[Loraine]

Welcome back @Gigemagz ! Sounds like you’re in the right place and are having a really good time. That’s exactly how it should be. Keep at it!

[Loraine]

Hi @nynatvegmail-com Welcome to TAC. I can understand the initial confusion or feeling overwhelmed. Break it down to simply what can you do today. The goal of TAC is progress over progression. It is a suggestion that you commit 10 minutes per day to playing. This basically means that you spend 10 minutes on a lesson and then mark it as completed. You can practice longer than that, but at a minumum try to do 10 minutes. You will get better. The other part is to keep moving. Don’t get bogged down on a lesson. Do your best and then move forward. It takes the fun out of it when perfection of a lesson is sought. Lessons roll around again months down the road, so you’re not missing out on them. If you’re unable to play every day, just jump on that days lesson. Don’t try and make up for missed lessons. You’ll still gain skill and knowlege by doing this and will progress.

Just do the best you can and if it is too much or you’re unable to play, don’t worry about it. Just pick up and play when you have time. I practice sporadically 10 minutes here and there, and other times I can sit and play for an hour or so. But I only do what I’m able to.

Hang in there, and you’ll do great!

[Loraine]

@aniccasimogmail-com and @musicrme me Congratulations on completing the 30 days to play.

If you go to the Skills Tab, there will be a Tab called Getting Started. It lists the courses that most new people are directed to take. They are:

30 Days to Play

5 Day Guitar Routine Challenge

Daily Stretch for Guitar

Strumming Jumpstart

TAC Quick Start

Your Next Six Chords

I suggest taking a look at these courses. Then from there, you can jump on the daily challenges and take any skills courses that you find interesting. This is your journey, and you can do whatever you want with it. I prefer the organized direction, which leads me to the above courses after completing the 30 days to play.

You could take a look at the Techniques, 5-day challenges, and Learn the Fretboard tabs too. There’s a lot of good things in there. The flatpicking and fingerpicking Jumpstart courses were good.

[Loraine]

@jmullanygmail-com That’s awesome! The Bm is an essential chord that is in so many songs.

[Loraine]

Hey @jmwood59gmail-com that’s a great win. I enjoy doing hammer ons (not a huge fan of pull offs though), but you will get better and better with them over time. There are a lot of songs that use hammer ons, especially in the introductions and riffs.

[Loraine]

Hi Anthony. I would say yes to your question of whether it is normal not to play the full song at the end of a week. As Skyman pointed out, TAC teaches foundational skillsk that are necessary to learn and play songs. You then take the foundational skills you’ve learned, find the chord or tab sheets and lyrics, and learn to play the song. I suggest using ultimate-guitar.com, which is free. There are other sites too, which I could message you the sites. Out of respect for TAC, I don’t mention them openly.

[Loraine]

Great job @Marty73 !! I’ve been playing Can’t Find My Way Home to. I love playing it. I swear you and I must be on the same wave lengths regarding songs to play, because you post a lot that I’ve been working on too. Anyway, you always do such a nice job playing. Is your guitar plugged in? My Martin is boisterous like yours, but I don’t have electronics in mine.

[Loraine]

Hey @langerking That is perfectly normal, especially when you’re newer to either guitar, or the concept or both. Iif I remember correctly, To y teaches the 3 chord power chord, and it will take time to learn the finger placements, transitions between the, and to increase speed. Slowing it way down is the best way to go about working on them. Use a metronome at a very slow pace. 4:4 timing. Strum the,chord on beat one. Take beats 2, e, 4 to transition to the next power chord. Then do it again. Keep repeating. When you can do it 10 times in a row without a mistake, move the metronome up 5 and start all over. You will become more proficient, increase speed and accuracy. Practice on an electric guitar of you have one. That’s what is typically used for playing power chords.

[Loraine]

It’s been quite a while since I went through the course. I really should go through it again.

I don’t recall the ebook you’re referring to. Within FBW is the FB Guide.

https://tonypolecastro.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/TAC-Fretboard-Wizard-INTERACTIVE-Guide.pdf

[Loraine]

@Rob503 I feel for ya! I’m A rhythm player, because I can’t fingerpick because of tremors in hands. Even with tremors, strumming is hard, transitioning between. Chords is difficult, and speed is another issue. They are 3 separate issues to be dealt with individually and eventually pit together.

For chord transitions, there are a lot of things you can do to get better. Most aren’t a ton of fun to do, but they’re necessary in order to build muscle memory.

I agree with the others, slow it way down and use a metronome. 4:4 Strum a chord on beat one. Use beats 2,3,4 to change to the next chord; Again strum on the one neat, and keep repeating. When you’re able to transition at a low speed (and many times it is a very low speed), increase it in increments of 5 beats and begin again. And it goes on. You will learn to transition faster and smoother with this exercise..

For finger placement on chords, practice hovering fingers over the correct strings and bringing them down on the correct strings at the same time. You’ll again start with a very slow beat on the metronome 4:4 and increase as you become proficient at that speed. If you currently place one finger at a time, you’re creating muscle memory to place one finger at a time. To break the muscle memory, use the opposite pattern of placement , and then switch up to placing the 2nd finger first and then alternate between 2 other notes in chord. Then practice placing 2 fingers at the same time, and then 2 different fingers. Do all combinations, and then practice hovering over the strings without touching them, and then placing them at same time on their respective strings. notes, then switch of the 2 fingers and use a different combination

Strumming is difficult, which surprises a lot of people. It simply takes a helluvalot of time and practice. Have you taken the Jumpstart to strumming yet? This is another to practice with a metronome. There are a lot of strum patterns out there. Stick to 1-2 for now until you get better. I still struggle sometimes with strumming, because I’m tight and stiff from fibromyalgia, and I have the tremors, and my hand jumps, and I can’t hit the strings. I simply keep at it.

Sorry for length. Got a little carried away. :). Feel free to ask questions.

[Loraine]

@Comfy Thanks so much!! I learned a new word today too – “cahoneys” lol Love it! You can do it! Just keep at it. I told myself and others that I was going to put myself out there – good and bad. I think I’ve grown a lot in my playing from doing so.

[Loraine]

Hey friend – Long time since we’ve spoken. There shouldn’t be a reason to tune up. That’s way too much pressure on the E string. The G, B, and E are under a lot of tension as it is. They rarely, if ever, get tuned up. I think you should be tuning down to D, and that actually takes pressure off the string and lowers the tone.

Hope you’re doing well. 🙂

[Loraine]

Martin’s typically have pick ups, but mine doesn’t. It’s loud enough as it is. No need to amplify it. My microphone is set at least 1 1/2 feet from me and still picks up my guitar and vocals.

Peace out buddy!

[Loraine]

I have a good friend, who is actually a professional jazz guitarist in Alaska and Illinois (where we’re originally from). I send him videos, and he says he plays along with me. Makes me smile every time, because he is ultra talented.

I really appreciate your listening and playing along with me. That means a lot. 🙂

[Loraine]

Ha! I’ve never been told I was brave before for my barre chords. I’m a sick puppy, because I actually like barre chords. My guitar teacher said he’s never had a student say that or not shy away from them. I’m getting better at transitioning to them. There are so many more opportunities out there if you can do barre chords.

Thanks for your observations Albert.