Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hello,

I have spent the past 3 months 20 minutes a day learning all the licks and phrases that Tomo plays in this soloing video. Each day I brought it down to .5x speed and practiced everything he plays in this video. I have the degrees and positions on the neck of each phrase written down on paper.

I just want to know is this the correct approach to do for Tomo's videos? I keep getting told that I need to just fiddle around and you'll find something you like using the chord tones, but when I do that all my phrases and licks sound awful. I'm not able to understand how Tomo creates his solo's with the chord tones. I'm guessing he just has a very good ear and very good memory. So he can remember what a note sounds like and come up with a sequence of notes to play to solo.

Man! Now that’s the kind of dedication that’s going to take you places. There’s a lot to be said about learning note for note the phrases the great players play. Then comes the individual expression once you’ve done that kind of work. I did the very same thing with BB King‘s blind love. Believe me it helps and I think you’re doing the right thing.

I also have spent many hours writing down the notes that Tomo plays in this solo lesson (as bet I can). I too don't know if this is a correct approach. I am trying to understand his note selections, phrasing, over the chord changes. I find it very difficult to know what chord Tomo is playing over during the solo. I also, as advised on a separate thread in this forum, have tried to listen for the planned chord changes from the previous lesson, during the solos. I find this very hard to do, especially given that the chords all share similar notes. I must admit that I am not able to play a solo at this stage of my learning journey. I did suggest that it would be helpful for Tomo to flash the chords on the screen during his solo. One commenter told me that this might be a difficult request to produce. I accept that but looking for some sense of how people learn to solo over chord changes without patterns or tabs. I do enjoy the work but my approach is very tedious and I haven't figured it out yet.