[Loraine]

Hey Stew, that was great. You’re sounding more and more awesome each time I hear you play. I’m so envious you can play finger style. I’m relegated to being a rhythm player, and you are the lead. lol

[Loraine]

Hey Tim, Congratulations on completing the 30 days to play course. It’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you complete it.

After taking the 30 Days to Play, it’s suggested to take the next 6 chords, the 5 day routine, and the stretching course, and to jump into the daily challenge. Some feel the challenges are too difficult in the beginning, but it’s suggested you at least try the daily for at least 10 minutes, then mark it complete. You can still work it, but don’t get caught up in perfection. It’s simply about trying. You will get better at it.

Check out the skills courses and choose what interests you. I always suggest starting with the Jumpstart courses for fingerpicking and flatpicking, because yo’ll learn some simple bluegrass songs, and then the strumming course. One would think strumming would be easy, but it is pretty challenging to most.

As Tony preaches, and as others have said, have fun. I’d add, be kind to yourself on days you might struggle with a concept or tool. It is a challenging instrument, but you will get better by trying consistently.

Make sure to celebrate your achievements and small wins. 🙂

[Loraine]

Way to go Anne. It is so fun and exciting when we learn new notes or chords, what experienced players might have forgotten what it was like at the beginning. It is super exciting. Keep at it, and keep posting your wins.

[Loraine]

@jorgemac I like Cordoba for the wider neck. The necks are wider and more comfortable. I’m not very good at knotting the strings when replacing them, though.

Let us know what you end up purchasing. Photos are required!

[Loraine]

Hi @mezzok The menu bar is on the left side of the page. If you’re on a phone, it will have 3 horizontal lines at the top,left. To open the menu, just click the 3 bars.

The daily challenge typically opens up when you enter the site. It will sa6 Welcome …. Has a link to Today’s challenge, has calendar to view previous challenges (can only view the current month challenges.” Will then have your stats.

Click on Start Challenge. It will open to that days challenge. The benchmark song will typically be the 1st weeks song. This month, it is American Pie. Click on the month Guitar Routine at the top and it will open to list all the lessons for the month.

There are 4 benchmark songs, Ain’t No Sunshine, Wagon Wheel, Hotel California, and Old Man. Each month will include one of these. The purpose is to compare your progress over time.

[Loraine]

Ronan, welcome to the TAC community! You have some great influencers there. I really wish I could play finger style, and I’m envious of those that can. I have essential tremors in my hands it makes it very difficult. But I would love to hear you play sometime. You have the right idea and making yourself accountable. When you commit yourself to commenting or playing for others, you actually increase your knowledge skills and abilities and you do become accountable and a better player.

Thanks for the intro, and I’m looking forward to seeing you more on the forums.

[Loraine]

@dszmakgmail-com I hear ya! Many of us, in the beginning especially, I have unrealistic expectations of 1. how easy it’s going to be, 2. That I should be playing songs shortly after beginning to learn the guitar, 3. Just about anything else you can think of. And I’m not saying any of this put you down or be mean, I’m just saying that many have those same unrealistic expectations because they don’t know better.

Your few savants when it comes to learning to play an instrument, especially the guitar or most stringed instruments. The guitar is a difficult instrument to play there is so many factors at play within hand eye coordination the two hand coordination that placement of fingers on the stretching the Learning not to mute strings Learning to play difficult chords Learning to transition between chords Learning rhythm Learning tempo timing scales unbelievably vast amount of foundational skills which is what Tony teaches. It’s a lot and I’ve left tons out you know the list goes on and on and on.

I agree with both @Skyman911 and @jumpinjeff – they be to back just a tad and the expectations, try to keep it simple, measurable, attainableäpü‘üü, but most of all maintain having fun. Frustration just totally wiped out fun. So the question is what is frustrating you let’s get rid of it. To sum it up it sounds like you’re frustrated that you’re not further ahead and that things are difficult, and transitioning between chords it’s not smooth or fast.

So being frustrated that you’re not further ahead could be solved by developing a realistic three month goal that might incorporate transitioning between chords smoother and faster.

So the goal might be that you’re going to work on transitioning between 3 chords, name the 3 chords (hint, take the 1st 3 chords of an easy 3 chord song – google easy 3 chord songs). When will you practice? For how long? What will be your strategy, to practice and get better? I agree with Jumpin Jeff. Slow it way doown.

