Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi Tomo,

Feeling overly frustrated today trying to do improv blues in E. I've been following and trying to learn your blues double stops, turnarounds, suggestions at some phrases for different chords in the I IV V progression, doing the top and bottom notes, one string solos hitting either major or minor notes and it just sounds messy and not so good. The phrasing is meh, maybe too busy, arrrghhhh!!!

Just super frustrated and I feel like quitting trying to learn blue improv and don't know how to get better! Almost everyday I do this it always sounds more or less the same. I just don't know what to do.

Maybe I am expecting too much too fast but I have to say improv is harder than anything else I've done in your course and in my guitar life.

Maybe I need to build up the courage to record myself like the old dude and post it but I'm afraid to get feedback and feel silly.

This last blues session just killed my enthusiasm for playing for the day. I'm done!

Suggestions please! Help! :)

Thanks for sharing! You are so correct! In order to play blues improvisation so well is not so easy!

First you need to be a great listener as blues music fan!
So please select a few albums and just listen only those albums.

1) BB King " Live at the Regal " or " Blues is King "
2) Stevie Ray Vaughan " Texas Flood "
3) Freddie King " 1934-1976"
4) Albert King "Born Under a Bad Sign"

Those are just materials and ideas. Blues music is the sound!
If you can hear those sounds in your body & mind... then nothing will come out!
Maybe you need to listen more deeper with less tunes.
That was my decision right after I graduated from Berklee College Of Music.

You are using too much brain or you are mixing up "Practicing" and "Performing" parts.
You are making efforts so you are improving in many ways.
So please be patient! Very very important to be patient.
It takes times with no reasons! You don't know when something will change....

I think you are working very hard to try with phrasing, material.
Maybe just listen blues more. The music will settle down.
No rush!

Yes! You are expecting too much too soon!
Technically I just don't expect anything because if I expect then I will get disappointed!

I don't expect anything but I believe that I should make a lot of efforts everyday .... so someday... something will change and appear good way! That's how I keep my mind good.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Tomo

The blues is hard guitar is hard and I wish I could get the professor to tell me but he won't unless they give him 250 bucks that's crazy

Bro relax the professor doesn't need your 250 bucks! The man he does what he does out from love! Respect the time and effort he takes to reply to all of us and help us! The guitar is hard and needs time he show us the right way and return us to the basics that the most of us didn't had even if we played for many years! The improvisation is literally the hardest thing to do really well and that's because we don't have this base!

There's no crying in baseball.
And no trashing the coach because you're frustrated and you suck.

Yes it's hard. This is hard.
But that's what makes it great.
Because if it was easy, everyone could do it,