N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
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@Loraine , you have been an inspiration to so many of us. And why? For the very reason that you’ve faced so many challenges and kept going.
You said: “I decided a long time ago to simply put myself out there, good and bad, and I’ve grown as a player from doing so. I hope I’ve inspired a few to not be so critical of themselves, to trust the process, to be open to failure, but also to great success.
Who cares if you are perfect?!? That’s not what TAC is about. TAC is about learning foundational skills, and it promotes progress over perfection. It’s all about moving forward in your journey and not getting caught up on having to be perfect.”
Life doesn’t seem fair sometimes. I’ve never worked as hard as you. The statement you made is what I need to implement in my guitar journey. This statement is why you are such a huge inspiration.
I’ve made a lot of progress on “putting myself out there” and not “having to be perfect”, yet it’s still my biggest problem.
Thank you for posting your TACiversary. And thank you for telling us how you’ve done it. And thank you for reminding me what I need to focus on… the most.
MG 🙂
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Ok, the title of my little story. “New Start”.
I’ve recently been trying to get a handle on “the Blues”. So, I’m starting the “30 Days to Play” Challenge/Course over again.
I know I’ll get more out of it this time… a lot more. I think I’m finally at the point to actually learn the “music” that Tony shows and just skip the “knowledge” that might be contained in the lessons.
P.S. – Given my propensity to learn head knowledge, I’ve actually learned so much music theory that I’m a theory expert. (That’s too bad as the theory has stumbled me. Theory can help if we don’t try to “control” the music but simply “express” the music that comes from inside.) Anyway, it’s interesting to teach music theory and know hardly anything about actual music.
Maybe I’ll write a song titled “Brainiac”. =)
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Ok, so I’m back. I’m still trying to figure out how to word my experience with music. Here’s what Victor Wooten says in his book, “The Music Lesson”:
There are 10 elements of music (one way to divide it up into elemental parts).
1 Notes
2 Articulation
3 Technique
4 Feel
5 Dynamics
6 Rhythm
7 Tone
8 Phrasing
9 Space
10 ListeningThen he makes the point that melody, harmony, keys, scales, major, minor, 7ths, diminished, augmented, etc, are all part of “notes”. That means that very little is taught about the other 9 elements.
All of this means 2 things that relate to my TACiversary. 1) I have had to learn the other 9 elements on my own. (Like all of us who didn’t learn as kids at the feet of relatives who were “natural” musicians.) The more I learn about these other elements the more I understand what a music instructor is trying to tell me. 2) Tony does a better job of trying to help us understand the other 9 elements than most music instructors.
It turns out, you can’t really “teach” this stuff, but you can “show” it. Tony uses words and academic understanding as little as possible and does as much “showing” as possible. Since I live from my mind, this has been difficult for me to grasp. But, slow by little, I’m getting it.
Ok, this blurb is long enough. I’ll finally get to point in the next “installment”.
MG 🙂
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Hello @tonyf60
I was not going to reply once I read @Loraine ‘s comment. She gave the precise answer. Dominant is a term from Functional Harmony. All the 7 notes, or more specifically, the 7 degrees (the positions within the octave, what you know as “the matrix”), are given names in Functional Harmony. The only ones you hear regularly are the dominant, or 5th degree, and the tonic, the 1st degree and the octave, the 8th degree.
Normally, no one calls the 5th triad the dominant chord, but it is. You will usually only hear the name “dominant” when the 4th note is added. The reason for the special name, dominant 7th, is because it is the only major chord found in a diatonic scale, or your matrix, that has a minor 7th.
What @SoCal_Ian shared, is the “formula” for the dominant 7th. Formulas are derived from the tonic, or root, of the major scale. So, if you look at the root of the major scale, you have a major triad with a major 7th as it’s 4th note. So, the “formula” for the dominant 7th is to flat that 4th note, the “7th”. Thus, it’s formula is 1 3 5 b7.
Hopefully now, you can reconcile the direct explanation Loraine gave with the extra info Ian gave. Both are valuable as you will hear people refer to the “flat 7”, but you will know exactly where that “flat 7” comes from and thus, why it’s a minor 7th instead of a major 7th.
Ok, so the “simple” answer to your question, it’s the 5th degree, or 5th note in the chord matrix.
MG 🙂
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Hello @Rob503 ;
I used to frequent the forum all the time. Now, not so much. So, here I am responding to your post after you’ve had many, many replies. So many in fact that I haven’t read all the replies. I haven’t even read one reply. Oh, one more in fact, I’m not gonna read a single reply.
I don’t need to read the replies to know you’ve received a lot of support and great ideas on how to approach your guitar journey in a different and more fulfilling way. But, I’m still gonna give you my 2 cents.
The difficulty lies in the fact that we started learning as adults. It’s not our fingers or Tony’s instruction that’s causing difficulties, it’s our head. We need to change our perception.
