[petelanger]

@RadioDave the benchmarks will repeat. Ain’t No Sunshine has come up on these dates: 9/8/24, 1/14/25, 5/13/25 , 9/9/25, 1/19/26 ~ every 4 months.

If you desire, you are free to play the song or do some the challenges as an exercise or warm up or whatever you please. TAC gives you the freedom to use what you’ve learned in any way that tickles your fancy. I have certain ones that I have enjoyed playing and have repeated a lot throughout the year, usually on my TV couch when nobody is listening but occasionally with my wife next to me.

Of course, which ever chord progression that you repeat more often will stick better and you will find it easier when it comes around again. But if you just do your best each challenge day, you will move forward, no more is required. If you are enjoying yourself with whatever you are doing with your guitar, you should keep doing it.

[petelanger]

Tremendous milestone @outdoorgator! Celebrate this, you truly rock!

I’m at 541 today so about half as far along as you. I’m pleased with where I am in my journey, not doubting that I will get to where I want to be but also satisfied with where I am! When I get to 1000 you’ll be very near 1500!

[petelanger]

@Stuck interesting username you got there. We all get a little stuck sometimes! lol!

There’s no one way to play a song, most artists interpret them and “arrange” them the way they want to perform them.

If you would like to mimic your chosen recording artist, you would have to map out the Verse – chorus – verse – bridge – verse – chorus from the YT video. Most of Tony’s lessons would give you all the parts you needed. Keep in mind he doesn’t always use the same chords as your favorite artist does. He might use a different rhythm as well.

If you want the How to exactly I would recommend looking at buying a subscription to Ultimate Guitar. I was able to pick this up for ~$25 per year. Sale is offered regularly.

You could also try Lauren Bateman, JustinGuitar or Guitar Tricks. Lauren especially has a lot of free content and I find it’s very good.

[petelanger]

Are you referring to the PIP screens?

Just FYI, this is the user forum and not TAC’s tech team. We help here but we’re not paid by anyone to do tech support, just wanted to be clear about that. To get to the tech team email support@tonypolecastro.com.

I don’t have Firefox on my windows 11 laptop but works in Edge, Chrome, DuckDuckGo and Opera browsers. I have Firefox running on my Linux laptop and it works there, or at least it worked the last time I tried it.

I used those pop ups in the beginning but I have to say I found that more cumbersome than it’s worth. The pop up window is too small to see fingering clearly. What I’ve been doing is save the TABs into a notetaking app (I use OneNote) and I’ve got all of them there with all my notes and comments. I don’t have to download them anymore, I can just reused them from last year. I have extended desktop setup, I watch tony on my big monitor and open the TAB on the laptop screen. This works great for me. There’s even a foot pedal you can buy on Amazon that controls the PDF file so you can scroll through it while your playing, and it has setting that also pauses and plays the TAC videos.

[petelanger]

@albert_d @jumpinjeff

Alas, I am still perplexed. One day it will be clear to me, but right now my musical brain is short circuiting and it’s been that way for a long, long time.

Another example: for this weeks improv we did the ascending notes in the G major scale and then Tony changed a few notes by a half step when descending. Why? Is it the same scale? It has to be a new scale, still G major?

[petelanger]

There are a number of workarounds you could attempt and things to check:

1. Position: you want to play in the best possible position for comfort and ease to place your fingers properly. This is something you can play around with, raising the neck up, adjusting the shoulder and elbow. Certain chords may require you to come at the fretboard differently.
2. Pressure: when we’re learning we have a tendency to press very hard, trying to eliminate the buzzing or thuds. Getting the finger closer to the fret wire means less pressure will still work. We need to find that sweet spot where it’s a clean note but minimum pressure. This is still something I focus on everyday, because I still press to hard when making certain chords, like the D major.
3. Light strings: make it easier by using lighter strings. This will change the tone, but there are lots of options and you might find you like the brighter sound. Also, every guitar has it’s “soul mate” when it comes to the marriage between the guitar+player and strings. I recently switched my favorite guitar to D’Addario EJ11-3D Light Guage and I was absolutely floored how beautiful my guitar started sounding to my ears.
4. Tuning: @jorgemac should advise you here, but you can tune your guitar down a 1/2 step or even more, makes it much easier to fret. Great for practicing and I believe he said he slaps on a capo to play along with the challenges. I haven’t done this myself but I’m going to eventually.
5. Nails: always have the finger nails on your fretting hand trimmed as short as possible. This is essential for beginner players.
6. Based on your question I assume you are a new player. You may not have developed callouses on your finger tips. As you do, this will help with the issue of string muting.
7. Make sure you are fretting with the tips of your fingers, the strings should be making their indentation marks about 1/10 inch (2mm) from the finger nail. Much further than that and you’re fretting with the pads and that’s going to cause muting.

[petelanger]

Congratulations! That’s excellent that you completed (or at least went through) the Jumpstart Strumming lessons. This made me check, I have only done 4 of the 7 lessons. But I think I have it covered in the 18 months of doing daily challenges. One day I might complete all those skill courses, such a treasure trove in there!

Onward and upward, @CamiB!

[petelanger]

Whelp, @jorgemac @jumpinjeff …..@fretboardwizards

I’m still looking for an answer to why the pattern is the same in every key. I’ll figure it out myself eventually but was just hoping somebody here could give me a leg up.

For example in the key of C below you see the triads for each chord.
The sequence: Major, Minor, Minor, Major, Major, Minor, Dim applies in every key. I wish I understood why this is the case.

[petelanger]

All you can do is arch your fingers, yes by getting the palm under the fretboard. The muting issue while playing open chords is something that resolves over time, new players struggle with it, and so does everyone else just not as much.

Is this about certain chords or are you on the daily challenge? Context would be helpful.

[petelanger]

LOL!

[petelanger]

So strange I did a search in a spreadsheet with all the titles and came up empty. Well done @kelly868 !

[petelanger]

My understanding is Tony does it this way on purpose. He is trying to make us into guitar players, not some kind of replicators. He wants you to put some of your own creativity into what your playing. When you start in TAC, most don’t have enough skill to do more than just copy what’s being shown in each video. But as you grow you can begin to combine elements from different sessions and create a new way to play a particular song. Even just combining the individual lessons from the week into one song and figuring out how to sing to it will require some thought and will help you more than if he just spoon fed you the entire song.

[petelanger]

@jumpinjeff So you can pick and choose certain notes for your scale to change the mood. Does this have something to do with modes?

Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian

That’s what it looks like to me?

[petelanger]

Yes and no! I let mine go when I traveled to Europe, but you can maintain your streak by just logging on from your phone.

[petelanger]

Oh yeah, I thought you might be referring to those slides in Friday’s verse. Slide not so bad but then doing the double triple stops with the diamonds – not at all easy. Gave me a whole heap of trouble. But it’s that struggle that really helps you grow. Took the guitar onto my TV couch and kept doing it over and over.
Don’t forget: in the struggles is where your learning (growth) is the greatest! Try to be happy when your struggling! I know it’s counter to what we think. Are you a believer? Similar principle: the trials are what mold us. We are the clay, He is the potter.