N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
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I enjoy all of Tony’s lessons, but how do you know what to keep as favorites? The technique section is filled with items I need to improve on. I could spend two hours a day just on one new technique, but raley have time to back to them because a new one appears each week, not to mention the new lessons tue – Fri.
I feel like I am getting exposed to really good material, but don’t have time to really get good at it.
How do some of you handle this difficult issue. Would love to hear some ideas.
Hey @Kerby ;
I feel that everyone answered your explicit question, but I don’t feel anyone really addressed the implied question.
So, let me state the implied question: “How do I organize my time to deal with this overwhelming flood of guitar lessons?”
If I could answer that question, then I believe the first question would become pretty obvious, especially with the advice already given in the previous comments.
Tony’s method has to be examined to answer the question. Tony is not trying to give us a series of technique lessons or song lessons, as is the common approach. That approach feels satisfying to someone wanting to learn guitar, but unfortunately, it has been shown to be quite ineffective.
What research shows about learning anything involving muscle memory, is 2 main things: repetition and making mistakes. Oh, and one more very important thing: having fun.
Let’s see how Tony method covers those bases. Every week, the lessons cover 5 basic guitar skills. Monday’s lessons could be said to be the most important as they build the actual fretting and picking skills to play guitar. Yes, they can be “boring”, but we are only talking about doing them for a few minutes. If you do them for a few minutes a day, in a relatively short period of time, your skill improves remarkably. So if we start our practice session throughout the week with Monday’s lesson, by the end of the week we would actually see that particular skill improved.
Tuesday and Thursday are pretty easy to see how they fit into our improvement as musicians and guitarists. But Friday seems to get misunderstood. We already have a “chord progression” day on Thursday. Friday is “chord transitions”. We only want to focus on 2 chords at a time. And we want to go from one to the other very slowly and build our ability to make that particular transition in time at increasing speed using a metronome after we have the basic chord change down. As an example, going from D major to B minor is NOT the same as going from G major to B minor. You may think once you learn B minor it doesn’t matter where you’re coming from, but you’d be very wrong.
Wednesday, we learn scales, which are important to understanding the music theory, but more importantly, it gives us a chance to practice coming up with our own licks instead of learning licks by rote like on Tuesday. We want to play scales “musically”.
Now all of these lessons are challenging so that we will make mistakes. And since we have the “same” lesson every Monday in that it always works on technique but it is a different exercise week to week we get the repetition. And because they are “handed to us on a silver plater”, we don’t have to figure out what to play. These lessons are fun when we spend only a few minutes AND DON’T TRY TO MASTER THEM, ANY OF THEM! That is actually part of the process, DON’T TRY TO MASTER THEM.
These lessons are also fun because they sound musical. Now everyone one of us who “trusted the process” and stopped worrying about how to “keep up” with this overwhelming amount of instruction, found that we improved steadily over time. Yes, learning guitar takes time, but this proved to be the FASTEST way to learn.
It has already been mentioned that the lessons will come around again. If you really like a lesson and want to put in extra work on it other than the 10 minutes the day it was presented, then favorite it. But when you DON’T FAVORITE a lesson, you’ll be blown away when it comes around 8 to 11 months later how much better you can do the lesson without ever having worked on it again. And that’s when you start realizing this works even though it’s counter-intuitive.
Some people stick with the standard skills or song lessons and don’t realize the slow but steady progress over time. And it doesn’t end. We just keep getting better and better. TAC has turned a few of it’s members into professional quality performers. I’m not there yet, but I’m bearing down on it.
I hope this answers your implied question, Kerby.
MG 😀
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Wow, @TMutter ;
I am very impressed with your presentation of this song. I never heard it, but I could actually hear David Crosby in it. Great job.
I love your original songs. I really like your lyrics. But it’s also how you can play them. This performance of yours makes me think maybe I should learn more cover songs so I can learn more styles of playing and writing songs. I’m assuming you learned those up the neck chord shapes because you learned this song. But now you can use those in your own songs.
Anyway, great job. And yeah, all our guitar heroes are getting old enough to fizzle out. Oh, wait, that means we’re getting older too. Hmm, that sounds like a song. 😎
MG 😀
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That’s tremendous, @mcarlson_sb . First, guitar is difficult to learn and takes a long time. Most people give up simply because the progress seems so slow. Here on TAC people get faster than normal progress but it is still slow. The cool thing about TAC is the slow progress doesn’t stop, it just keeps going long term. So we can confidently say the progress is slow but steady. So you have a lot to look forward to.
