petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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@dewilsonarbgmail-com how long have you been playing guitar? When someone reports that they just can’t get a clear X chord, we really need a bit more context and background story to give a good reply.
When I started i learned the E, E-, A, A-, C, G, B7 somewhat in that order. The first 3 I got down pretty quickly although I later realized I was doing some muting on the E minor that I had to correct. The C and G gave me trouble for a long time, it was probably a good 4 months before I could play a clear G chord and at least 3 months on the C.
When you practice, are practicing transitioning between chords? If not, you might as well start because that’s what guitar players do. We rarely hold down the same chord for a very long time.
The G, the Cadd9 and B7 are very similar and I would practice transitioning between those. It does take a good amount of time for your fingers to get used to forming the chords
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Welcome @kpbowstkyahoo-com
So many ways to mute, when muting a single string an easy way is just to apply a very light touch with your fretting hand. If you are fretting a chord just release the chord without moving your fingers. This produces a dead note, no tone at all.
Sometimes we want to partially mute but still get a note. This is typically done by palm muting near the bridge. Tony will teach all this in the daily challenges throughout the year
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I can’t imagine what might have happened for you to stop abruptly after registering almost 500 sessions.
You might have an interesting story to tell over here: https://tonypolecastro.com/category/blog/guitar-stories/
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Yes, the videos are all 1x speed and you can play back at 0.5x, 0.75x…..up to 2.0x. I had the same thoughts when I started TAC, was looking for those “other” videos.
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Welcome back @KayMesser
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Weird! It doesn’t work for me either, seems like a broken link. I never went through this course so I don’t know if it’s always been this way.
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When you’re learning to sing along it’s best to simplify in the beginning then increase the difficulty once you are comfortable. Just do single down strums instead of the strum pattern and practice singing along that way. Once you have learned to sing along with your chord changes, begin adding in more complexity to the strumming.
Go to the 7:00 min mark of this video and Tony describes the process:
https://tonypolecastro.com/lessons/lovely-place-2/
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Congrats! You are right to feel excited about year 2! This is where it really starts to happen! Unless you are a freak of nature sponge that can just soak up everything in the first few months. Most of us who have started later in life, really start to flourish during the second year which is where I am at (18 months in TAC). I still have a long way to go, but I’ve been noticing the time it takes to pick up things has shortened tremendously. I think years 2 and 3 are gonna be huge!
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This is an old thread from a year ago. There’s a current one right here:
https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/site-speed-update/
Oddly I was not bothered by lagging page loads at the time that one was started last January. It wasn’t fast but acceptable until recently. Tony has assured us that the issue is being worked on.
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Let us know the outcome!
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That’s great! And welcome to TAC @dewilsonarbgmail-com you will find people here are very willing to help. It might take a day or 2 for many to chime in so try to be patient!
To get back to your initial problem: small hands. Almost every beginner things there is something physically wrong that is holding them back. While it’s possible for there to be an actual issue, in many cases people’s hands are just fine. If there is a real handicap, there are all sorts of ways to overcome most any obstacle.
At this point I am capable of most of the shapes to be more than adequate, but I often think my fingers are waaaay……..slow! I’m staring my left hand down as it’s crawling like a snail from the folk G to A minor, and my brain is giving the hand the what for (hand you better get your act together!) I’m sure I’ll get faster although I’m not going to be shredding like Eddie Van Halen.
Some pointers that could help:
1. Positioning: you want to get your hand in the optimal position to form the chord that’s giving you trouble. If you feel your hand is too small maybe you aren’t getting your palm far enough under the fretboard. Pushing the palm forward so you get the palm further allows you to wrap your fingers better, so they’re coming at the fretboard with a better angle. You want to get as perpendicular as possible. Often it’s helpful to raise the neck even up to eye level: it can be more comfortable, more favorable for many of the chords and easier to see.
2. Are you keeping your fingernails short? I trim my fretting hand nails about 3 times weekly. Some players just file them every day but I prefer the old clippers.
3. Warm up exercises, take a look at this mini course: https://tonypolecastro.com/courses/guitar-players-daily-stretch-guide/
4. Don’t press more than you need to. When fretting any chord, get as close to the fret wire as possible. Experiment pushing down and then letting up while you pick the string. Feel the pressure when the note is no longer clean, now press just a bit harder. Beginners tend to press WAY TOO HARD and this causes pain and poor technique.
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If there isn’t anybody in the forums (that is your fellow members) helping you out, you can request help. The yellow circle right bottom corner of the home page is where you start. Don’t bother chatting with the bot, that doesn’t get you anywhere. Click in the top left (see red arrow) to reach a human (Victoria)!
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Wow! It’s a blessing then that you can play at all, even though it causes you excruciating pain. I’ll be praying that the pain subsides over time. Your story is so inspirational! The way you fought through adversity first with taking care of your Mom and then after the accident, you persisted through continuous setbacks – just determined to keep on rocking!
Side note: I took a tumble about 2 weeks ago. I went roller-blading with my daughters and grandkids. (I used to be a pretty good skater in my youth, I played hockey from age 8 until about 12 until my family left Canada in 1970. Even 25 years ago I was pretty solid on ice skates or blades).
First time on roller blades in the last 20 years. Started out a little shaky but the rust was starting to fall off. We were skating up an down the sidewalk near a local park. I decided to try going backwards and I hit a raised joint in the sidewalk and fell on my glutes really hard, my hands and elbows prevented me from hitting my head. Thankfully no damage in my hands or arms other than scrapes and bruising on the elbows. That’s all healed up now. The gluteus maximus is still a bit sore but also getting better. I was very lucky to not have hurt one of my hands, broken a bone (even a hip) and to have escaped hitting my head
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I have never had this experience you are describing @Stephen_B
Could you name or describe the module where these things have occurred?
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@jorgemac Victoria told me that it is “currently not being offered” so could it be offered again? It seems so, maybe they’ll offer it for a short period of time like they do with the Fretboard Wizard special?
It’s sad that they made the decision to remove it. I think I would have helped sell a lot of lifetime memberships. No better advocate than satisfied customers who have been here a while. I think they’re going to decrease overall revenue by not having it. Many will not renew after paying annually or quarterly (or heaven forbid: monthly!) but several of those might have converted to lifetime. So now they will get 0 from all those customers that would have upgraded and have to bring on extra new customers to overcome losing those.