Here’s how I do it. I set a metronome at 4:4 beats, and I set the speed to between 20 and 40 bpm. On beat one, through three, I get my fingers placed, and on beat four, I strum. Then I usually beat a 1-3 to transition to the next chord and on beat 4 I strum. Do this for the first two chords until you can do so smoothly at least 10 times in a row without error. Then increase the speed 10 bpm and repeat the process keep repeating with the same two cords and increasing 10 bpm after being able to play 10 times in a row without error up until you reach the BPM of the song. Then take the 2nd and 3rd chord, and do the process all over again. It actually moves quite quickly, and you’ll be surprised that you’re able to transition between two cords quickly and a short amount of time. This process works great anytime you are working on a new song and you need to transition between chords. Just keep taking two chords that are next to each other in the song..

anyway, sorry for the length, which I’m guilty of too often, but I’m trying to be thorough and answering your questions. So ask away, and there’s always plenty of people to help, and many with different processes. Choose the ones that work the best for you.

[Loraine]

@rdeputy I am unable to download or open your attachment. Is there anyway that you could save it in a different format possibly in a word document or PDF?

[Loraine]

I think we all complain at times, so none of us can really be too hard on ourselves, because that’s just being human. After being here for years it does seem sometimes that you’re seeing the same things over and over. But then I’m often surprised that I’m still challenged by many of the lessons, where I have moments of surprise where I learn something or hear something that I don’t remember doing or hearing before.<div>
</div><div>Their times that I don’t do the daily lessons as religiously as before, but it is mainly because I have less time since the world opened back up after Covid, and I have a very demanding job. I still play every day several times a day, and I’m still on the website every day and I look at all the lessons I spend a lot of time actually playing songs now and practicing for open mics, jam club meet ups, experimenting with songs or even goofing around with my own progressions that will probably never see the light a day in the forums here. But I always return to doing the daily challenges or reviewing Fretboard Wizard .</div><div>
</div><div>I think the relationships that I’ve made throughout the years have kept me going as much as the lessons. I’ve often asked questions of people that came before me or even after me for that matter on things I’ve seen them do in some of their videos or I’ve met several people in person that I first met here the chat. I participate in open mics or jams at their houses or if you even traveled to meet with people to jam with them. I’ve learned from all of them, and I think that I learned the most was doing the open mics with them for years via virtual open mics when Covid was at its height. That’s when I first joined and began my guitar journey, so everything was online. </div><div>
</div><div>But the glue that holds us all together is TAC, and for that I am grateful. And I know that Tony and the crew in Montana Will always be trying to improve the program and add new lessons eventually even if it’s not at the pace some of us would like. We have to remember that the program is to teach foundational skills and it’s to reach a very broad base of players, which can’t be an easy feat.</div>

[Loraine]

Welcome to the community! I think overall you will be really surprised at how quickly things to come back to you or how quickly your muscle memory kicks in because you have had experience in the past it may not feel like it right at this moment, but I think that it might help. But I can see how it would feel like it’s a brand new adventure or that your right back to square one starting out that’s the fun part of it though because you’ll be able to see your growth as you move forward I hope you have a lot of fun don’t be a stranger in the chats!

[Loraine]

Thank you forr saying that about my vocals Pete. It means a lot. I play Guitar Man and Aubrery too

[Loraine]

I appreciate you saying that about my improvement. A master class with Reba would be fun.

[Loraine]

Thank you, and you are correct…It us impossible to have just 1 favorite.

[Loraine]

I would suggest you send a recommendation to support. Victoria can pass the recommendation onto the team. If they get enough people saying it’s not user friendly to them, then they would realize a change might be necessary.

Click on the support link on bottom left. Start a chat by sending a message. Victoria will respond pretty quickly.

This is what the forum page looks like to me. I’m on an iPad. The menu is clearly showing. If it’s not showing, there will be the drop down indicated by the 3 horizontal lines. Or the screen that typically opens up when I open the app is the daily challenge. The screen has a clear link to the benchmark forum.

[Loraine]

Hi Donna.

The benchmark songs will be found in the daily challenges. The daily challenge typically opens up when you enter the site. It will say Welcome …. Has a link to Today’s challenge, has calendar to view previous challenges (can only view the current month challenges.” Will then have your stats.

Click on Start Challenge. It will open to that days challenge. The benchmark song will typically be the 1st weeks song. This month, it is American Pie. Click on the month Guitar Routine at the top and it will open to list all the lessons for the month.

There are 4 benchmark songs, Ain’t No Sunshine, Wagon Wheel, Hotel California, and Old Man. Each month will include one of these. The purpose is to compare your progress over time.On the menu at the left side, click on Daily Challenge ( typically the first screen that comes up is at your daily challenge screen, Click on Daily challenge, click on where it says the month and at the top center and all the lessons for the month will be listed.