Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I know music theory well and I have studied the previous 15 lessons(not too hard).
But in Lesson 16, I just play the note trough listening the note sound or watching what position Tomo playing.
Again and again, my head was exploded.maybe it is because I don't know Blues well, I guess.
can anybody help me? or provide some suggestions for me.
Thanks a lot.

Hey Wu Yue,

It's only too hard because you're not used to it :)

Just like learning to put your finger on a string (and hold it down by the fret) was hard when you first picked up the guitar, right?

You said you don't know Blues well... how well do you know it? Get specific and realistic about how you know it.

Can you recognize the licks and where they're being played?
Can you guess what key is being played?

To be able to solo, it helps to listen to other blues artists.
You can even watch other players.

If you haven't listened to BB King yet, listen to Live At The Regal.
Close everything and set your phone to Do Not Disturb.
Put on some headphones (or your speakers) and listen.

Blues is not like theory - that's why Tomo said you can have perfect pitch, but not play good music. You can play good music, but not have perfect pitch.

Blues is a feeling. You can learn the foundations of blues by watching Tomo, but that doesn't make you a blues player. You can be a blues player, but if you don't have the blues feeling, you're not going to play good blues.

Highly recommend you listen to more blues before you try to play it.

Hi Wu Yue,

Just watched the lesson, and I can see what you mean now.

I'm definitely not at the level where I can explain it well from a music theory perspective haha.

Mostly, I think it's understanding what chords he's playing and how the notes correlate to the chords.

He's using a mix of triads and scales to play along with the chord changes, rather than focusing on scales to solo.

It's more about breaking out of the "positions" that you typically learn in music theory, rather than trying to pick up the lessons and clues he's leaving in the playing.

My previous advice still stands though! :) Definitely listen to blues and try to play along with the chord changes when you solo, rather than just sticking with the pentatonic scale, or whatever scales you're using to play.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. It is sometimes difficult to learn two things at once: (1) Foundation, such as Major triads, and (2) Applying that concept to music, which involves chord progressions, song forms, etc. Try to prepare and review more deeply. Maybe you could practice blues chord progressions with Root 3rd 7th swing in several different keys - Bb, F, E, A, Db, G, D, C. Then learn other chord progressions!"