershed moment when I grasped the full value of repetition. I recommend it…if you can stand it. It is in “repetition” where I work out the kinks and find the voice of the guitar. -
If you are buying I prefer Santa Cruz but if I am buying , D’addario EJ-16s in bulk.
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I may get some boos here but my advise is to listen more…..think about it but then listen, really listen. The note thing is a matter of time. I think it helps some people to actively pusue identification and location but for me…I am an ear player…..everything is relative….the 1st degree, aka tonic tone and the progressions changes compared to everything around it. I rarely am lost today and when and if I do it is two notes to get back on track or only one when I am focused. Trust me when I say I used to hate when people would tell me to listen and feel it….but it did happen when I put it into practice…..Perhaps approaching FW with a new perspective focus…is the note higher or lower…may yeild for you some surprising results. I wish we were closer in real life. I see a tremendous advantage for working this out with another guitar player in person if you can find that.
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The thing that worked for me was repetition on the strings: pushing past boredom for the reward of strength and flexibility on the other side. What I did not expect, practicing this, I was also training my ear without knowing it. This also meant that I would have to stop and stretch (silly putty stretching). My fingers were always strong enough it was precision and accuracy that allowed me to learn to play with barely touching a string to get the desired sound. Precision is key. Even in bar chords, once I became precise about applied pressure bar chords became easy. Most bar chords involve the bar on only three strings. Your other fingers hold down the three others. That realization came through repetition.
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release pressure on the strings but keep contact. He uses the middle finger to contact the open strings otherwize not in contact with the fingers making the chords.
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I can relate to the “old fingers too fat to play”! I fixed it by changing to: everytime I play my fingers get slimmer and more flexible. Once I got that cemented I played all the time.
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Chordie is an app that has tens of thousands of songs with chords and lyrics. It is free, no commercials. No need to duplicate that here. I saw it pointed out but it bears repeating: TAC uses songs to teach guitar but does not teach how to perform any given song. It essentially gives you the recipe and ingredients but you have to prep and cook. The focus is on the specific skills within a single song that are tranferable to any song. If you are brand new I totally get how the concept seems like it doesn’t serve you but it is the shortest road to playing skillfully with confidence on any song including songs you have never heard before. The between the lines is understanding “song forms” allow you to play all the songs, And I get how that seems confusing but it is as real as “not being able to play the wrong note”, or knowing the next chord or note without thinking about what or where your fingers should be. TAC is the opposite of sites that teach finger choreography,
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Now we have something to work with!! What is currently preventing you from picking a 4 chord song and playing it? You have that desire, you have some experience, what is blocking your path, as it were. I’ll go first: the biggest thing blocking my progress was my own expectation. I have a list of 4 but will leave you with just the one…no need to put yours in the Forum it is mostly rhetorical. If you can suss out what is blocking you, then we can get you fast tracked to your desired outcome. You have good things going on. Your song list is cool. You have developed your habit. You are slowly increasing your playing times. These are all key components to sustained improvement. Thumbs up there. How are you doing with the fun component?
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Right with you Pete. I would teach someone if they wanted but I would only work with them if they were also doing the challenges TAC offers.
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I can play longer with less finger fatigue when I am playing santa cruz strings.
How I touch the strings makes a way bigger difference in tone than the string itself. -
100% this @petelanger , this is the path to freedom and fun on the fretboard.
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wanna be pickers keep their guitars in their cases. Tac is a communty of Daily players of varying skills, not wanna be players. Learning yes, wanna be no. Wanna be players don’t last long with the TAC method. The two mindsets are antithetical.