N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
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Good for you @Cadgirl . I am not a fan of Martin, though they have made great guitars for many, many years. I am a fan of Taylor though I don’t own one and may never own one.
Taylors sound great and play great. How can you go wrong? And this is a really high quality guitar, no doubt about that. I’ll stop there before I start saying negative things about Martin guitars.
MG 😀
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I just watched this video. I have watched quite a few videos on strumming. I understand enough that if I was willing to spend the time, I’m pretty sure I could get good at it. I mean, I’m definitely not bad now, but I have seen really good strummers, and I’m not there. One of the people who attends the VOMs regularly is a really good strummer and all of the rest of us recognize it.
But, I still watch videos on strumming here and there when one interests me, just in case I come across something new that gives me more insight. I have watched enough videos on strumming, I really didn’t think I learn anything new. But this video surprised me. At the beginning, I thought it was just the same old stuff that I know backwards and forwards. Hey, I could teach it. But then, he makes some suggestions on how to practice different patterns that I did get new enlightenment. In fact, if I was going to watch just one video or recommend just one video, this would be the one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjM5fyXoV8w
I hope this helps.
MG 😀
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This is a really tough decision, @Cadgirl . Back when the forum was connected to the lessons, it was much more difficult in my opinion. Now, the forum is over at JMG and I just welcomed you over there. I’m very glad you joined JMG.
As for the lessons, I think what Tony offers is different and more effective than anything available elsewhere.
When I was paying for private, face to face lessons, what bothered me, was that I was paying every month for weekly lessons that wouldn’t benefit me very much within that month. One weekly lesson could show me stuff it would take me weeks, months, or even years to work on. But in the meantime I’m still paying and still getting new stuff thrown at me when I haven’t digested what I learned in the first few lessons.
So then, I joined a pay by the month site, where numerous courses were taught by numerous instructors. Though that seemed like it would be what I needed, what I found was that it was simply more overwhelming than helpful. I still needed to direct myself in my training. I had to decide which courses to take. Did I take more than one concurrently? Did I finish one even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted? How much better was I getting, after all, week to week and month to month?
Then I found Tony’s site. I signed up for lifetime because I very quickly became sold on his approach. I don’t have to master the daily lessons. I don’t even have to like them or remember them. Maybe they are not what I want to develop in my personal musical choices. So what? If I just did the daily lessons, I was working on guitar skills on a regular basis. In fact, on a range of guitar skills. The bottom line remains the same: “was I improving at guitar at least month to month if not week to week?”.
The answer was simple and profound. I was and am making regular progress, real improvement week to week. Within the first couple of months I had improved more than I had in 20 years of trying to learn on my own from books.
As long as the lessons challenge me, they will continue to lead to regular improvement. From there, if I ever reach that point, I will have to direct my own daily guitar practice. I will still need fellowship with other guitarists and musicians.
As far as the number of years it takes to start really getting to a “basic” level of competence with Tony’s lessons, I’d say that a minimum of 3 years is needed. At that point, one has paid as much as a lifetime membership. I was able to cough up that dough at the time. Now I couldn’t even cough up the yearly fee. I am very grateful for TAC and what they offer and for the option of being a lifetime member.
But I totally understand other people have different circumstances than me. I hope that your guitar journey continues moving forward, Cadgirl. And if TAC is helping with that, I hope you can afford it and I hope you make that choice.
MG 😀
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This is wonderful Terry. Sounds like a whole christmas light string full of light bulb moments. I am always happy when someone makes progress on their guitar journey. But when someone takes a large leap forward, that’s really exciting. I know all of this will lead to much improved strumming for you. And the improvements will keep happening for quite some time. It seems that you have received what you hoped for and maybe more when you started this thread.
BTW, the “tag” function on this site really sucks. I know that.
MG 😀
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👍
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Ok, let me try that @Terry B. So, I never got the “tag” pop up to come up for anything beyond Ter, which brought up Terbine and some named Anthony. Do you get a notification that says I “mentioned” you, or just “replied”?
MG 😀
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Yeah, you really nailed it there @That_Guy . Touch is what makes strumming sound so good and polished. I never put in the time to get that and now I’m all about finger picking. Sounds like you are getting it though. I think that’s great. I would love to hear you sometime.
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There seems to be a lot of encouragement and direction Terry. (I can’t tag you because your “nickname” has a space in it. I tried using just “Tanglewood” but it didn’t work.)
Anyway, what I wanted to add was that you can strum without a pick. I do. In fact, it’s quite common. Just a thought.
MG 😀
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Yes, indeed, @markvguitar . And the cool thing is I have heard others tell about the progress they made and the wins they had over the last 2 1/2 years and sometimes I thought that would happen for me and sometimes I didn’t think it would happen for me. It happened in spite of what I thought.
Thanks for commenting, Mark
MG 😀
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You’re gonna love the FW course, @Timo67
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Your are totally correct, Terry B ( @Tanglewood ), this is a big win. And the good news is, I really haven’t been that “dedicated”. All I have done is what I could on the lessons every day. I didn’t always have much patience. I didn’t always have fun. I didn’t always do any more that just barely my 10 minutes. I just didn’t give up on putting some effort into the Daily Challenge, even if it was pretty lame effort. And that fairly minimum effort led to this really wonderful win. Surprising win, in fact.
Thanks for coming by and commenting, Terry.
MG 😀
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Thank you so much @Philb for adding your experience to this thread. The more the someone hears about the steady and even sure improvement, the more they can believe it will happen and just have fun. And the more they have fun the faster they will improve. It’s the wonderful spiral upward.
MG😀
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I am so glad that others are getting the advice they need to move forward after the 30 Day Challenge, @EJay . Please don’t hesitate to ask any questions you need to so you can keep having fun and making progress. That’s what this is all about.
MG 😀
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Yeah, I agree @albert_d , it’s difficult to keep the brain out of the way, but then we need our brain to help train our fingers. I think that’s why Tony’s method works so well.
MG 😀
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Thank you @Guitargeezer-Jack , you will get there. This program just works.
MG 😀