Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATIONS (as of November 5th)
*Thumb Position: It does not have to be perfectly centered behind the neck, just around the center. Depending on the size of your thumb it may be slightly higher or slightly lower.
*If you continue to have trouble spreading your fingers or feel excessive strain in your hand, you can try practicing from the 5th to the 9th fret. Again, this depends on body size and proportions. If starting at the 1st fret has been fine for you, no need to adjust!

Today marks the start of the 30-Day Chromatic Scale Practice Challenge! 🎉

Your Week 1 Focus: Chromatic Scale Ascending Line

Your Assignment:

- Read this post
- Watch this video lesson and take notes
- Practice this exercise for 5-10 minutes, applying the technical details demonstrated.
- Log your practice by commenting on this thread to track your progress and connect with others!

This video will provide all the information you need to get started, with details in the description. If you have questions, feel free to comment on this thread.

*Important Note*
There are so many details within this simple exercise. Do not expect to get everything on Day 1! Decide which details to focus on each day. For example, choose 1-2 details to focus on and write them down before you practice. Here is a list of the details you can focus on:

- Relaxed left-hand pressure
- Hold your pick halfway out
- Thumb position center (back of neck)
- Pick each note slowly (almost no tempo)
- Sustain the fourth note, then go to the next one (don’t shorten it!)
- No finger noise/no string noise
- Maintain good posture
- Move your body with the notes
- Palm mute the 5th and 6th strings

As you can see, it would be overwhelming to apply all of those details at once. That is why we have a whole week to work on this! Please take your time, make a decision, and commit to it! Let me know any questions on this video:

Thank you!
Tomo

Hi Tomo,

I watched this video and practiced this on day 1. Let me maintain it 1 weeks and focus on your lists. Let see if i can improve my playing. Thanks and have a nice day.

Best Regards,
Quoc

Day 1 - I began this exercise when I first subscribed and remember the benefits of 30 days commitment. Why did I stop? I will enjoy repeating this, thank you Tomo.

During today's practice, I will focus on:
- maintaining good posture
- Thumb position center on back of neck
✨

First day of practice:
Pay attention and hold it for a few minutes ,I feel easily stressed and distracted.So I'am going to record the changes on video for 30 days.Remember:don't worry
don't compare
don't expect fast
Be kind to myself.

Ok here are some things I noticed from day 1

1.) By playing so slowly I noticed that sometimes I fret the string with different parts of my finger. Sometimes it’s the very tip of my finger but sometimes it’s the fleshy front part of my finger. I assume it is better to use the tip of my finger but I’m not 100% sure so if anyone knows the answer please respond.

2.) Sometimes if I’m listening closely I can hear string noise when I pick up my first 3 fingers to shift to the next fret. That noise isn’t transmitted to the amp because my fourth finger is still down. Was just wondering if that string noise matters. It’s almost like I can’t play THAT clean. There is going to be some string noise but you can only hear if you’re listening close to the guitar.

3) I have not been practicing with good posture in the past. Sometimes I practice while laying down in bed. Playing with good posture actually changes my wrist position and is a little harder for me. This is good practice to be sitting up but I wonder if I should also practice standing up because that also changes my wrist position. In a ‘jam’ situation I will likely be standing so it will feel slightly different than sitting.

Well thanks for reading let me know your thoughts.
Thank you Tomo!

Thanks!

I play with finger usually so today's I'll focus on holding the pick right and relax my left hand.

Just the motivation I need, thanks Tomo.
I began doing this a while ago and foolishly thought I was doing well enough to speed up.

Revisiting the basics I realise there are a quite a few things I do not do and will now have to correct, which is always harder to do than doing it right from the beginning, especially posture, body motion and relaxed left hand. Playing acoustic guitar I find to have light pressure it is far easier to be close to the fret but that my hand is old and finds the stretch difficult so I am interested to see if it will get easier with proper practice. I also try not to look at my fingers when playing in the hope I learn the distance my fingers need to move up each fret.

Many thanks for setting this challenge Tomo

11/1 Crazy Slow Chromatic
5 mins of chromatic exercise
- Relax left hand pressure
- Thumb centered

Thanks Tomo, this is an awesome idea!

My journey of a thousand miles just began with the first pick. Concentrating on finger pressure and thumb position

Practice Day One!

I'm a new subsriber to guitar wisdom, and i'm very exited about this challenge and was very appreciative of your advice!

Two things I focased on today:

1. I ussally dont use a pick when I play, so today in practice I focased on holding my pick halfway out and picking in general
2. I also wanted to focas on making sure there was no finger noise/no string noise. This is a big problem for me when I play, so I was happy to get the chance to work on it and thank you so much for the advice!

I will continue to work on the rest of the deatials every day!
Thank you again Mr.Fujita!

Day 1, done!

This is perfect practice for me because i have bad habit with fingernoise sometimes. about time to get rid of it.

Thank you Tomo!

Thank you, Sensei! Day one done! It was great to slow things down and focus on the nuances. I have a question about my fretting hand: when fretting, is it okay if my fingers lightly touch the string below the one I’m playing? For example, if I’m practicing on the third string, is it alright if my fingers touch the fourth string, or should they only make contact with the string I’m playing? I’m excited for this challenge. thank you!

First day for me is to focus on a relaxed left-hand pressure and on holding my pick half way out. Only focusing on 2 details is a challenge by itself. I could see a lack of synchronisation between my thumb and the 1st finger when moving the 1st finger to the next fret due to too much pressure on the neck. Also my overall posture needs to improve and my left hand be more relax even if it is my focus as I felt difficult to keep at low speed the fingers of my left hand on the string of the 1st frets Thank you very much Tomo for proposing this great challenge.

I've started the challenge, will keep track on paper...