Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi!

Really thrilled to be here and learn from the best! Although I have a few questions that make me wonder if I'm on the right track.

Question: Can I do other things aside from practicing the foundations?

Don't get me wrong, I love starting from the basics and learning the reason behind what you're doing, but I can't help to feel a little drained or tired from learning the foundations. I basically spend an hour or so doing ear training, fretboard familiarization and mastering triads of the C Major Scale. Been doing this for almost a week straight, hoping to be good enough to at least get past it and get to the genre specific stuff already. But I know I'd be even more lost if I just jump right in there without clearing the basics first. My fear is that if I start practicing other things (songs/ solos I like outside TF Guitar Wisdom) then I might end up just memorizing shapes and looking at tabs. So I guess the real question should be: How to balance building a solid foundation without getting burned out from the process of learning?

Also, I don't have enough finger strength, finesse or dexterity to play how Tomo is playing. So I just end up getting stuck in a small portion of the basics. Like practicing switching between the root and inversions of triads takes quite some time and this adds to the "burn out" that I feel.

Any suggestions or practice workflow tips would be very much appreciated!

Thanks for taking the time to read this! Stay safe!

Hi Joseph,

It's awesome to feel thrilled and excited about learning foundations and basics - I always notice that when these things feel like a fun game, it doesn't feel like learning "basics" to me anymore, because playing these notes is the only important thing in the world. This feeling is awesome but only while it is there, and the fun games feeling is certainly not always there for me every day.

My biggest piece of advice is to be patient, and try to accept each day's practice and progress for what it is in itself. Note: I am not always great at taking my own advice. This is really, really hard to do.

A strategy I used while building finger strength is to play chromatic scales for a few minutes per day. I found this to be an easy way to get some extra notes in each day and get my fingers used to playing more frequently. Starting on the lowest string, I would just play the frets 1234 and then go up a string, then come back down when I reached the top. Feel free to go up and down the fretboard wherever you'd like, or try variations of the fret sequence so that it is not always the same. Skipping notes from 1324 / 4231 is a very good pattern for building dexterity.

Also, Tomo has a video on YouTube that details some of his warm-up exercises. I have been doing these nearly every day for the past few weeks and it makes a big difference! My favorite of these exercises is the first he shows, which is a version of what I listed above.
The pattern goes 1212 3212 3432 1234 while going up the fretboard, then in reverse 4343 2343 2123 4321 on the way down.

As for switching triads / chords, that is something that still gives me some trouble. Again, patience is key, but that is not a satisfying answer to hear.
There is another online guitar instructor that I saw give advice on learning to change chords. He suggested picking two chords that you are learning to switch between. In this case, it would be your root and inverted triads. Set a timer for one minute and play those chords, changing between them as smoothly as you possibly can. Don't focus on speed for now, just keep it smooth. Count how many times you can switch between them during one minute. See if you can beat your high score next time!

The burnout feeling is difficult to get through sometimes. Are there any songs that you have in mind to start learning? Maybe try learning a riff or lick from that tune. See if you can figure it out yourself by ear - I always get the biggest thrill from learning a song on my own! But if you decide to use sheet music, or a tab, that's fine too! Honestly I think that learning even with these methods requires a decent amount of "playing by ear" to figure things out.

It sounds to me like the fear of memorizing shapes /tabs is becoming a blocker to having fun while learning. Shapes and tabs are tools, and we are all still allowed to use them from time to time if it helps us along the journey. :D
And besides, if you "accidentally memorize" a shape it's not going to hurt you! Having a shape in mind is not the problem - the problem is a reliance on learning only the shapes, while ignoring the notes. Just keep that in mind the next time you're practicing, and when you notice yourself playing that shape maybe slow down and try to think of the exact notes / degrees rather than the shapes or fret numbers. This has helped me big time. Heck, Tomo has a video up on YouTube about the CAGED system and how those specific shapes are great to get someone started with analyzing where the notes are and learning the fretboard.

EDIT: I'm not sure if these two YouTube videos are also covered here in Guitar Wisdom. I just signed up for GW this week, and I recall seeing these two videos before I subscribed.

Hi Ryan!

Thank you so much for your time and effort in writing this very helpful and thorough response! Greatly appreciate it!!

Yes, I agree with you on patience. It's cause I feel like I should always get to the next lesson as soon as possible and not waste time, which shouldn't be the case.

I just checked the warm-up exercise video you recommended me to watch and I'll incorporate that starting tomorrow! Just got to remember to start extremely slow cause even just by watching it makes me doubt I can even try it haha! Also adding in the switching chords routine for a whole minute! I even have troubles with switching cleanly from an open C to an open G chord so this routine will actually give me statistical data if I improved or not.

As for songs, I'm in to John Mayer's "Gravity" and "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" and I want to try playing Melanie Faye's incredible solos. But I always mess up with bending lol! A different battle to tackle some other day. I agree with you there, I think some tablature won't really capture everything so you really have to listen carefully. Great way to do ear training too. Definitely going to start to not be overly dependent on tabs or sheets of music from now on.

I really haven't looked at memorizing shapes this way! And thinking of them as "tools" rather than something to completely avoid is really great! Thank you so much! I think my biggest takeaway from this is to know the real reason for using shapes; it's no the shapes themselves that's bad, but doing them without knowing why, is.

Again, thank you so much Ryan! This really helped me a lot!

Don't feel you have to rush to learn everything at once. That is when people quit. Take your time. Set a more realistic goal to learn one new things a week. Practicing with backing tracks is fun for me but do what works for you- even take a week off. The guitar will still be there. Learn a simple 3 chord song and be satisfied with that. From there, think of everything else as just a bonus. It takes years to play well- not weeks or months.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. Remember, you can do whatever you wish at your own pace. In guitar playing, balance is very important, just like eating or sleeping. Focus on basic technique, and keep working on important foundation material. Then, take time to enjoy whatever is interesting to you."

You seem to be very diligent on your practice, here’s a piece of advice on the barre chords ( starting with the E Shape from caged) there are three triads in that one shape . Find the triads in that shape . Maybe use C major starting on strings 1-2-3. Spell it out you’ll see the triads and for me that worked i see triads in barre chords