Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I just started on Guitar wisdom and it looks great. I’ve owned guitars for years but always just messed around on them. I’m retiring in a couple of months and would like to devote lots of time to learning the guitar the right way. I know basic chords and the pentatonic scale but never really got past that. I usually try to learn songs off of YouTube but get frustrated easily. I’d like to know the most important starting point that would lead me into being a well rounded guitar player. I’m looking forward to my guitar journey 👍🎸

Take things in small chunks. Say you want to learn a difficult song, it makes it easier to learn in chunks versus trying to get so much done all at once. Keep working on that song and building it one step at a time. Have other things to work on so your focus is not one thing.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. If you focus on your musical foundation in the beginning, you will really enjoy learning songs later."

We have something in common. We have both started to learn a little later in life. No big deal! I picked up the guitar about 10 years ago, at age 50. That makes me... what now? I really wanted to learn some songs and I never sounded very good even though I was practicing. I completely understand why you want to learn songs and get there quickly. I remember Tomo saying something in one of his videos about listening to Led Zeppelin & Deep Purple when he was younger. Well, that's the soundtrack from my teens. I totally get wanting to play cool songs, especially with Electric Guitar, but I wasn't any good and I too got a little frustrated. I have changed my approach and this time I'm committed to the fundamentals. I want to play with good tone - hopefully even a unique one! Firstly I decided to learn mainly on an Acoustic. It's a small parlour guitar and I feel it's easy to play. I am practicing exactly what Tomo suggests doing with the Triads. I am playing all the C Triads both vertically and horizontally. And then by interval type. I'm thinking about the intervals and I'm singing along with Do Mi So, Mi So Do & So Do Mi. I am listening to whether they sustain, how they sound and using dynamics for softer volume on the lower strings. I am thinking the triad in my head now and then playing it after I imagine it, and I'm getting them now for the most part! I am also starting to do the basic fingering exercise - 1212 3212 3432 1234 on the 3rd and 4th string. I'm able to start (slowly) at the first fret and work up to the twelfth, while thinking about tone, string noise, sustain, etc.. I'm also working on strumming just by playing an Em chord and focusing on how my pick glides over the strings. I had terrible pick control and touch. I know the work can feel tedious, but I am actually enjoying the structure and repetitive nature of it all because I was just floundering and unfocused before. I think of it as a kind of meditation. Anything I play now sounds so much better than I ever got a guitar to sound before. There is an expression that was popularized by late famous 20th Century Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe: "Less is More", meaning that simplicity is superior to elaborate embellishment. The phrase can actually be found about a century earlier in Robert Browning’s poem Andrea Del Sarto in reference to the thoughts of a painter. I think applying the "Less is More" principle can be very useful in learning guitar by keeping it simple. Hope you stick with it and enjoy the playing! At the risk of stating the obvious, guitar is such a cool instrument!

Oops, I tried to use italics for the poem title only, not for the whole remainder of my post! Best Regards

I'm 66 and started playing in 1962. I did take years of lessons and have played out most of my life but did not dive deep into theory at all. I would put together solo arrangements and they sounded good but often if you asked me what I was playing at a given point I would have to go figure it out for a while. As you are planning to retire I just retired recently and luckily found Guitar Wisdom to both improve my playing as well as keep my mind active - something that is critical as we enter the next phase of life. I started right back at Theory I - C Scale and am taking my time, resisting the urge to blow through it fast. So for example I took 2 weeks just on the D Dorian video (hey isn't that Pat Metheny's Phase Dance?) and in taking it slow found some new ways to phrase things. Now I'm going through it a second time using my mandolin so I can double my learning. Retirement is nice, you can take as much time as you want on things once you get comfortable doing so.

Hi Guys. I'm 32 and sort of in the same boat. I've tried many times to learn guitar but never seem to follow through on it. This is my nth time trying haha. It is a bit hard to do it on your own, at least for me. I'd love to join a beginner group/community of some sort virtually or otherwise. Doing it with someone on the same level feels a little more motivating. Does anyone have any suggestions?