Hi there. With excitement I just wanted jump into the forum sharing what the CtC has done for me in only a couple of months.
So, I’ve been playing 15 years, which I don’t like to tell people, because I feel a lot of those years have been wasted with minimal improvement.
I tend to enjoy scientific/empirical approaches to learning things (doing things smarter > harder). That’s how I got my first positive encounter with CtC videos on youtube, which led me to this site.
I’ve always wanted to play at speeds I just couldn’t attain over the years. In the past, I sweared by the metronome for speed practice. I must say, although I like systematic approaches, the whole “start slow, increase by increments” have been torture. At first it feels directional and purpose-full, until you come to a certain speed where it never seems to increases. I’ve always hit a wall, kept going a for a while, saw no improvement and ultimately lost motivation. Failure after failure.
CtC’s has been transformational, subbing to the Primer and all. I’ve quit the metronome (for now), because I just want feel smoothness in my technique, which have always been filled with tension. I just go “fast” and experiment - with guidance from the CtC instructors. Now I do fast tremolos, begin to play fragments of scales, and also licks from fave songs with speeds I’ve never accomplished before. I do make errors, but it’s not frustrating anymore, and I make fewer errors as days go by. It becomes problem solving and experimentation. I feel less tension. But most notably for myself, I tend to get lost in practice-time (never done that before). I enjoy practicing now. I finally see the improvements I’d lost hope in.
Thanks Troy and CtC team for this amazing ressource! - I’m excited to improve even more and explore this amazing catalogue of knowledge.