petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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We are in the process of learning Wagon Wheel this very week in the Daily Challenges. If you are still on 30 Days to Play this may not be available on your homepage. Did you get an email to the start of the week with the link? I would post it here but it’s about 2000 characters long and I would rather not. Let me find the shortcut for it.
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It’s true that we will not become great players in only ten minutes a day. I don’t think it’s the goal of most on here to become a great guitarist, but we certainly want to get better and that’s why we’re here. You will improve with 10 minutes of playing through the lessons, keep in mind this does not include watching the videos at normal speed since each challenge is around 10-15 minutes. I usually don’t have to watch it through to the end though, just a few minutes and then I’m flipping over to the play video.
Those ten minutes are not my only guitar time though, I frequently am adding 30-90 more minutes throughout the day. I probably still won’t get to be “great” but I’m planning on getting proficient if I live long enough. I am also supplementing TAC with other lessons to accelerate my progress.
Finally I wanted to address what @michealfrancesgmail-com said:
does it mean “we shouldn’t worry about accomplishing things on this site, just keep going”. I would answer yes and yes. Don’t worry about accomplishing things, instead look for small wins. The small wins add up.Most importantly, you may struggle through a challenge and think you did just awful, but you don’t realize how much you learned in the process. That will get revealed later on. Struggling with the subject matter is what you are looking for, your brain is lapping it up in the process.
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It’s a very simple program. You go through the 2 intro series (30 Days to Play and 5 Day Routine) then you enter the daily challenges. That’s all that you need to do. I found this was a beautiful thing, I didn’t have to question what to do, just show up for my daily lesson.
I believe that some come here into the TAC program and they want to shape it into something they are used to. I’m not saying that is you @michealfrancesgmail-com but I’ve seen it in the past. It really is just a 15 -20 minute per day program. Many will supplement with other learning tools. I have several other sources myself but for a long stretch, TAC was my primary and at times only source of learning.
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@michealfrancesgmail-com have you looked at the quickstartguide?
https://tonypolecastro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TAC_User_Guide-v5.pdf
Otherwise there are plenty of people willing to help you navigate who have been here for years. Please try to be specific so that we can be more helpful!
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Relax! Just tackle things little by little:
“I can’t read the thing and do it at the same time.” – first of all just go slower so that you can read and play. If you must look at your hands, that means it’s a good time to begin learning how to play without looking at both the fretboard and the strumming hand. Today’s challenge is a good one to start on, only 2 strings and they are adjacent.
Also try to remember what you are supposed to do so looking at the TAB closely is no longer necessary. This might not all happen for you the first time through, don’t worry we’ll be practicing these kind of things a lot and you’ll improve.
“The other questions is are we supposed to be recording each day of this challenge for the next time or just the completed song?” – the recordings are for you, I for one have never recorded myself for this particular challenge but you can if you want to. There aren’t rules for this. On the Wagon Wheel benchmark I’ve only recorded the Thurs and Friday sessions. That was my choice but by all means, record whenever you like!
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Previous challenges are not listed per se, but on the homepage you can click the back arrow to go back one week at a time up to 6 weeks.
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The yellow question mark, bottom right on the homepage or just email support@tonypolecastro.com.
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@niblickmac-com just don’t worry about perfection or completion in any way. The things taught in this program are taught over and over again.
Also, even when you’re apparently stuck, you’ve hit a wall and just don’t seem to be improving, your brain continues to work in the background. You have an astonishing machine on your shoulders and it can do absolutely magical things. The most learning occurs in your struggles so celebrate the times when you do stuff over and over and it’s not getting better!
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I have found that I have to go to the home page every day, this is where you see all your stats. https://tonypolecastro.com/home/
I go there first thing when I start my TAC routine and make sure the counter increments. Since doing this, I’ve had no more unexpected streak breaks. Early on I had multiple streaks ended for no reason. I feel your pain
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This is a great song to learn because you play one chord for 2 measures in the verses so the changes are less frequent and you get enough time to make them.
The Lynyrd Skynyrd song Simple Man is kind of the opposite. Only 3 chords but them changes come at you fast! They happen on the AND of the 4-beat going into the next measure – tricky! But it’s only 3 easy chords.
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@steveprocterrocketmail-com
It seems there has to be something on your end. I checked the entire week of 13 videos for Ain’t No Sunshine and all come up perfectly on my computer.
I have 4 browsers on my laptop. When I run into a problem with the site I always check it on all browsers. Then I’ll go to my phone, my tablet and finally to other laptops that I own or have access to. If I get the same issue on all of them I conclude it’s a server-side issue.
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Yes @jorgemac backwards and forwards is great! The other good thing about this song is that you play one chord per measure. So when your ready to start playing and maybe sing along, it’s easier to do than a lot of other songs, even though there are a few more than 3 chords (6 actually)
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You can go six weeks back on the TAC homepage. Beyond that you can also access anything you have favorited.
As a last resort @Moose408 has prepared a document that links to all challenges, so thank him for this: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10CGaT6CrZ783_tw-burdSd7W_KWiliiei03_h0T5dgA/edit?usp=drivesdk
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@mdc I’m not sure which song page you are referring to. Do you mean our daily challenges? There is also the song vault https://hub-lkx8655w8n.membership.io/
I like to use Ultimate Guitar. Sometimes I stumble on some good YT videos.
One progression I practice a lot is Hotel California Am => E7 => G => D => F mini => C => Dm => E7 If you can’t play the F mini yet you can forget about fretting the high E string and only fret the B. It’s still sounds like an F chord.
The other one I already mentioned C => G => Am is actually Simple Man (Lynyrd Skynyrd). Easy chords but the rhythm and speed of the chord changes make it hard to play. I’m just rehearsing the chord changes until I can get fast enough to play it.
Or just google easy 3 chord songs and you’ll get some ideas.
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Just one video that you play back at 1x, 0.5x or 2x
