N-lightMike
Forum Replies Created
-
Hey @Tom000-18 ;
I got ahold of TAC support and asked what we could tell you and others regarding the FW course.
It was open for a while this fall. It will be open again in the first part of 2022 though there is no date set. They will put a banner up on the site and they will announce it in the newsletter.
MG 😀
-
When I started playing guitar, @NW7 , I knew nothing about guitar. I had never seen anyone playing guitar in the classical style. But I had seen literally thousands of performers with the guitar held horizontally. Then, when I started playing guitar as an adult, I learned from a book. That book very clearly showed the “correct” way to hold the guitar, and it was horizontally. I played over a period of 20 years before coming to TAC and learning about other ways to play guitar, including classical. So why wouldn’t I change once I heard about this way that seems superior? Because there is not one single guitar player whose music I love that plays that way. If it’s good enough for George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, oh, and then I learned about Chet Atkins and Tommy Emmanuel, yeah, it’s good enough for me.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. 😎
PS, no single person can give you any other story than their own, even if that includes a lot of information they got from other players. So, you asked an opinion question. My opinion is that most people had an experience similar to mine, they imitate what they have seen. But again, I can’t say I really know the answer to your question because I don’t know why other people do what they do.
MG 😀
-
Hello @LisaH ;
@Carol-3M-Stillhand and @Loraine have given you some great advice. The only thing I would add is about the daily challenge. Many of the challenges might seem way too difficult for you. That is a very common reaction at first. Some of the challenges, or lessons, were so difficult for me at the beginning that I could just barely follow what I was supposed to be trying to do with my fingers on the 2 hands, never mind making anything sounding even remotely similar to what Tony was playing. But amazingly, putting that time and effort in was exactly what I was supposed to do and nothing more. Over a few months, it was obvious that my guitar skills were growing. After being here a year, when lessons I had already seen came around again, it was amazing to me how much better I could do them even though I hadn’t practiced that particular lesson once since I saw it last.
So the message is, don’t worry about how difficult the daily lessons might seem. Just do what you can for the minimum 10 minutes and your guitar skills will grow slowly but very steadily.
MG 😀
-
Thanks Mark ( @mkjohnsons ); this is a difficult lick. It doesn’t seem that difficult, but I have been hear 2 1/2 years and have seen this at least 3 times and have improved remarkably on most of the lessons. This is one of those that just didn’t seem to budge… till now.
Keeping a finger pulled up and out of the way is one of those “skills” that seems to come with time. But make sure you put specific effort into control any finger that wants to “fly away” on you. Look at it, bend it to your will, as you try to do the lesson. In time, the fingers will obey you more and more.
MG 😀
-
Thanks @RealKurt . I feel it is a huge win. You well know how much this will open the door to doing embellishments that I could seem to do before.
MG 😀
-
Hey Mark ( @mkjohnsons );
I was a comment that FW was open and there was a small link at the bottom of the support page. I went over there and saw it. I wouldn’t have ever seen it if I hadn’t read someone’s comment. But I have been told they will make it easier to see next time. They are going to put a banner across the top of the TAC pages and put it in the Acoustic Life newsletter. So it should be pretty easy to catch next time.
MG 😀
-
Thank you so much @stevieblues , I agree that it is an awesome win.
MG 😀
-
They come slowly… but surely @punder . But we can miss them if we aren’t looking for those small wins. Then, we can still forget them if we don’t report them and share them with others. Thanks for checking it out.
MG 😀
-
Thank you @albert_d . I feel that this one is a big deal and I was hoping that it would help others. Thanks for coming by and leaving a comment.
MG 😀
-
Thank you Cadgirl. That pinky is very important in the style of music I like. I like finger picking which uses a lot of finger movement, including the pinky.
MG 😀
-
Thank you David.
MG 😀
-
Well thanks jumpin jeff. I guess that’s what we all need to do: figure out how we personally, with our given anatomy, can get the proper sounds from our guitar. I never thought my pinky was freakishly short until I joined TAC and started noticing things like other peoples fingers. Tony fingers are all almost the same length. That would be a great advantage for playing guitar. But I know my hands are a particular type and many others have hands like mine. Maybe not the best for playing guitar, but that’s what I want to do. And I’m doing it… my way. Yaaaah!
MG 😀
-
Hey @Rando ;
I have been practicing this a lot through out the day today. Some times it seems so easy, and other times I have to figure it out again.
@That_Guy mentioned playing on the tips which made me question “is that all I’m doing?”. No, it gets back to the pinky being half the length of my other fingers. When my index and middle finger are fretting, they are on the tips, but when I reach for the 5th fret with my pinky, it is stretched out and it looks like the second pic where it is locked straight because it is so short. Now, if I bend the little finger, it pulls my palm up against the bottom of the neck and my other fingers have too much reach and can’t easily press the strings. So my little finger has “learned” this trick to fret the string very cleanly, but I can’t do a pull off without bending the pinky and pull my palm up to the neck. That allows me to pull off, but I need to lower my palm immediately afterwards so that my other fingers work properly.
Anyway, I still haven’t gotten this lick past the triplet pull off. But I have the technique figured out, so it’s just a matter of getting my fingers/hand to learn to do this automatically.
If you want, I could do a video of my hand as I do this lick so you can see how I do it. It would be very cool if this could help you also.
MG 😀
-
It is fun, as you’ll find out the next time we manage to get together. It is a cross between a live drummer and a metronome. I’ve simply never been able to use a metronome to the extent that I probably should have. But that’s at least partly due to the fact that it’s not easy. But this is fun enough to make the effort worthwhile.
MG 😀
-
I am finding it is quite a large learning curve using the Beat Buddy, @albert_d , but you won’t regret it. I have been using it for less than a week, and I haven’t used it much, I have been putting in more time reading manuals (yes, there are 3 manuals for just this one piece of equipment) and watching videos, but the handful of times I’ve used it to play with, I have really loved it. I couldn’t recommend a better piece of equipment to become a one man band.
MG 😀