[Loraine]

Congratulations on several fronts – Completing the 30 Days to Play, the next 6 Chords, doing a full week of daily challenges, and not shooting for perfection, but trusting the process (hint – no such thing as true perfection; only frustration). Keep up the great work, and the best thing you did was have some fun doing it all

[Loraine]

@PHC60 I agree with the other comments. Strumming is really hard, and it simply takes a lot, and I do mean a lot of practice. I’ve found that using a thinner pick when starting is the easiest way to learn. My go to is between a .6 to .71

I spent a lot of time watching videos on YouTube of other guitarists strumming. Don’t grip the pick with a death grip, don’t kill the strings – strive to barely touch the strings. Keep your wrist as loose as possible. Angle the pick when going down and turn to.angle it on the upstroke. Practice a lot of different strum patterns. Try playing with the band on youtube or spotify, etc. as much as possible. The biggest tool is a metronome. Make it your best friend. Strum in time with it, and your strumming will become more fluid.

I’ve been playing 3 years, and just now do I feel as if my strumming has become more fluid.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by  Loraine.

[Loraine]

@jberry6mac-com Welcome to the TAC community! I understand not using a pick with a classical before, but you might want to purchase some to take full advantage of what TAC offers. Tony teaches not only fingerstyle, but also flat picking and strumming with a pick, and using just your fingers will be difficult on many lessons.

[Loraine]

@CatMom Welcome to the TAC community! There are arguments (just a use of the word, no real arguments) about whether you should use only an acoustic, or whether you can use an electric by itself or alongside an acoustic. There’s absolutely nothing that says you can’t use an electric on TAC. I play electric and acoustic, and I use electric a lot to practice, because it can be easier to learn and play on, and I think using it can benefit your acoustic playing later. Get the skills down and then transfer the skills to acoustic.

[Loraine]

@dfmarcus63 I’m not sure I agree with you wholly, but the focus of TAC has always been the foundational skills. The old TAC was missing how to tie all the skills together to play songs, except for some bluegrass songs that Tony taught in the song vault, but the song vault was discontinued with the new site. There aren’t different levels, such as beginner, intermediate, advanced. Everyone sees the same daily challenges. There are many newer lessons and weekly focuses being introduced, as you stated, but they are interchanged with the older courses, which had been around for quite a while. TAC switched their format from more bluegrass to more popular music, but they are still covering a lot of the same elements, just in a different way than previously. Tony is explaining the site better, how to begin building a healthy foundation, and is spending more time on teaching how to use the tools to improv, build a good lick library, chord transitions that aren’t simply switching between a set of chords but on doing so through actually playing the final product of the weekes efforts while having smooth chord transitions – because that was a link previously missing. I think that when TAC went from the old site to the current site, which was 2 years ago, their focus was to get back to basics with the newer player to teach the foundations of guitar, which was what TAC advertised.

The courses have always rotated back around every 8-12 months, so that is not anything new, and certain technique lessons are repeated more often during the year, because the techniques apply to what is being taught that week. Having been here 18 months, you will have experienced the lessons rotating around and being interspersed with the newer lesson formats.

If you have specific examples that you’re referring to or concerned about, please contact support and ask Victoria to either address your concerns or ask that she have Tony possibly address them at a later date. I’m sure I’m not doing it justice here.

[Loraine]

@the-old-coach This is so spot on. I trust doing this more now than ever. The best example I have is when I picked up Puff the Magic Dragon for thr first time and just played how it felt, and it is one of my best strumming songs. It is oth, flows with the chord transitions and just sounds right; natural; not forced, -just felt. I’ll post a taping later today or tomorrow to show what I mean.

[Loraine]

That is such a great compliment @markvguitar ! Thank you so much!

[Loraine]

Thanks @Marisa !

[Loraine]

Thanks @Braden . I love this song and could never do it justice, but at least I can keep working on it. Maybe I’ll post another video down the road.

[Loraine]

Yes, I have a groupy! Lol. I really appreciate your kind words. It’s a fun song to sing and play.

[Loraine]

@KevinZ I truly appreciate your words and inspiration. I have all my videos saved in YouTube archives. I probably should go back and look at some. I know I’m better than I was. Still have a long way to go, but I am coasting a little bit right now and simply having some fun. It feels good.

[Loraine]

I am in a great period for playing. I actually thought about quitting guitar a year or so ago. Ever since I made the decision to give it some more time, I’ve been coasting down the hill at great speeds and having a blast. I’ve decided to just do what I love, and if it amounts to anything great, and if not, then oh well. At least I tried.

[Loraine]

@albert_d Haha, I’m simply a fool when it comes to posting the videos, but I want to share them with someone, and since no one else here, you guys are the recipients of my attempts at songs. Having fun though. 🙂

[Loraine]

Truly appreciate it @HowardM !

• This reply was modified 2 years, 4 months ago by  Loraine.

[Loraine]

Thanks so much @Moose408 !