Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Clay - I'm right there with you brother! that Minor 7 fingering in All of Me LOOKS simple enough, but trying to get my old hands to grab a new chord form is a process! I've also started to relearn sight reading. I took piano lessons as an adult for a few years, so I'm able to read music pretty well, but applying it to the fretboard is, again, a process! Keep at it!

OK - I have to admit that just the first section of Leavitt is one of the hardest things I've done. So glad to have Tomo's videos, and also to have the experience of being on GW for a while. I consider myself a lower end intermediate guitar player. I could rip through an open C scale easily - and would have done that without GW and totally missed the point. But to count the 1-2-3-4 rhythm, play the half notes fully, and only look at the sheet - that's already a huge challenge for me. But I love it!

Great job Matt and Clay! This is huge that we are able to work on the book with Tomo's help.
I've never tried a metronome with the book.
I go so dang slow, listening to make sure I am muting the strings.
I also discovered that exercises 1-4 on pages 4 and 5 are GREAT for practicing singing Do Re Mi FA etc and saying the note names in the key of CMAJ.
Day 6 of 90 days in a row today :-)
Kurt

Check out this great thread with LOTS of discussion on the book:

https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/forums/general/71880-sight-reading-sea-to-sea-practice-process

Helpful videos in that thread like this:

GW Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLENaipLZZvuSe09K52-fo1VPMLrWfJa46

One thing I learned tonight:
Hey Matt - you may be way ahead of me on this, but tonight I found something super helpful for chord changes on "All of Me." I've been struggling with the changes from bar 24 to end. But I realized tonight that your 4th finger is always on the 3rd string for this last part. So when I was doing reps through this section tonight, when I focused on my pinky as an "anchor," it made my changes much smoother.

My issue in all of me, and it's getting better the more I focus on it is the change from D7 to D-7. Just needed to slow down and apply the 5 minute a day approach. I just went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth between these two chords for a few days until the D-7 grip started to feel more natural. Still not there 100%, and still working on it, but it's getting better.

Good job guys!!

Tomo

Back to basics! I learnt to kill string noise when you place a finger you need a absolute synchronisity with placing finger and picking. Pick fast and synchronised play slow (and faster!)

"Like a good Pizza, simple is better"- Tomo Fujita

This advice really helps me to focus on the little things that I need to work on to build a super-duper strong foundation.

I used to breeze over important details and simple exercises, trying to get to the fancy licks full of noise and bad habits.

Now I take my time. I stop if I am not connecting mentally to what I am trying to do.

Kurt

Awesome Kurt!