Just wanted to say thanks to the guys at Cracking The Code

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#1

So, I play guitar for a living (teaching, multiple bands, local session work here and there), but I RARELY have time to simply practice guitar for my own enjoyment. Maybe a couple of minutes on rare occasions while waiting for a guitar student to arrive, but no real ‘focus’ time (although I’ve found that even a good 5-minute session every so often does add up). Anyway…

With friends reminding me that I work too hard (I’ve added up my hours of anything that’s band, lesson, other work related time and it averaged out to be 17 hours a day, 7 days a week), they’ve always said I really need to make time for myself. Well, after buying a number of CTC lessons (Morse, Lee, and Miller) over the years, and seeing all the other amazing players that have been added to the roster, it finally hit me - it’s time to go all in and get myself a membership.

Well, with doing that, one says, “Hey, I just spent some hard earned money on something cool, I’d better not let it just sit there”. And now, I’m slowly but surely putting practice plans together to add Teemu’s amazing stuff to all my other players’ material (I made my own Cracking the Code workbook a long time ago), and it’s becoming this massive, irresistible catalyst for me to make time, stay up late, do whatever I need to do to get my guitar in my hands as much as possible and get to work on all this invaluable material.

So, I just wanted to send my thanks to the guys at CTC for not only all the amazing, hard work you do making all this stuff, but for helping me out in multiple ways to become a better guitar player.

My UTMOST thanks - greatly appreciated!
Dave Benziger
www.DaveTheGuitarPlayer.com

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#2

Thanks for the comments here Dave, really appreciate it! Great to hear Cracking the Code has played a role in helping make space for some guitar “me time” and have fun learning. (But damn, 17 hours a day — when do you sleep?! Hope you get a vacation every now and then :wink:)

Your mention of specific practice plans and a “Cracking the Code workbook” caught my eye — if you’d ever like to share some more detail on that, please feel free, I’m sure others would find it useful too. We’re quite interested in learning / pedagogy and made the #teachers-lounge category here on the forum for just that sort of exchange about how to put learning into practice.

#3

Hey Brendan! After thinking about it, I realized I should deduct about an hour or two for time spent on meals, travel and a shower, but I’m basically up at 8:00am doing work-related stuff til 1:00am every day. :slight_smile: But I’m grateful - I’ve got great jobs that I enjoy, and for the most part, I’ve got a guitar in my hands during the majority of my days.

As far as a vacation, when I get out to the NAMM show every January, that’s the closest thing to a vacation I can get.

And I definitely want to share some stuff in the teachers-lounge. My most guitar-life changing teacher taught me the 18-Minute Practicing Process decades ago when I was taking lessons through a music conservatory, and it’s been a MAJOR help in my mechanical learning ever since. As soon as I get a chance, I’ll share the material he gave me and how I’ve used it for material I’ve pulled from CTC.

My thanks again to you all!

Dave

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#4

I agree! I’d love to see the practice process and workbooks. Being “self-taught” people like you on the internet are the reasons why I can play at all.