Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hugo - Likewise! I just joined but have been reading the comments/threads, and really like how everyone replies in line with thoughtful comments and videos. I agree about commonalities in these songs, and wonder how each of these guitarists, some singers, songwriters, session musicians, or band mate found their voice. Like how Keith Richards transforms his sound from 60s blues into 80s modern rock while maintaining his sonic signature. Or how Elliot Easton finds room to be an individual contributor to the sound, while always serving the song. This motivates me to learn.

Linda - Trying to beat the algorithm! :) Agree completely. I spent most of my practice time last night thinking about who, what and why - a difficult challenge to narrow down. I thought I would start broad and narrow down to 5 or 3. I am not sure how to get there. It's a tough assignment.

Tomo - First, thank you so much for engaging with learners. You are very gracious with your time. Your question is like a circuit break to disrupt thinking patterns (think in terms of limitations). I started practice in January every night with mindless following of Gibson App. I discovered your YouTube early March and started doing basic chromatic scale, 1212, and C Major on one string exercise every night. Since joining GW I have worked on these same exercises but more slowly, paying close attention. And writing down in a notebook :)

You're very welcome Jordan! Thanks for sharing your experience. Very important to set your time for practice. 10 mintues or 15 minutes or when you end. So you know your plan before you start. This way you will not burned out. Limitation is so important too. Great work! Slowly and focus more in depths. Little note book will help you deeply!

Tomo

I was tempted to handwrite this and post the pictures, but I don't want to force you all to decipher my handwriting. I'm relatively new to GW.

1. List your influences (5 artists)

Narrowing this down to five is hard, as others have noted, and I'm cheating a bit by listing two bands where I can't separate out which guitarist is playing which part. The themes are American roots, and neo-psychedelia:

* Mike Campbell (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers)
* 
Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes (The Church)
* 
Mark Gardiner and Andy Bell (Ride)

* Erin McKeown
 (songwriter and multi-instrumentalist)
* Josh Ritter
 (songwriter)

2. 5 favorite CDs, favorite song from each artist

Single songs:

* North South East West by the Church
* 
Blackbirds by Erin McKeown
* Getting Ready to Get Down by Josh Ritter
* Crawling Back To You by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

* Vapour Trail, Ride


I would make different choices if I was picking entire albums. And probably different choices next week.

3. What is your strength as a player?

I’m in this to have fun. I’ve played different kinds of instruments (piano/keyboards, trombone, handbells, a tower carillon) so I read notation relatively well and I can pick up basics quickly. (Put another way: I’m generally not great at anything but I’m pretty OK at a lot of things.) I’ve learned to take notes on what’s working well and what’s not on a given day.


4. What is your weakness as a player?
It feels like “everything,” a lot of the time. I have trouble getting beyond the basics. I don't know a lot of theory. Lots of fingering is difficult for me: bar chords (I struggle to bar more than three strings on an acoustic) or widely spread fingerings. I didn’t learn finger picking patterns the first time around (and I’m finding it hard to build the right-hand coordination to use them now). I do not have a strong ear for pitch, so I can (sometimes) hear when something sounds “wrong” but I can’t identify notes or chord inversions by ear (yet?)


5. List your gear (guitars, amps, effects, strings, picks, etc.)

A Gibson B-25 Natural acoustic (bought new by my mother in the ‘60s). I'm not sure what strings are on it; I think they're Martin. This has been my primary practice instrument for months.

A Yamaha Pacifica PAC612 electric (selected for nostalgic reasons) into a Fender Mustang LT25 amp. (Also currently the strings that were on it when I bought it.) This is "easier" to play (much lower action, lighter strings) but also hides some things.
I have a vintage Fuzz Face pedal which needs a little debugging and repair before it can be used again. 

A cheap ukulele (I think the second fret is slightly misplaced, anything with a note on the second fret sounds wrong even when the strings are tuned)

I used to play the lightest picks I could get (and frequently broke them) - I liked the Dunlops with the tortoise logo, and still have a few. Now I'm trying stiffer picks with a lighter grip.

6. What is your goal? Any additional comments?

I was a self-taught guitarist back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and probably self-taught myself some bad habits. I gave it up for decades and am just coming back with more patience for practicing and filling in a good foundation. There’s a lot of room in music to explore, and I need a little structure so I don’t just wander off without a plan.

I've been working my way through the B videos; I know the chords but I'm finding useful details in each one anyway. (I didn't know the difference between a 9th and a sus2 before!) I've been doing the chromatic scale (1234) for a few months but just started the 1212 version last week. Learning the triad shapes, but I think I need to dig in to the ET and FT videos to put some more structure behind the triad practice.

Thank you Parker for sharing your profile! When I teach at Berklee and my tape lessons …I only accept as hand written. Don’t worry here! This is so good! Very hard to narrow down and if you do…you will learn something very special! So easy to list up more names but more you do… you cannot focus something deeply. Good job!

