Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I am using the Berklee press book and Tomo's videos to review as I move through the book.

In the beginning it was incredibly difficult to remember which notes my fingers would go to in relation to what is on the staff. This made it hard to be consistent with practice, which was a big mistake (must practice every day, or at least most days).

I spent several weeks with the page opened up to pages 4-7, reviewing the first exercises and that first Duet. Seriously I spent WEEKS on these. Months actually I am reluctant to admit. When I finally could play through Sea To Sea, I had a problem that I practically just memorized it! That was ok at this point because I could focus on clean technique and consciously not looking at my hands. And so I moved on at this point, and actually I was more than ready to by now.

When I Finally moved on things went much more smoothly for me in this book. I still take my time, and just a little bit each day. I set a timer for my first 15 minutes of practicer and work from this book. Usually I move onto other practice after 15 minutes, though sometimes I stay in the book. I review a lot and I am not hurrying.

I am now at about page 25, and moving much more smoothly after those first diffucult practice sessions. Once I knew the basic C Major scale and could read that, it was much easier to build on that foundation. I can read sharps and flats now although mostly everything I practice is still C Major Scale.

I feel able to move ahead a few pages each week now and the progress feels great after the struggle to relate the staff to placement of my fingers. I follow all that Tomo says for clean technique. A bonus to learning to read music, is that I am forced to play without looking at my hands. Combining this with the clean technique and it is really giving me a strong foundation that I skipped over before.

I am considering recording a few of my exercises in the book, but I only just recently figured out how to record over myself (for duets) and to use a looper. You can look forward to that in my next post! I will go back to Sea to Sea which I spent weeks on as well as others to share with you.

I am a slow learner which I attribute to times of inconsistent practicing. Not that I skip practice, but that I am focusing on too many different musical objectives at once. I am in my 30's learning my first instrument on guitar. Yet this is my personal refuge to be at home playing at practicing, and I love it. I am looking forward to being able to share my progress with others and hopefully to be encouraging to other beginners.

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom and for sharing this post. Sight-reading is not 100% fun in the beginning . . . but we can learn so much from it!"