I’m allergic to New Year’s resolutions…HOWEVER, I am all for New Year’s resolutions that are guitar-geek focused!
This week on Acoustic Tuesday, I’m giving you 10 guitar geek New Year’s resolutions. Each one is designed to give you ideas and help you see how 2020 can be your best year on guitar.
As always, you can watch Acoustic Tuesday at 10am every Tuesday in these four places:
- Acoustic Life YouTube channel
- We Play Every Day Facebook Community
- Get show notes emailed directly to your inbox.
- Listen to audio-only below or in iTunes
This Week on Acoustic Tuesday
I know everyone is excited about the New Year. What I’m most excited about is how 2020 is going to be your best year of guitar playing yet!
I’m going to offer 10 New Year’s resolution ideas that cover everything like…
- guitar maintenance
- personal growth
- practicing fundamentals
- and so much more!
Without further ado, here are my 10 guitar geek New Year’s resolutions!
10 – More Diligent Guitar Care
An easy guitar geek New Year’s resolution can be taking better care of your guitars.
To learn more about some of my favorite polish made by the folks at Music Nomad, check out this video.
9 – Record Your Guitar Playing
For a bolder New Year’s resolution, you can set a goal to record yourself playing guitar. When you record yourself playing, you actually allow yourself to become a better guitar player — here’s how…
It plays into one of my pillars of guitar practice: Reflect and Evaluate. By recording yourself, you can see opportunities for growth, while also allowing yourself to celebrate small wins.
So, for 2020, highly consider recording your guitar playing as your New Year’s resolution.
For ideas, Reverb has a great video tutorial on how to record yourself with an acoustic guitar.
8 – See A Live Show
Even if you don’t pick this as an official New Year’s resolution, seeing a live show has enormous impacts on your guitar playing.
Not only is it an enjoyable experience you can share with friends or family, but you can also see live performances of your favorite songs from your favorite artists!
I had this happen to me when I saw Charlie Parr and Dead Horses a few weeks ago … and they actually invited me up to play!!!
Here’s some footage of that awesome night.
7 – Learn Basic Acoustic Guitar Setup
A great New Year’s resolution for getting better at guitar is to have the confidence to set up your guitar. Stew Mac has great videos on guitar maintenance that you absolutely should check out.
There are a lot of great resources out there to learn basic acoustic guitar setup. I have some great videos on changing your strings, as well as plenty more guitar maintenance videos.
6 – Plan A Guitar Geek Day Trip Or Vacation
For a New Year’s resolution you can share with family and friends, try planning a day trip or vacation to a culturally historic or significant place for guitar geeks.
Whether this means taking a trip to the Delta Blues Museum or going to a guitar maker in your town, this New Year’s resolution can include all your friends and family. It doesn’t have to be extravagant, but make sure you have fun!
5 – Teach A Guitar Lesson
Regardless of where you are on your guitar journey, I want you to check out this video from Victor Wooten: https://youtu.be/3yRMbH36HRE
Music is a language, and we are all teachers and students.
For your New Year’s resolution, consider showing another guitar player a new chord, technique, or more. In fact, Billy Strings absolutely drives this point home, so be sure to check out that clip in the video!
4 – Volunteer Your Musical Offerings
Sharing your music is one of the most incredibly powerful things you can share with someone. For your New Year’s resolution, why not volunteer your guitar playing to a charity event, an elderly care facility, or a school.
3 – Attend Or Play An Open Mic
This can be a big obstacle for many guitar players. However, playing or attending an open mic is a great way to meet fellow guitar geeks and learn tons of new techniques.
For your New Year’s resolution, really think about attending an open mic — and if you need motivation, bring a friend or your spouse along!
2 – Focus On A Specific Artist or Technique For The Year
If you are interested or fascinated by a specific player, why not focus on their style and learn it as your New Year’s resolution?
In fact, if you’re interested in the blues at all, I have a free 5-day blues challenge coming up in January. You’ll learn a new 12-bar blues progression each day for 5 days, how to infuse licks into rhythm guitar, and so much more! Details coming soon!
1 – Make fun your main objective on the guitar
Whether you want to or not, this NEEDS to be at least one of your New Year’s resolutions. There’s no reason you should delay fun on the guitar.
