N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
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Hello @MiRu ;
I totally get you. Two levels, guitar skill and money!
So, here’s the thing: guitar?… yeah, it’s gonna take waaaaay longer than you wanted. It takes waaaaaay longer than anyone ever wanted. That’s exactly why soooo many people stop playing it, or just mess around with it for years without ever getting hardly any better.
Ok, so $200 is a lot of money to me. I’m not one of those who can layout the cash for a $3500 guitar. And then save up my pennies for a custom built guitar that costs maybe $15,000. I bought a sub $500 guitar, and that took some effort. Then, I saved up my pennies for an $800 guitar. Yeah, that’s my “high end” guitar. So to me, $200 to belong to a guitar community for one year is a serious investment. That’s why, after 2 months of using TAC, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to stay long enough to get what I wanted.
What I mean is that only 2 months told me that for the first time in 20 years I was making progress that I could notice over just a couple of weeks. This was working. And I was learning things from the community that I would never learn otherwise cause I’m not a musician who gets to hang out with other musicians and pick things up. So since I was within the 90 days, I got my money back for my year and I signed up for lifetime. It was like buying one of my more expensive guitars, but at the time I was able to pull it off. And sure enough, I would not have made it to the 3rd, much less 4th year otherwise.
So I totally get it that it is simply too pricey for some people to pull off.
But, now back to the skill. From other TAC members, I realized that it took 3 – 5 years for someone to become a “real” guitarist. Self-sufficient, as you say.
So focus on what that means and learn that, self-sufficiency, while you are here with TAC. Yeah, it would mean that you finally moved up off the pile of “beginning” guitarists. But how good do you really have to be to NOT be a beginner? A beginner is beginning, that is, they have close to zero knowledge and close to zero skill. So, it doesn’t take much. It’s more of an attitude.
The second thing it would mean, is that you know how to continue making progress and always having fun… on your own, somehow.
That’s what TAC has done for so many. It gets them picking up their guitar as often as is possible for their circumstances. And it’s gives them direction so they know what to do with their guitar when they pick it up. AND, it makes it fun from the beginning. AND, it does that continuously, day after day, long term.
If you can duplicate that on your own, you are ready to fly from the nest.
I hope this helps.
MG 😀
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What I found, @Loraine , is that the whole “breathing” thing is really important. Really, really pay attention to your breathing AS you sing. So make sure you are pushing from your belly, not your chest. Practice breathing with you hand on your belly and feel it go in and out with your breath. And when you start doing that more naturally with thinking about it, you will have so much more power that your voice will naturally start getting stronger.
After you have gotten to that point, pay attention to when you breath. There are natural pauses during songs. Make sure you consciously take a deeper breath (belly) in the pause so you have all the power you want during the next phrase. Then do it again during the next pause. At first, you may have to pause between words that make the song sound awkward. But you’ll get better and learn how to breath while you sing. It’s not natural at all and takes effort to train yourself to do it.
I hope this helps. Again, like @Guitargeezer-Jack said, there are a ton of free videos on YouTube that give you advice on how to sing with more power and exercises you can do to strengthen your vocal cords and your breathing.
MG 😀
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Hey @MiRu ;
I’m sorry you had this unfortunate experience. There is some kind of glitch with this platform and it simply doesn’t work right sometimes. I, too, have lost long comments or posts. One work around is to write it in a word processor and then copy and paste it into the post so you don’t lose your work.
MG 😀
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How time flies, @Michelle-PSL . TAC seems to give many of us a guitar life that we would never have had otherwise. What a joy! 😄
MG 😀
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Well worded, @cadgirl. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this matter.
MG 😀
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Excellent comment, @ChuckS . I do appreciate reading how others understand TAC and this very cool guitar journey we are on. Thanks for posting.
MG 😀
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Wow, I think that might be the best analogy for TAC yet, @jumpinjeff . I will definitely remember the gym analogy. And to combine that with dancing rather than some other sport is spot on.
MG 😀
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Were the “Dark Ages” really that bad, @Cadgirl ? After all, it was so dark the pictures we have aren’t too clear. 🤣
I agree with @the-old-coach , technology isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. 🙄
MG 😀
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🤣👍😊
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I don’t know what type of guitar tuner you have, but some use sound waves instead of vibration and so you could use them for your voice, Mark @the-old-coach . If not, you could put the vibrating type on your guitar and put you mouth close to the sound hole and sing into it. You’ll get a reading, but it’s not going to be the best way to do it.
Just learn to match your voice to the plucked stings. Don’t just sit on one note. Go up and down on 2 or 3 notes as you try to find the right place with your voice. I can usually start right off with the open D because I’ve been doing it for so long. But with practice, you will get better and better.
MG 😀
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LOL, Mark @the-old-coach ;
Tell your (friend) that he’s welcome. I’m glad my comment can help (him). 🤣
MG 😀
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Hey @Cadgirl ;
I’m sure you just mis-typed, but just in case, 2nd string, 1st fret is a C note. 2nd string, 3rd fret is a D note.
Anyway, it’s interesting, the conversation you and @Loraine are having about voice pitch. I have used an audio tuner for my voice before, but not often. I actually started playing guitar for the very reason of helping me to sing. I find the correct pitch by matching my voice to a note plucked on the guitar.
When I’m doing voice exercises, I sing to a major scale or sometimes a chromatic scale that I pluck on the guitar string. For me, I always start on the open D string as that tends to be very close to my “natural” talking tone.
MG 😀
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Yeah, @Jnc51 , that’s great use of various stringed instruments, and John Oates sure is good with a flat pick. Always blows my mind when people can do finger picking songs with a flat pick. Just goes to show there are always different ways to get something done.
I checked out his YouTube channel, and he’s got a bunch of famous, country, folk and blues type songs.
MG 😀