Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Good afternoon Tomo,

I hope to have some insight into doing chromatic exercises better. I've been working for about three weeks, slowly, methodically and with special attention to technique and dynamics as you have suggested.

At this point in time I am able to mostly keep string noise to a minimum most of the time through the horizontal exercises you've suggested in many areas such as your book and on YT, however, I still have the tendency to make string noise noise closer to the nut.

I have been doing the following to improve on this skill:

1-Maintain good body posture and hand position on the neck. As you've suggested I've been doing these exercises on the 3rd and 4th string to keep my thumb relatively in the middle of the neck
2-I'm consciously trying to use a much pressure and no more to fret a note
3-While releasing and transitioning I slightly release, noticing the colour of my finger get lighter as the pressure is less, then lift the fingers off the string and then make the movement

Finally, when close to the nut it appears as if my two middle fingers make the most sound and its like they won't stretch close enough to the fret as I'd like so, what further advice could you provide for this? Or should I just keep on the course I'm on and try to be more patient? Rome wasn't built in a day, right?

Thanks so much for sharing!

Basically you need to play it super slow with less pressure and less movement.
So it's so important not to practice too long each day,

10-15 minutes a day is really good!
Do practice chromatic scale on only 4th and 3rd strings.
Start from 5th fret ... go up to 9th fret (1234)
Then go down from 12th fret and choose slower tempo when you go down.

Good job!

Once you make any noises..... no good so you need to slow down.
Tempo is not important at all (first)

Each note, play it full value (sustain)
Make sure your 4th note is full value.... not short at all.

When you go up... make sure that your finger 1234 stays until you finish the 4th note with 4th finger,
No slide at all.

Thank you!

Tomo