petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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Totally normal, I am struggling with it myself! Here’s an exercise that I did for weeks last year but have only done occasionally since and if I had done it 2 minutes a day, everyday I bet I wouldn’t have had any problem with Thursday and Friday’s challenges>
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Another one of my favorite tunes ever! Sweet!
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Wow! That is so well done, nice arrangement!
Purple Rain (the song, the album, the movie) really rocked my world back in the day!
Let’s Go Crazy, When Doves Cry, I Would Die 4 U
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I still sound sort of like this myself, and I’ve been TAC-ing since July last year. I don’t have a uke, but I have a mandolin. I’m not any better on it, actually just started messing with it.
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My understanding is that TAC teaches you fundamentally how to handle your instrument. Once you have a good foundation you will have the skills to play a thousand or maybe 10,000 songs.
As a beginner you could spend weeks or even months learning how to play ONE song and then that’s all you got. Now the next song, then another….. etc. Maybe in 6 months you can (sort of) play about 5 songs not very well.With TAC you spend an extended time to get good with your instrument, then you can learn multiple songs in a single day.
I am not speaking from experience, this is what I have gleaned from being a member. I am 8 months into my journey with TAC.
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Wow. Where to begin to respond. First know that there is a chat on the home page. Victoria usually is the one to answer and she is very prompt, 10-30 minutes typically. Here is a link to the Quick Start Guide which gives you a roadmap on how to get started here.
After 30 days the next step is 5 day routine. Then you can move on to the Daily Challenges which are so much more than a “four week rotation of skills with ie: Blues, Chords, Strumming, Soloing”. Every week you cover the 5 core guitar skills: Monday – technique, Tuesday – guitar lick, Wednesday – Improv (soloing/scales), Thursday – Rhythm guitar and finally Friday – Chord transitions. You do this every week for as long as you are in TAC. There are many members here who have been doing it for 5 years, several more than 10 years. They all still find it valuable!
I love this program, I tried a number of other ones as well and TAC is easily the best for it’s structure. Could it be improved? Heck yeah, it sure could but it’s still an excellent value.
https://tonypolecastro.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/TAC_User_Guide-v5.pdf
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Here is the Starting TAC thread with the-old-coach‘s response that is worth a read:
https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/starting-tac/#post-2150393tonypolecastro.com
Starting TAC - Community Support - Tony's Acoustic Challenge
Starting TAC - Community Support - Tony's Acoustic Challenge
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You can’t fail TAC! Give yourself a break. You have said that TAC has proven to be no more successful for [you] than [your] past attempts at learning guitar. Is that not a Win?
I have said the same thing here multiple times before, and I know that many others concur. Of course there are thousands of TAC members who are inactive, that is really the only way to not progress in TAC. Some of them are perhaps making progress on their own or with some other help. It isn’t the only thing out there but I think it’s the best because it keeps you coming back day after day.
TAC is all about giving your best 10 minutes to the challenge and then marking it complete. If you have time and you are still enjoying the process then add on more time. We don’t pass or fail daily challenges.
It’s about finding things that went better today than in the past, it’s about sharing your wins with like minded people and encouraging others who share theirs.
You are not alone in having doubts and most of us started TAC not understanding how to approach it. I think it would be well worth your time to read through this thread from last year: https://tonypolecastro.com/family-forums/topic/wondering-if-i-should-stay-with-it-or-not/#post-2150460
tonypolecastro.com
Wondering if I should stay with it or not - Community Support - Tony's Acoustic Challenge
Wondering if I should stay with it or not - Community Support - Tony's Acoustic Challenge
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I just read this post from the FB Group “Guitar Beginners”:
I’ve been playing 50 years professionally and I’ve never met a beginning guitar player who didn’t think their fingers were too fat, or too thin, or not long enough, or too long…… I have a lazy ring finger on my left hand. It does not tuck in as tightly as my other three fingers. When I practice, I have to learn to change the position of my wrist… whatever results in a clean land on a fret. If you think you’re truly handicapped, I recommend you look up Django Reinhardt. This man is regarded as the greatest jazz guitarist in history, and he only had two functional fingers on his left hand. His ring, finger and pink you were horribly disfigured in a fire and were left useless. My point is no matter what your physical features. If you’re determined you’ll be able to overcome them. So a methods and physical exercise exercises that can help overcome these that all professionals use, even myself 50 years into it. I’m always challenged with new pieces to learn. I’m always retraining my hand. This is Guitar, the way it works.
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Tremendous consistency! Way to go!
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I think @TCice is saying good-bye
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I know, right? That’s why I’m not fiddling with it every day. Got to keep my focus on the guitar. The mando is fun though, such a cool sound. I bought is specifically to play the mandolin parts in “Losing My Religion” and I looked at some videos and thought: that doesn’t look terribly hard.
Then as I was going through it and trying to rehearse the parts, darn…if there isn’t a very difficult reach on one of the chords. It’s such a tiny instrument (frets are less than 3/4 inches) and I’m a grown man with fairly large hands but it was giving me some trouble so I’ve set it aside.
I just pulled it out again and tried it, have to reach from the bottom E string on the first fret to the top G string on the 5th fret with my ring finger. I actually can do it now, it’s not comfortable but all this stretch work with TAC is paying dividends. Yay!
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I assume you opened a support ticket @Aureum thank-you!
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Weird! Yes, it’s the same for me. That is the Play tab just plain doesn’t open.
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This! I felt the same for the first few weeks, but even when I felt I was floundering I later realized that I was actually learning. It’s amazing, just do the thing (10 minutes at least per day) and everything takes care of itself. There have been many weeks that seemed a lot more manageable since then. On the other hand there are weeks like this one…. especially the bottom part of this week was very hard for me again (rhythm and the chord transition challenges).
It’s good to be challenged though! If it were always easy you would not advance very much. The learning is in the struggle. Sometimes it will motivate you to work, work, work at it, but only do this if it’s enjoyable! Other times you just let it go and amazingly find the same skill is so much easier the next time around.