However, you can have fun right now. What do you have to do? Exactly what you are doing. You are learning a few things that sound good and that is something you need to give yourself kudos for.
But an even bigger deal is you have recorded yourself. That’s a big and sometimes scary hurdle you have crossed. Big win right there.
But even more! You shared it with us. You are only 4 weeks in and you have a recording and shared it with the community. Wow. Keep up the great work.
Now, you can share your guitar journey with us and participate in our guitar journey. We do that through this forum. And it can grow beyond that, too. I look forward to hearing more from you, Matthew.
MG 😀
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Hello again, Matthew @mcarlson_sb .
I went to your profile page and found this:
“I want to learn to play music.
I’ve tried before but it the practice pieces never SOUND like music. They sound rough and painful or incomplete.
The closest I’ve come to fun is being able to play some basic finger style rifs”
It seems to me your practice sounds rough and painful is because of “self fulfilling prophecy”. You were told as a child that you sound terrible and you believed that. So, you are making it true.
As I said in my first post, your biggest obstacle now is your own thoughts and feelings. I made the suggestion to use affirmations. I stick with that. However, I want to add something else.
You need to be TOTALLY OK WITH SOUNDING TERRIBLE. You, Matthew. You need to be totally ok with your own sound even if it’s “rough and painful or incomplete”. In fact, you need to LOVE YOUR OWN SOUND, no matter what it is.
Also, you need to learn that others can be totally ok with your sounding terrible. You said your wife is wonderful and supportive and likes to listen to you practice. So, talk to her and find out why. Is it because she knows that everyone starts out not sounding very good and she’s ok with that? Or is it because you are ACTUALLY WRONG about sounding terrible? This problem could be easier to overcome if you are misjudging your playing and practicing. Now, I think that’s very possible given what you were told as a child.
I want to repeat what I said: What you were told as a child regarding practicing music was CHILD ABUSE. I am not kidding or exaggerating. The problem now is that you are perpetuating this abuse. Learn to love and comfort your “inner child”. Again, I’m not kidding or exaggerating. You need to stop this abuse you have suffered for so long.
Is this easy? No! I have had my own struggles with abusive self doubts. I have come a long way but I am taking your issue so personally because I still have more to go in dealing with “unfair” self thoughts.
MG 😀
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Let’s get this straight, @mcarlson_sb , it’s not simply ok to practice. You have a God given right to enjoy your life your way… as long as you consider other people.
However, a child doesn’t know how to apply the principle of being considerate of other people. So obviously, you needed an adult to help you out. You made it very clear what kind of “help” you received when you said:
“It was drilled into me as a child that listening to a beginner practice an instrument was an awful experience. That yes, I should practice but I need to find a way not to be heard. And.Not.To.Bother.People.”
LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT: THIS IS CHILD ABUSE. IF YOUR PARENT OR PARENTS ARE STILL ALIVE, YOU SHOULD TELL THEM HOW WRONG THEY WERE.
This was never supposed to be on you. It was up to your parents to find a solution to this problem. They were not supportive of you and your God given desire to cultivate your musical creativity.
LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT: NOW THAT YOU’RE AN ADULT, IT’S ON YOU!
That doesn’t make it easy to overcome such thoughts. These “guiding principles” that are encoded in childhood are difficult to see and even harder to re-write. My suggestion is affirmations. Say, over and over, “I am allowed to practice my music”. Or write it down a hundred times. Write it on the mirror you look into every morning. Write a song about it. But then you might want to add a few more ideas.
1st, some people are supportive. Some people are supportive but work graveyard, or have to get up early, or are trying to finish a report, etc. Ok, you need to make sure you are not being inconsiderate to those who are supportive but have special needs at a given time and place.
2nd, some people are not supportive. We may think of them as musical grinches, but they have the right to be that way. So, again, give them the space they require.
3rd, you have the right to cultivate this ability, music, that was given to you by your creator. Play. Practice. Record. Play in front of others as often as you can. Experiment with playing for others who want to hear. Experiment with playing for others who DON’T want to hear.
Here are some suggestions:
1) Go into a music store and pick up a guitar. Then make noise, as much as you can bring yourself to make. No, not something you have learned that sounds good. Try your best to be obnoxious. I’m dead serious. And watch the people around you to see their reactions. No matter how obnoxious you manage to be, some people will still be supportive. That’s how you learn it’s NOT YOU, BUT THEM, when people are being musical grinches.
2) Go to justmusicgeeks.com to request to join. When you do, get on the forum and find the calendar listings of Virtual Open Mics and join one to watch. At some point, play for the people there. They will all be supportive no matter what you can do or how many mistakes you make or how nervous you are.