To check out my free guitar practice reboot webinar, visit here: https://tonypolecastro.com/alj-reboot
Until next week, keep on plucking and don’t forget to tell your friends about Acoustic Tuesday!
Sharing Link: https://tonypolecastro.com/get-acoustic-tuesday
Complete all the 2020 TAC monthly lessons.
I love your idea of guitar maintainance. I have a Martin D 18 that I bought in 1974 and haven’t played in 15 years (since I purchased a carbon fiber guitar that I really love). I’m sure it needs some attention. So, I’m resolved to get the Music Nomad Premium Guitar Care Kit, clean it up properly and put on a new set of Santa Cruz Parabolic Tension strings,. I bought 3 sets for the price of 2 thanks the deal you helped arrange. Thanks for that.
Tony. Check out the video I posted on the “Picker’s Lounge” if you are inspired to learn Mississippi John Hurt’s style. It is under “Watch this Video”.
Hey Tony, GREAT show. You’ve really inspired me. I won’t do it until I’ve had a chance to think it through, but I’m resolved to make some resolutions that involve me being less technical and more artistic in my playing, to share my meagre talents with others, and to find more creative ways to teach guitar with joy and enthusiasm. Now I’ve declared it publicly; before the end of January I’ll post my resolutions at TAC. Have a great 2020. See y’all in the Fora. -PickerDad
Great Acoustic Tuesday! The resolutions were great and I will employ some of them. Have a few of my own too, nothing too ambitious but doable. Great info on products and learning about the guitar as an instrument itself. As usual, your enthusiasm and energy are inspiring and encouraging. They refresh my energy when the rest of life can bring it down.
I hope to join up for year three in a month or so and look forward to exploring so much more of your website that I haven’t even gotten to yet. I recommend your site to friends highly.
Be well Tony and I hope you and your great staff have an outstanding 2020!
Mike Brooks
Park Ridge, IL
Tony, I’m a new member of your TAC program, and this is my first Acoustic Tuesday viewing. Loved it. Just have to say how impressed I have been with every aspect of your program. I have already learned more than any other online course I have tried, and having fun doing it. Thank you!
Hi Tony, happy new year! Speaking of K.J. Phelps, i went to hear him at an outdoor show at the Montreal Jazz Fest (my home town) many years ago. The show was rained out, unfortunately, yet Mr. Phelps proceeded to a covered theatre entrance and sat and played a short acoustic guitar set. There were maybe 30 of us standing in the rain, and i was mesmerized. Tony, i can see where you’re coming from when you speak of the man.
Took a trip through Pennsylvania years ago and on to Washington D.C. Convinced my wife and 13 year old son to tour the Martin facility in Nazareth. Great experience and I think it turned my son into a guitar geek.
If you are interested in recording yourself and fancy getting yourself a little recording set up of your own I can thoroughly recommend following The Recording Revolution. Graham is completely into trying to encourage all of us to record ourselves and recommends some very affordable products that give great results.
Just saw show #123 great advise my new year’s resolution is a simple one.just do 10 minutes a day if I want to have more time,I will.i have been very busy.but this year I will spend more time on learning my craft.happy new year.to you and your wife.👍😁🌟☀️🎸💋🍺💗☕
Hi Tony
Great show. I love all your resolutions. I want to comment on going to opem mics. I attended
My first one about three years ago as a listener after alot of encouragement from my wife. I found that it was not at all what I feared. Everyone there was very encouraging, patient, and above all it was a listening crowd. I attended the next week as a player and was invited by the host to be a featured player the next week. I go to an open mic now every week. My wife records on her phone, and I use those recordings to see what works and to tweak future performances. I also want to add that We have made many new friends and have seen and heard alot of great music at these events.
Attention Tony here you go and for sale https://www.dreamguitars.com/shop/instruments/guitars/steel-string-guitars/resonator-guitars/2006-phillips-parlor-resonator-german-silver-82.html
You nay want to include an 8 bar blues in your blues challenge like Key to the Highway or something they are pretty cool. Mary Flowers has an instructional DVD on them that looks pretty cool but haven’t got it – yet.