Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hey Tomo,
First of all, I absolutely love TFGW, your talent and expertise and of course all that your staff does as well.

I am really struggling with BL14 B minor Blues Soloing. For background on myself, I am not able to solo over chord changes, so trying to learn how. Specifically, I have put hours (which I really enjoy) into trying to identify when the chord changes during your solos. I am not asking for tabs but would it be possible in future videos to flash the chord changes on the screen during your solos. I understand that I have to learn ear training but not able to yet. This may be a stupid request and if so, I will understand if it is asking for too much. Anyway, I will continue to work at it.

Joe

It IS a struggle sometimes, isn't it?

I don't think this is a stupid request at all. Although it may be simpler "production-wise" to have Tomo develop a habit of counting himself in "out loud" and always tap his foot so it's visible in the camera view so it's easier for us viewers to stay with the form.

What I did for this lesson is to learn and remember the form (I wrote it in my notebook from the previous lesson). Then I counted along with Tomo as he played without the backing track....Then I tried to play the backing chords myself along with his solo.

What I found is that .... Tomo his human! I counted and played through 2 or 3 times and I *think* he skipped a bar when he was just soloing. When he goes around the second time, there should be 4 measures of the I chord and I think he switched to the IV one measure early --- or else skipped the last measure of the I chord on the first cycle.

And that is the "ear" part of the training. When I kept playing the extra bar of the I chord, something sounded wrong and that's when I shifted to the IV and everything synced back up again. (And If I'm wrong about that, oh well... I guess I'm the fallible human in the equation then)

That is the only advice I can suggest. It may sound obvious, but ALWAYS, always, count the form along with him.

Sometimes it's hard to lock into the metronome in his head. But after a couple of tries and watching his foot tapping, you can get it and follow the form. Then you can expect the changes at the all right spots... even if you struggle with the chord grips, you can just "scrape" muted notes along with him and say out loud "one... four... one... flat six... five...one..." at the right times as you count the bars.

And when something weird happens, like in this example, you can figure out what the problem is and adjust. So when you play it again, you'll know to just do 3 bars instead of 4 and you'll be in sync with him...

Just remember, when you set up your own metronome and loops and backing tracks, to stick to the form and you'll be fine!

Happy soloing.

Thank you so much for your great advice and insight.