Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Here is Tomo's reply:

"Thanks so much for joining my Guitar Wisdom. I think you are just thinking with common sense. There are so many ways you can learn. Here is what to do! Don't just memorize. Don’t hurry at all! Just learn each note by name and each interval. You can even go back and try this with chords that you already know: check each note and interval. So, you see? R 5 b7 M3 6 R … like that? Don’t follow shapes! Don’t just memorize shapes. Simply avoid anything that seems like an easy shortcut -- this is what I always tell my private students!"

Thanks for the reply.
I have one more question
when Tomo is playing different chords, does he think about which note his finger is placing?
Like lesson 017 I saw him jam with different jazzy chord freely, does Tomo think about which note he is playing in each chord? Or Tomo understood what does each chord sounds like and applies to it?

Tomo already understands each chord perfectly and already has memorized every single note in the fingerboard, and on top on that, he already knows, through experience, what each chord sounds like and how each chord sound together; which lets him play "freely and without effort", but in reality, he is always thinking on what he is playing and what he's gonna play (atleast when he's improvising).

So yeah, both.

One way Im learning it is by noting the notes in the chord go like so, starting from the high E string down:

Chord notes: R M3 5 b7

First voicing is R -> up two to 5 -> back one to M3 -> up two to b7 (R 5 M3 b7)

You can repeat this step from each note in the chord:

From M3 -> up two to b7 -> back one to 5 -> up two to R (M3 b7 5 R)
From 5 -> up two to R -> back one to b7 -> up two to M3 (5 R b7 M3)
From b7 -> up two to M3 -> back one to R -> up two to 5 (b7 M3 R 5)

Thank you, I agree with you. I was puzzled trying to make the sheet correspond with what the notes actually are. Great lesson, but I spent extra time trying to figure out how to make the sheet match what was being presented.

The "top" note, in each column on the sheet, is the "top" (highest) note of the chord, which is on the first string. So, if you read each column from the bottom up, you will find that each inversion matches what Tomo plays (0:20 - 1:28) on Strings 4, 3, 2, 1, and what is noted in the subtitles.

Thanks George---I got the "reading from the bottom" but am wondering why Tomo emphasises the chord note on the 1st string (he has a circle around the note and mentions them in the lesson), and not the Root note position. I assume knowing where the root note is positioned within the 4 note chord will be necessary to finding/selecting chords in a progression---ie; selecting a 4-note chord when moving from A to D to E.
Is there a particular benefit in knowing the 1st string notes?

Yes! The short answer is that knowing/hearing the "top" note in each chord will help you to create melodic solos and chord melodies.

I could tell you, but we're supposed to find the answer by ourselves in order to develop our musicality. Just keep trying, you're doing great!

Hey Josh, you can go back to Lesson 11 and watch the second half of it where Tomo showed simple blues strumming pattern and left hand muting. You can work on that and get your muting technique down first, i.e., you should be able to cleanly strum all 6 strings and allow those 3 or 4 fretted strings to ring and mute the rest. Once you're comfortable with your left hand muting skill, work on speeding it up.

Then you can watch Lesson 40 to work on your rhythm. This will probably take some time to transfer to strumming rhythm in the guitar but you'll get there with practice.

Then go back to Lesson 14, but this time, look at Tomo's right hand and see how loose it is when he goes through 16th, 32nd, and triplet notes. You'll notice that his hand just constantly moves up and down at pretty much the same pace with the left hand fretting and muting the strings to give that "chucka-chucka" sound in between notes and once in a while he'll break the pace to do that triplet "raking" sound.

It's a good goal to work on for sure, but take your time in perfecting the techniques at slow pace so you don't develop sloppy playing habits.