petelanger
Forum Replies Created
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LoL! It really looks like you’re standing! Don’t worry about where you are at, you will grow naturally in the TAC program.
P.S.: Oh and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame guitarist Andy Summers says he’s never played a barre chord:
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Yeah, it was clear from watch 5 seconds of this video that you didn’t start playing guitar 30 days ago! You are doing great with this challenge, much better that I and I am on my second run through. I’ve been playing guitar for 10 months, 7 of them in the TAC program. You are also standing while playing which at least for me is much harder because I used to plugging along while sitting.
Looking forward to seeing more videos from you, very nicely done!
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In my journey before TAC I worked a couple of other online programs. These instructors knew what they were doing, excellent players. But there were a lot of drill type lessons, things to practice as much as possible and perfect, before moving on to the next lessons. Guess what, discouragement accompanied by boredom soon set in and I involuntarily quit all those programs. TAC is entirely different, lessons are short and fun. Even if we are doing a drill it’s more like “playing” guitar!
I think we have to guard ourselves to be too much in practice mode. Practicing a skill is fine as long as you are enjoying it, but you can easily slide into frustration due to that perfectionist little devil we have inside. When I am trying to learn a picking pattern or a new (barre) chord I try to keep my practicing at it to short periods (I would say 3-10 minutes). I might do several such sessions in a day. I’m semi-retired and certain days don’t need to leave my home; on days like that I could pick up my guitar 10 or more times and I might go through parts of the daily challenge or just spend a few minutes working on a skill. You might call this practicing, but I avoid doing it for long periods.
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It’s natural to think that you must complete (=execute everything taught in the challenge perfectly, or at least to some degree). Try to allow yourself to approach learning in a different way: give the lesson your best effort you can in 10 maybe up to 30 minutes. You will probably see quickly that all can’t be learned but try to take away something. You might not get that skill the way you would like but maybe something you were trying to do last week (or month) is suddenly doable. Maybe you learned something about the guitar or something about music you didn’t know. Any small thing can be a win, then come to the forums and report your wins! This will reinforce your learning and other members’ in TAC! I always find something has advanced or something was gained. There are days when I will go back and rehearse previous challenges. I will usually have 2 – 3 (often more) sessions every day of 3 – 10 minutes each. Take the guitar on your TV couch with you and just practice transitioning between chord shapes.
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LOL! Wow, that’s lucky it worked out! When I restring my guitars I usually cut the strings pretty short immediately after wrapping the tuning peg leaving about a half an inch of wire so I probably couldn’t reverse them.
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Sweet! If that was rough, then mine was caveman primitive! lol!
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Crazy Good!
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I just realized that I have had my plucks reversed, I’ve been playing:
Hit – Thumb – Index but Tony has been teaching Hit – Index – Thumb.
I did this way the previous go around and just caught it now while running through Day 4 – Wither Away.
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Thanks for all the encouragement! So many here are confirming this system works!
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These are all Bench Mark Songs. This week “Ain’t No Sunshine” is on the docket, so you can access these straight away from your home page.
Fellow member @Moose408 made a google sheet that links to all the past challenges. You can access my copy here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TGvLuT0UPJwcOhBhL_PEK8Jlx1KwAh7aofhxatj-mro/edit?usp=sharing
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You might as well run through the 30 days, it will help you to shake the rust off. There’s no need for you to take 30 days to complete it. I did it in 22 days, many have done it in much less time. I would recommend looking at some of the skill courses also, not all of them of course but you could work through some them, picking up what interests you or where you think you might need some help.
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Thanks for your encouraging words! I’m very happy with the guitar and satisfied with my TAC journey as well!
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You can enjoy your weekend, but if you want to keep going there’s the skill courses and of course you can go back and repeat any lesson from the current week or current month. There is a file circulating around that gives you access to all lessons from the past 18 months plus. Let me know if you want that and I’ll drop the link.
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Perfectionism kills your joy of playing! But you don’t want to practice wrong per se, just don’t try to learn everything that is mentioned in the challenge. Take a small bite of something and do your best to learn that: one line, one measure or one note – whatever it might be. I always try to take away something from each day I come here.
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I’ve been fooling with it here and there. I’m trying not to let it interfere with learning guitar which is top priority to me. But the Mandolin does sound so cool, the licks in “Losing My Religion” especially are so catchy. Most of what’s in the song isn’t extremely challenging except for the very first chord:
E====1=====
A====0=====
D====3=====
G====5=====
even on a tiny mandolin going all the way to the 5th fret with the ring finger while holding down the first with your index finger is just a huge stretch. Just fretting it is hard but I have to transition to it in a flash because there’s a lead in lick on the A string:
E=============1==============
A==5=7=5=0====0==============
D=============3==============
G=============5==============
This is the hump I’m trying to get over. So I’m either going to have to wait till I can stretch my fingers like that and fret the chord quick enough, or compromise on this bit in some why. I’ve been trying to just drop the E string from the chord, that might work ok as long as the sound is not too far off. Like I said the remaining bits aren’t nearly as high difficulty for a beginner mandolin player and might be able to get them down before too long.