Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Someone let me know if I’m correct
What I think the method of Tomo to play free along the fretboard is instead of the shapes is better to know the notes than the positions, am I correct?

I think his answer would be that we should know everything :)

"Once you start learning shapes, everything becomes shape."

I understood that there is "Too much thinking"in using shapes. You always try to remember the shapes. And then you try to break out of the shapes you remember, by learning new shapes, like diagonal pentatonic scales etc.

For me, his approach is to more like recognise the notes in terms of the intervals and develop a feel of what you are playing. It is also about ear training.

Of course, you remember the notes on the fretboard and chords/ triads at some point without any thinking. But the way you get there is more about understanding und learning. There is nothing you have to break out. "Remembering a shape is easy. Too easy."

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. Please follow the lessons, and don't worry about 'why' . . . soon, you will understand."

I like to think of it as developing an understanding of note intervals ( musical distance between the notes ) and "degrees" of the scale/chord - i.e. for any note I'm playing ....what degree of the scale or chord is it ?

This develops an awareness of the "colour" of the note against the chord you are playing. So for example a high B note against and A minor chord will give a "9th" sound - and you get Amin9. A "C" note will give you the minor 3rd of the chord. You'll see Tomo stressing the "function" (i.e its degree relative to the chord / scale) of each note when he is going through chord progressions in the lessons.

It takes a while to get all this in your head , but if you go slowly and carefully and study the major diatonic scale and its chords ( for any key , but C is easiest to start with ) then you'll begin to see how every note relates to its chord, key or scale - in terms of intervals and degrees.

Also understanding chord construction really helps, particularly starting with the triads - major (Root, major 3rd, 5th) ; minor ( root, minor 3rd, 5th ) and diminished ( root, minor 3rd, flattened 5th )

When I started learning theory I began by :
1) learning the construction of the major scale
2) learning how each note was a particular "degree" of the scale
3) what the intervals were between each of the notes/degrees of the scale
4) how to build chords from these intervals.

Once you have this knowledge you can see how to build pretty much any chord you want ( even if it takes time to be able to play them ! ) Later you can apply this same thinking to other types of scale (Minor, Harmonic Minor etc ) to build chords.

Good luck and enjoy it - every small step is a win !

This is a great discussion - I have a related question. When you sing the notes (solfege) using do, re, mi, etc. How do you sing D dorian? In theory lesson 4? Tomo is asking us to learn the Dorian as if it was part of the D family, so then it starts on do, correct? But it would maybe sound more correct (in tune) if it started on re. This would make it part of the C family. Thanks in advance.

Tomo really is full of wisdom. To know it all, you need to love it all. Listen. Copy. Practice. Repeat.
Eventually, you will feel it. Once you feel it, you can begin to understand what you're doing. But feel it and play it first.

To listen to these lessons is sitting in the presence of greatness. It can't help but rub off on you.
BUT
You have to invest the time in practicing the above if you want to reap the rewards! :-)

Peace, Love and Understanding
/David C.