3) Go to a live Open Mic in your area or find a Jam Group in your area and join in. You can go to observe at first without playing. Pretty much everyone there will totally understand your initial qualms about playing in front of others as this is so universal.
Let us know how your progress goes.
MG 😀
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@DHeaton and @MississippiJeff ;
There is a bunch of really good advice here, and much of it is pretty much the same. Don’t get overwhelmed, just put in your 10 minutes TRYING then move on. The choice between skills courses and Daily Challenge is pretty much a personal choice with no right or wrong answer.
So why am I bothering to add anything? Simple. The disorientation you are feeling is pretty much universal. All of us came here expecting some kind of miracle of teaching. Most of us had already experienced how ineffective other ways of teaching were and thought this would be different… well, better that is.
No, the first word was the right one. Different. Many of us feel it is better, but others find the traditional methods of either teaching skills or teaching songs “better”.
So, what is it about TAC that leads me to say it is the best guitar teaching site on the internet? Because of the METHOD that Tony uses. The method of building a routine and learning a complex skill is supported by research and experience. Those who have put enough faith in Tony to try this method have found remarkable results.
I have known a number of people for whom TAC didn’t work so well. When revealing greater detail about their time with TAC, it always comes to light they never really bought into the program and JUST DID IT. They say they did, but it takes 2 things they never gave it: commitment and time.
If you give the dailies 10 minutes every single day, 5 days a week, for 3 months, you will see more improvement than you could have believed possible. That’s when you go from hoping it works to knowing it works and ready to dive in head first. That will be the first real set back. No matter how much you know this really works, you CAN’T SPEED IT UP.
But, now that you KNOW it works, you will be willing to take the next step. If you take this next step, you will be on a journey of slow but steady progress that will take you farther than your wildest dreams. That next step is to join one of the 90 day guitar progress parties on Zoom and use the interactive guitar routine journal to set your own 90 day goals.
Within the first year, if you just have faith, put in the “work”, and have fun, you will find a way to have the guitar be a part of your life forever. You will have what Tony likes to call an “Acoustic Life”. I have an acoustic life. I would never have found it without TAC.
I hope this helps.
MG 😀
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Wow, @Ernesto , I always wondered what happened to you. You had been so active. And then you just stopped? Life happens, right?
I very happy for you that you are back and playing guitar again.
MG 😀
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You bet, @Kerby . Part of the wonder of TAC and music in general is we get to both receive and provide help. It’s a beautiful thing.
MG 😀
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Yes, @TMutter you have done that so well, incorporate techniques and chords you found in cover songs that I was actually able to tell you did that. I was very sure of it. So, now, you have influenced me to make that a conscious effort by your example. Thanks so much.
MG 😀
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👍😊
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That’s awesome, @mcarlson_sb . That’s a great step. I wanted to say first step, but you’ve already taken a number of steps. You have a guitar. You joined TAC. You reached out to the community through the forum. There may well be quite a few other steps. So you are walking the road of your guitar journey. It’s started and you are moving forward. Your way beyond your “first” step, you are progressing down the road. Time to give yourself some congratulations for all these wins.
MG 😀
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That’s very interesting, @Ernesto . So one thing I figured out at some point in my adult life is that we never have “free” time. No matter what I do with my 24 hours, everyone does something, even if that’s simply staring at the walls. So when we start doing something new, that means we stop doing something we had been doing. So it’s always about “trading” time, rather than using “free” time.
That having been said, you came in TAC with a vengeance. You were all in, giving SO much of your time to TAC, so you obviously just suddenly stopped doing things you had been doing. I guess you must be like me, an all or nothin’ kinda person.
Anyway, I’m glad you’re back and good luck on learning to be more balanced. I’ve been trying to be more balanced for a lot of years. Have I made any progress at all? Yeah, a little, maybe, in the last few years. I hope you can find balance quicker and easier than I have since I’m 67 now and still more out of balance than in balance.
MG 😀
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Hey @DHeaton ;
Studies show that making mistakes is crucial to learning. Basically, the 2 most important components to learning are repetition and making mistakes. So, that’s what the Daily Challenge gives us. That’s what @Loraine meant when she said “welcome to the world of TAC”, get used to repetition and mistakes and just have fun.
Here is a recent YouTube video discussing “Learning Skills Faster” and it talks about how making mistakes fits into this process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30sc4TpZtt8
Number one rule: Have Fun.
MG 😀
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👍🙏😊