Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hey everyone, I thought maybe I'd start this thread. I've always been curious as to what each of you do to maximize your learning and how you apply what you learn from Tomo.

I do try to follow Tomo's advice and try to write things down to have some kind of structure to my learning. Because of my job, my practice time is limited but I find that sticking to a routine makes my practice more productive. My practice routine often incude the following:

1. Finger exercise - picking, L/R hand muting, legato exercise, timing, etc.
2. Theory - Alternating on M/m triads, modes/ scales in aparticular key; usually alternating on key's in the circle of 5th's,ie C today, G tomorrow, then D, A, etc.
3. Practicing on a backing track using looper or finding one in Youtube.

My playing is not quite fluid yet but I can appreciate being able to play on a random backing tracks from learning the theories here.

What's your routine?

I'm all over....been noodling for probably 10 years, but wouldn't want to tell anyone that and them ask me to play.
Before CoronaVirus I signed my kids up for school of rock franchise, and since I was taking them, I decided to do it.

So about 4 months of adult program at school of rock, learned about 6 songs including solos and played with other adults....pretty fun.

Then coronavirus.
Doing lessons with my instructor via zoom, but using Tomo's lessons as supplemental.

Problem is I'm really enjoying the theory aspect so I've stepped back on learning songs.

About 3 years ago I took Berklee online Chord 101 class.
This is helping apply some of what i learned about inversions, minor triads, sus4, d7, etc...

Currently I hammer down hard on the lessons. Being as thorough as possible.
If it's a Bb Major Scale in the lesson, I write out all the notes. Play it in the 5 positions.

Write the notes out of the triads, play each one until I'm fluid and can just jump to the chord.

Then I'll quickly wrap with playing my six songs from school or rock and their solos
(paranoid, you're no good, long way to the top, join togher, misty mountain hop, landslide)

I'll keep with Tomo's lessons as my focus for a while and then probably have to pick up another net new song.

Feedback is crucial. Whether that is from a teacher or an objective source, such as a video or audio recording, or ever a mirror. Feedback will show you your weaknesses and then you can address them with exercises. If you aren't aware of the mistakes, you'll repeat them forever and hinder your progress. And, it's very hard while you're in the moment to notice them as a beginner.

At first, it's going to hurt to see and hear yourself play and the mistakes will feel overwhelming, but you will progress faster than most if you make a habit of assessing and correcting them.

Goal oriented practice will help guide you toward the guitar player you want to be and keep you motivated.

For example, I want to play Sultans of Swing. That takes a lot of skill and a variety of skills to do well. But, if you break it down step-by-step you'll be surprised how much progress you can make.

Learn the chords for the first 8 measure and just practice the changes. Learn the strumming pattern. Try to do it without a metronome, then with. Gradually increase the speed.

Learn the melody for the first 4 measures. Play it super slow and clean. Figure out what techniques are used: bending, hammering, etc. Practice those in isolation.

Record myself doing all of that and listen to it to see where I'm struggling and come up with an exercise or find one of tomo's to address it.

I personally start with fundamental technique practice for 10-15 minutes. Then I do something fun like playing with a backing track for 5-10 minutes. Then I'll work on some aspect of what I need to learn for Sultan's of Swing. I try to keep each day slightly different so I don't get too bored.