Let’s start with this. Go back and re-read what you, yourself, wrote in your original post. Now, imagine a 12 year old kid who was given a guitar. He’s wanted a guitar for a while. Now, he finally has it. But, his parents can’t even afford lessons, at least not yet. But the kid is in heaven.
Now, is that kid “sad in Phoenix”? No, that kid’s having a blast. Is that kid playing his favorite songs right out of the gate? No, his parents keep begging him to close his bedroom door. Is that kid gonna learn as fast as you with this great lesson plan? No, but he doesn’t care. He’ll get there and he’ll have fun all the way.
Do I need to explain all this to you? No, I don’t think so. Go back to the very first lesson in 30 Day To Play Guitar. That first thing is a song. In fact, it’s a song structure that appears in a ton of music. Stick with that until it sounds good.
If that’s too steep a path, then let’s try something else. Just thump on the 6th string, the low E. Just thump, thump, thump, thump… find a rhythm and a sound that’s cool. STOP trying to learn guitar and START trying to make sounds that are cool. That entertain your grandkid. That cause you to have FUN.
If you can’t figure out how to have fun, then you need more help than I’m qualified to give.
MG 🙂
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I can not tell you the story you want to hear, @BrandonK , because I was not a total beginner when I joined TAC. However…
I had picked up the guitar 20 years earlier as a middle aged adult and only learned from a book. Most of those 20 years, the guitar sat in a corner. I like to say I played off and on, mostly off.
So I cannot claim to have been a total beginner. But basically, I was still at a beginner level with most of my skills. And like you, I felt like I was doing TAC incorrectly.
Before I expose how our thinking is/was wrong, let me say one more thing about beginners. In my time at TAC, I saw numerous people join who were a complete beginner before TAC. I always envied them because their progress was like a rocket ship taking off compared to mine. Now, don’t get me wrong, learning guitar is difficult and slow for everyone. Their advancement was fast compared to mine. It still felt slow and tedious to them.
Ok, so what’s wrong with our thinking? Simple, we’re adults. Adults have learned to be stupid. Kids learn faster than adults. Kids learn exactly like the TAC method, but their brain doesn’t get involved trying to tell them “how it should go”. One of our members, @jumpinjeff , came up with an expression that fits here. “Expectation is where fun goes to die”.
Get your brain out of the way and just have fun. Do the best you can and move on. That’s how a kid would have fun. They’d get bored if they stayed on one thing trying to perfect it. But they must have something right cause they learn faster. For a while, it seems like they are getting nowhere. Then suddenly, you look again and you’re surprised by how much they’ve improved.
Now, because we’re adults and we’ve learned to be stupid, you gotta “trick” your brain. You need to pay close attention to how well you can do each little skill and technique. Write it down or take a video. That way you can see that you have, in fact, improved. If you’ve been here 35 days and picked up your guitar every day, then you’ve improved more than you realize. Others could see it, but you’re not going to see it without special effort.
So the special effort needed is not anything different with learning guitar than you’ve already been doing. The special effort needed is to notice your improvement and give yourself pats on the back. Most of us suck at that.
MG
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Yes, @BarbaraM , it is definitely worth the money. In fact, you’ll find it one of the best values you’ll ever spend your guitar money on.
It takes multiple times to really get music theory into your fibers and on your guitar. Most people take Fret Wiz multiple times because it is actually fun. Once you buy it you own it for life.
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Thanks for letting us know, @Brian2501
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Wow, @albert_d , that’s a really positive compliment, thank you so much.
I have suffered depression and struggled with negativity. So now a days, I try really hard to stay in a positive place. Music sure helps with that.
Guitar is challenging for all of us. Anyone who keeps moving forward has to stay positive and just keep enjoying the journey.
MG 🙂
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Thank you @Marty73 . It’s been fun sharing the journey with you. 🙂
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Thank you so much, @TerriG .
I appreciate your kind words of support. Yes, creativity works the same in different areas. It seems to come and go on it’s own schedule. But, we stick to it and we keep growing.
MG 🙂
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Thank you so much, @jumpinjeff for reading and leaving encouragement for me. We really do push each other along.
I’m actually going through Victor’s book a 2nd time right now. Other people have to go through Fretboard Wizard multiple times to really get it. I understood one time. Ah, but Victor’s book will take me the 4 or 5 times through to get a real handle on it.
MG 🙂
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You might be able to afford a used computer, @BarbaraM . Go to NewEgg.com and buy a refurbished business computer. For about $300 you should be able to get a very capable computer that runs windows 10.
In fact, you can also buy refurbished computers on Amazon.
MG 🙂
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It seems like you are confused about being correct. G is major. C is major. A is minor. So your string of lower case and upper case letters are correct given the string of Gs, Cs, and As.
MG 🙂
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Music is such a wonderful thing, @Rob503 . My only hope for you is that you can enjoy it.