petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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@barbandjim24gmail-com don’t beat yourself up too badly. The F-mini is hard, for some even more difficult than the fully barred F chord. I have a good handle on it now after 18 months in the TAC program. Let me tell you that for the first 12 months I couldn’t play it hardly at all, either the B or high E string or both were muffled and sometimes the G string as well. Everybody’s hand is a little different so it’s hard to tell you that one thing or another is going to fix it for you. For me it was realizing that I was pressing the strings with Gorilla force and it doesn’t require that much force. As you hear the thud your brain instinctively says: “push harder!” But it’s all about getting your index finger in the right position to get clear notes (F and C on the E and B strings respectively) and pressing just hard enough. The same is true for most of the chords in this challenge. I was killing my fingers to form the Neil Young chord and the D. This made it hard to do all the modifications. Once I let off some pressure those things started to come easier
This is a benchmark, so it has even more layers than the regular challenge weeks. This is the final day where Tony is asking you to lay everything on top each other. There’s a lot going on!
This was my 5th time thru and while it went much better than the first few times, it still is very challenging for me. It’s okay to not be able to go all the way through it without some issues, in the struggles is where you learn the most. One of my favorite song writers, Jon Foreman, wrote a song titled: “(The Wound is) Where the Light Shines Through”. Link below:
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Hi @DanTheMan ! Good to hear that TAC is helping you achieve your goals.
I can relate to your struggles with Improv, I’m very much the same. I think the issue is my lack of comfort with the scales. I recently saw a YT video that explained we should be learning the shapes of scales and scale degree number. A lightbulb kind of went off there because it occurred to me that there are a finite number of shapes and it’s a lot smaller than the number of scales.
Here is the video (it looks like AI so I’m sorry about that but I think the content is helpful): https://youtu.be/le4X0uozmck -
@Moose408 I think @met-bjtcomcast-net isn’t on the challenges yet, being only a few days in the program.
On the page I”m linking to you should be able to navigate where you want to go.
https://tonypolecastro.com/courses/30-days-to-play/
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It’s really all spelled out in the quick start guide on the home page:
https://tonypolecastro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TAC_User_Guide-v5.pdf
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Welcome @williamgersbachgmail-com – You made the right choice coming to TAC, it really has no peers when you evaluate the program as a whole. I’ve been here 16 months but there are many members with 5 or more years that will swear by it as well. Some might be better in one small aspect or another, but all in around effectiveness nothing can hold a candle to it.
No need to repeat the 30 Days over and over, you are good to go. We always favor progress over perfection. By moving forward you will soon see those things in 30 Days show up again in spades and you will gradually improve.
I suspect that with the head start you had coming in, you will move through the challenges with a little more ease than some of us. That means that you can develop some of the higher level things sooner than we did.
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That seems a bit strange that the daily challenges “popped up”, are you talking about in your email? I don’t recall getting invited to jump into challenges before I completed my first 30 Day and 5-Day material. Perhaps there was a glitch.
No worries, you were right to ignore those and start the Dailies after the Intro stuff. -
The challenges are not ordered. You say #25, I didn’t know they had numbers but it doesn’t matter because there is no beginning or end. They are structured to be self contained each week and you can start anywhere. While some are more difficult than others, they always have layers so more skilled players can go deeper. The skills that are taught are repeated many times per year so you can gradually get better at them. The 4 benchmarks are repeated 3 times annually, these let you see your progress but beyond the repetition of challenges you will be doing some of the same elements in different challenges.
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You can dial back 6 weeks on the Challenges home page directly. Beyond that you need have the lesson link saved:
1. By adding the challenge to your favorites
2. Saving the link somewhere. @Moose408 has championed this for us, see belowI don’t think he’ll mind me sharing it: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10CGaT6CrZ783_tw-burdSd7W_KWiliiei03_h0T5dgA/edit?gid=1278619288#gid=1278619288
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I rarely log out of the site. After a couple of weeks you will be logged out by the system and have to log back in. Sometimes it’s not that obvious, everything stops working but nowadays with the slow response that’s about normal. I’m going to go over your description as I come onto the site and I’ll see if I can interpret your issue.
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I am happy to help you. What device are you accessing with? Is it a PC, phone, tablet? This makes a difference in what you might be seeing.
And yes, the sluggishness affects everything, it can really confuse you if you click and nothing happens. I’m hoping that this will be corrected soon. -
No worries @williamgersbachgmail-com ! Don’t be hard on yourself for being hard on yourself! lol!
Many of us have had perfectionism drilled into us from early childhood, and most of the teaching in our country and many other cultures as well demands a high level of proficiency throughout our lives.
The TAC program is different. Unlike our education systems, there are no grade levels, exams or diplomas required to enter the next level. All challenges are in a sense equal, but not identical. The structure is cyclical, entry is open after basic intro (30 Days to Play and 5 Day Routine) and you can step in winter, spring, summer or fall.
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Is this what you are looking for @mudville8gmail-com ?
https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/part-1-learn-the-basics-of-guitar-with-the-blues/
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Yes, I didn’t mention the Bm since it is exactly the same shape as the C#m only 2 frets below. The index finger on the A string forms the B, the ring the F# and the pinky makes another B.
This question: “Or would that be a B power chord; how to make it minor?”
My reply: I think you are confusing sharp and flat notes with major and minor chords. What makes a chord minor is the flattening of one of the notes that would normally make up that chord. So your question is actually a good one, because what makes the barre chord minor is the minor third, the D note fretted by the middle finger on the B string. This is left out of the power chord, so it’s not minor anymore.
Power chords, by their nature are not major or minor:
I just googled and the AI returned this: “Power chords are neither major nor minor because they consist only of the root note and the perfect fifth, lacking the third that defines a chord as major or minor. This gives them a versatile sound that can fit in various musical contexts.”
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Almost everyone dislikes them, they take forever to learn and make your fingers, hands and arms (even your back) hurt from all the contorting it takes. Lots of workarounds like power chords and 2 finger chords. Very famous players have avoided them completely (Andy Summers!).
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@andywillis1960 I get you, because I was there too when I stated TAC. But now I think all of that made me a better player. Having to learn how to deal with reading TABs while learning to play, all the mental gymnastics you go through really makes you stronger.
After way too much time and having printed out a large number of TABs, and still no way to turn a page unless I stop playing, I finally realized that once I have learned the chords all I need is to write down the chord progression:
I use little 3.5″ by 3.5″ note pad and jot down the sequence – problem solved. Now I can take this anywhere, to my TV room for example and I have it while I’m watching a movie or a show.
D G D D
D G A A
D G D D
C G D D
F F C C