Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi,

I'm an older gent and have been only playing seriously in the past few years and I have made a lot of progress. Maybe not as much as I would like but still it's there.

May I ask, have you been noting your mirco-goals and tracking them often. Do you video record yourself to see what you can do and what you can't and give yourself feedback? I would recommend taping yourself and posting a YT video for Tomo to give you feedback.

Basically, set short, medium and long term goals and diligently work towards that and really track your progress. I think someone could make progress in this way.

Good luck! Don't Give Up!

It's hard but the rewards are worth it :)

Thank you for your kind response.
I have not used my notebook and should be setting micro goals.
You are correct.
Thank you for your encouragement.

Ok I transcribed Rose Room and have been practicing it like crazy since Tomo recommended it. Here’s my best take…

You're very welcome for your reply.

1) Great to hear that you can play R 3 7 swing with blues, jazz blues and standards very fluently.

2) Triad application:
If you cannot play triads over jazz chord changes fluently (this means... you can play smoothly without hesitating over 2 seconds)
This is THE problem! Without this... you cannot improvise jazz freely!
So learn jazz blues in Bb and F. Jazz Standards: Try Blue Bossa, All of me, Autumn Leaves etc. 3-4 tunes for 3 months.

3) Transcribing skill is so important for jazz improvisation. This must do only by ears. No tabs no books!
So you need to pick a little more simple!

I am sure I can help you to improve smoothly.
I really appreciate your passion and a lot of efforts on guitar playing.
Sadly there are so much unwanted information out there.... very easy not notice that's right approach on guitar learning.

How to incorporate to your own playing?
Analyze each notes over each chords (theory)
Any rhythm that you love... use that rhythm as your phrase base. (ear training)

Listen Barney Kessel "Volume One" a lot of simpler than Wes Montgomery playing.

When you are improvising, you need to use phrases that you heard before!
You should not create any phrase by your own without those phrasing that came from old records!
Blues phrases are so much fun to play but I never thought about minor pentatonic position / vertical when I perform.

Practice this song!

Thank you.

Tomo

https://youtube.com/shorts/DgqeiqlZNlE?si=o_lGwRQXbQC0vs9c

This is my first attempt at posting a YouTube clip. I don’t know if it will work but if it does would love your critique.

I love it! Thanks so much!

You are doing so fine! Your parts are so good!
Now you can add more dynamics. In order to do this, you need to turn up a little, so almost you feel a little uncomfortable due to loud volume. Then use normal picking volume to start with... then use more soft picking volume especially two notes or chord part.
For melody like this, always better to repeat twice so we learn something more.

Thanks for sharing!

Next time you can post side way so it will show up as a regular post.

Tomo

Really nice feel Richard! I enjoyed everything you did! Very cool!

Really nice feel Richard! I enjoyed everything you did! Very cool!

Thanks for sharing.

Whatever the part that you don't like your playing. You can fix that if you understand the part was the problem.

Sometimes people easily said that "You should practice hours! You should jam with people!"

For Jam part. I am not sure how much preparation you made for Jam part. In order to jam well, 1) You need to know those songs that people are jamming. Even 4-5 songs. Even 2-3 songs. You need to prepare to understand each song's chord structures and the form of each song. Be familiar with phrasing that sounds good with these songs. So if you just went to jam without knowing and without preparing songs then it's not really fun to play.

This is what I would do.
1) Go to that jam without guitar and record the whole set. (Do this 2-3 times)
2) You pick songs that you like & songs that you are not familiar with. Learn them really well (a few weeks)
3) You know those jams songs well & you have been preparing those songs. Now you are ready to jam!

Did you do like that?
In order to jam, you need to know those styles really well and prepared really well so you can have a fun conversation through music!

You are so young! Many things are possible. If it didn't do well in 4-5 years, simply you missed important foundation or materials were okay but you did a little wrong translation in process. This could be very possible.

Personal note: I am 59. I have been really focusing on my health more that ever! I have been doing my body stretching, funny today relaxing exercises, 12 today work exercises religiously since June. I want to live healthly for a long time if it's possible.

I am good at guitar playing, learning. I do this everyday a little by little. Still going great! If this guitar thing is working, I thought I should apply this foundation thing to my life style, being healthy! I realized that if I want to be healthy then I need to know my foundation just like Guitar thing. Then I need to make my efforts! Just jamming without preparation is like eating a lot of tasty food! It's fun but that will not help all the way.

Thank you.

Tomo

Thank you so much for making a personal video for me.
I was away this weekend and this is the first I’m seeing of it.
Funny I think the one thing I really NEED to start doing is videotaping myself playing.
I have never used YouTube as a medium so I have to create an account and start utilizing the technology better.
When I get that figured out I’ll submit a video of me attempting to play ‘ Chicken Shack’ like Tomo asked me to do.
Thank you for your time and kind words ❤️

Thanks for your reply Richard! Yes to posting videos! I hope more and more forum members will do this so we can learn from each other and support one another. Uploading a video to YouTube is REALLY easy. Just a few simple steps, and, it kinda puts one in performance mode which is also a plus! Let’s keep on truckin’!