Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi Markos,

Thank you for your detail review / feedback on Guitar Wisdom and my teaching style.
I love this thread! Thanks so much for making this thread. Hope to hear from others too.

Congratulations! You have done so well with these important topics.
And you made a lot of your efforts to review each lesson in depths.
You believed my teaching! This part is a huge! Believing and not believing! I am super happy to hear.

Basically you admitted your weakness with your honesty and you record yourself reviewing your performance so that you did apply Guitar Wisdom lessons to your playing! Chromatic, triads, R 3 7, Blues etudes and so on. Basically you have learned as if you were taking my private lessons! What a great job!

When you are looking for something, there are so many lessons here at Guitar Wisdom,
You were very patient to look into / searched lessons that you needed it.

When I am looking for something for our house. I got to our storage room... looking for something.
If said, "Honey I can't find it" My wife always said, "Just don't looking! Move around stuff... or it won't jump out to you!"

You made my day happy! Thank you so much!
We will continue to build Guitar Wisdom as the best guitar education place!

Happy New Year!

Tomo

Hi Markos and Tomo,

Thanks for sharing your year end reflections Markos. It's so lovely to hear that you are improving at guitar and no small part due to GW.

I'd like to chime in about the influence of GW as well.

I got my first guitar when I was 16 and wanted to learn Radiohead's How to Disappear Completely. It was the reason I got into guitar in the first place. Unfortunately it was at a time when the internet was still in its infancy and there was basically no guitar resources like we see today on YT or on GW. On top of that my first guitar was cheap and the action was high and it hurt too much to play so I gave up for a few decades minus a few more attempts to only give up again.

Flash forward almost 30 years around the COVID pandemic. I was lucky enough to meet some people online that also loved Radiohead and we got close and found out our love of music went beyond Radiohead into our own personal musical journeys. Then comes along on Reddit a Radiohead tribute album. I took the plunge and fought off my severe anxiety to do a cover of Bulletproof...(I Wish I Was) and the spark was reignited.

However, I still found out that I was floundering and still couldn't make much progress aside from some simple songs and got stuck on the C Major scale and the tried and true Am pentatonic but couldn't improve much more.

Then one day as I was online I say Tomo Fujita's YT page and I was hooked. I could see from the first video that Tomo was passionate and actually wanted to teach others the proper way. To learn, not just to memorize. I watched almost everyone of his YT videos and then he mentioned GW. I got tired of having no focus and again took the change and subscribed.

I started my subscription in the Spring of 2024 and my playing and knowledge and skills have improved dramatically. Theory-wise I now understand not only the major and minor scales but I know them all across the fretboard and in many keys related to the circle of 5ths. I understand some of the modes and what they sound like and know that for example the lydian has a #4 and so on.

With triads and chord forms I know have a good sense of the entire fretboard up to the 14 fret (I don't have a cutaway guitar or eclectric) and can do voice leading in various keys. I understand the drop 2 voicings and a variety of 7th chords and how to apply them in a diatonic key. I didn't even know what these were a few months ago. I could go on but yeah my knowledge of theory and music has skyrocketed. It's so cool. I know can watch people play and when I look at them I can say oh they are in this key or they are using this voicing etc. It's so freeing.

Finally, I think my technique has improved a lot. Before I made enough string and finger noise to think a family of mice lived in our home. I didn't know how to make that better. Then again GW comes along and learning about chromatic scales, and muting and all the other aspects that lead to good technique. It has changed so much for me. It's awesome. Now I can do swing grooves and other muting techniques that make my playing much better.

In conclusion, I have to agree with Markos that GW has been THE place that has made me a much better musician overall and I am very grateful for that. Music is such a passion in my life and outside of work that is basically all I do. I watch videos, read books, listen to interviews etc. etc. all the time. I have chronic health issues and If it wasn't for music I wouldn't know where I'd be in my life. I've been in such low places that I never thought I'd get out of. GW has been an important piece in my rejuvenation as a guitarist, musician and person. Music is so transformative!

Thanks Tomo, and Sammi and George for making GW the best place to learn music online outside of private lessons. Your passion for music and teaching shine through all the time.

Thanks GW team and all the subscribers for making my guitar journey in the past year blossom to where I never thought I'd get to as a musician. Now I have my sights set even higher and I can't wait to see where this takes me.

GW once again, thanks for all you do and the care you put into teaching guitar.

Much love and respect everyone. All the best. Happy New Year and here's to an even better 2025 with GW.

MJS! :)

Markos ! Your observations are the greatest compliment to Tomo and the GW team! What a resounding successful engagement at GW! So happy to read all your comments! They mean a lot to the entire GW Community!

Well said Michael! It is so nice to hear the transformation that is happening for you at the GW! The GW Team makes it all available for us to explore (by moving things around to find what we need and what we’re looking for!) Thank you!

Hi MJS,

Well said! Thank you so much for sharing your early guitar journey
to now! So happy yo know that. In fact I am listening Radiohead's How to Disappear right now!
Unique melodic bass line and beautiful melody & chords. Now you can transcribe every parts of this song by yourself!

Great job for learning foundation lessons. Chromatic! Triads and 7th chords too!
Your technique is improving by chromatic scale exercise! I do same everyday.
Now you can play things easier gradually. Hope you will enjoy more!
Guitar is so amazing! So rewarding experience!

So great to hear that GW was/is helpful to your guitar journey!
You're very welcome! My pleasure always. My job is to make people happy with my guitar!
Thank you so much for writing your reflection to our Guitar Wisdom.

Let's keep going for more fun!

Thank you.

Happy New Year 2025!

Tomo

Hi Markos!

Thanks for your kind words. My passion for music does spill out from time to time, doesn't it? ;)

I agree wholeheartedly that all of us who love music so much are lucky to have found GW and each other. This is a pursuit that keeps on giving.

I love the blossoming community we are growing here.

All the best Markos! Happy New year!

Markos, agree with works with passion and direction ,this state is really amazing !
Expect our journey in 2025!
Happy New Year, All the best!