Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Especially now it’s adding the 7th there’s more inversions like there are 4 inversions now. And Inneed to keep track of 4 notes in the chord now and know their relationship. I also feel like this makes it harder to visualize the underlying scale of the chord ?

I don’t currently understand how to relate things with degree. Is the degree with respect to the major scale of that key ? Or of the notes of the major scale of that chord ? How do I start thinking in degrees, and how can a chord be a degree ?

When will I get to the point when I can see everything clearly ?

Hi! I am not an expert and not a guitar teacher by any means but I wanted to answer with what has helped me.

At least for me, I don't find it very helpful to memorize all these inversions with no context. Tomo talks a lot in the lessons about breaking it down all on one string so you can see where each note is in the scale, rather than memorizing positions on the fretboard. The reason is so that you can HEAR what each part of the scale is and HEAR its relationship to the rest of the scale.

For your question about degree, Tomo's video about Aeolian mode is the best one to watch to get an easy idea of it. As an example: let's say we have a C Major scale. The sixth note of the scale is A. If I play the notes of a C Major Scale starting on A (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A), I am now playing an A minor scale. So, the sixth note or "degree" of the C Major scale is the Aeolian mode (also known as the natural minor scale). The different "modes" of the scale are just playing that scale but starting on a different note or different "degree." They each have a fancy name but that's basically what you're doing.

At this point, I don't find it helpful to think in degrees unless I'm trying to play a specific mode in a solo. If that is the case, I'm thinking about where to start/end the solo and what scale I'm playing in, rather than the specific mode. For example: a solo with an A minor scale is technically being played in the 6th degree of the C Major scale which I mentioned in the previous example, but I don't necessarily think of that relationship unless I have a reason to.

Also, I wanted to add that you should always look to apply things from the lessons in context. I don't think it's super helpful to just play scales or modes of a scale over and over without trying to play something with them.

For each mode, you can find backing tracks. Search "A Aeolian backing track" on youtube and play away. If you practice carefully, you can HEAR which part of the scale and are playing. You could even play it on one note to practice hearing the different intervals of the different scales. In his lessons, Tomo is always talking about listening for the intervals and being able to hear them, and part of what he means is when you start a C Major scale and work your way up it, you should be able to hear what note comes next. Same with chords and intervals, you should be able to play the root and 3rd of a chord and hear the 5th coming up. Or if you do the first inversion you should play the 3rd and the 5th and hear the root coming up. You can see that Tomo sings the Do-Re-Mi of what he is doing, and that is because he's training his ear to anticipate what comes next.

I think that "seeing everything clearly" comes when you start to be able to hear things in your head and translate them onto the guitar. Sometimes I'll hear a cool song or a cool chord progression and try to play something with it. The moments where I'm able to take the idea in my head and play it on the guitar are where I feel like I'm really getting it, and I think that comes from being able to use the practical knowledge of scales and degrees to guide what my ear hears.

Thanks again for sharing! Good job! Today I was teaching one student.. He is really into Tim Henson. This student told me that he watches what Tim is playing (video) then figure out what to play (where to play!) So we go back to reviewing triads & I recommend this student not to watch videos when transcribing music! LISTEN more than using EYES!