You can work on your foundation so I highly recommend to watch “Essential Music Theory” section from first one! Very very important! Never assume anything! Just in case… You can learn anything and you don’t need to hurry at all! I didn’t have any great pitches either. You can train that too.

I love vintage Gibson acoustic guitar very much. Please learn intervals and triad inversions. One String One Finger approach too! You can fill in these areas. Good job working on Chromaric scale exercises. Learn intervals on chords.

Tomo

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to take a moment to welcome all of you who shared your questionnaire responses - Hugo, Nemanja, Jordan, Parker - and everyone else who’s been part of this thread. It’s really great to see the thought and honesty you’re bringing here. That’s a big part of what makes this community special.

Each of you is coming in with a different background, but there are some common threads:
- A genuine curiosity about music and how it works
- A desire to build real fundamentals (not just learn songs)
- An awareness that there’s a lot to learn and that it can sometimes feel overwhelming

One thing Tomo keeps coming back to (and you’ll see it reflected throughout this thread) is the idea of limitation and focus.

It’s very natural to want to cover a lot: more songs, more techniques, more theory, more gear...

But real progress often comes from doing the opposite: choosing a few important things and going deep with them.

That’s why you’ll keep seeing the same core ideas:
- Chromatic exercises
- One String/One Finger (major scale)
- Triads
- R37 Swing Groove

These aren’t just “basic exercises” - they're the foundation for everything else. The more time you spend with them, the more things start to connect naturally.

Some things we’ve been noticing as a community:
- Depth > breadth - do one thing at a time and go deeper, not wider
- Consistency > intensity - a short daily practice you can stick to beats occasional long sessions
- Quality > quantity - focus on sound, feel, and attention rather than how many things you “get through”

Learning guitar isn’t something to optimize or rush through. It’s about spending time with music, getting familiar with it, and gradually learning to speak the language.

In many ways, it’s a journey that never really ends. Tomo often says he is a forever student, and that mindset is really at the heart of everything here.

So for everyone who has responded, and anyone new reading along, please hear this:
Wherever you are in your journey, just know you’re in a good place. Take your time, stay focused, and keep going one day at a time. We are here to support each other.

Looking forward to seeing all of your progress!
Sammi

Thanks much Sammi. These points really deserve pinning. Limitation, focus, continuous learning and practising - we need to do them all. I felt deeply on the effectiveness of practising slow and thinking before/while practising (alongside proper guidance of course). Once we keep processing repeatedly on a video/topic, it translates very well into other songs that I play.

Besides, be honest with ourselves: e.g. for triads, can we instantly react and play different inversions and positions, calling out notes based on their interval, or even connecting "shapes" together freely? How can we play them if we do know. There's always a way to improve - never ending.

As always, looking forward to more sharing and interactions with everyone here.

[EDIT: Truly appreciative of the sustained passion on everything - all of us. It's definitely not easy.]

Hugo

Thank you Hugo! Music, guitar is so deep! One at a time. Looking forward t everyone's guitar journey! Triads are amazing! Very musical and so effetive! You will be able to hear "Tone of triads" (Specific positions/string set) Once you hear that sound...the sound will connecting "Shapes"

Tomo

G'day GW and Team Tomo (Tomo-sensei, Sammi and George)!

I’m Alex. After reading through some of your backgrounds and goals, I thought I’d join in as well. I also wrote this in my Guitar Wisdom diary so I can come back to it one day and see how far I’ve come.

1. List your influences (5 artists)
Toshiki Soejima
Rodrigo Gouveia
Roger Simon (the pianist)
Sleep Token
Hiroyuki Sawano

2. 5 favourite CDs + favourite song from each artist
Toshiki Soejima - Life EP - Life
Toshiki Soejima - Kimama Sessions - Georgy Porgy ft. Yus
Sleep Token - Even in Arcadia - Gethsemane
Hiroyuki Sawano - MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM Original Soundtrack - Ego
Tom Doolie - Train Tales - Train Tales

3. What is your strength as a player?
I can always hear melodies in my head when I listen to music. Some months ago, I recorded a few lo-fi tracks, also playing piano and bass on them just to get the sounds out. I'm also a very organised person, the type who can also stick to a daily routine no problem. I've never had a daily guitar routine before GW though, just played on and off over the years. Loving the diary idea!

4. What is your weakness as a player?
I struggle to highlight changes/outline changes reliably. Switching scales in the moment is hard for me. I learnt CAGED a while ago, and got stuck in key soloing. For example, I really want to hit altered sounds over V7alt-Im change for example, but I feel like I'll start in minor pentatonic then can't see where I'm going next. Also I can't sight read. I can read music, pitch of the sheet, but not rhythm. I'm not sure where that sits on my priorities but it's probably important if Tomo-sensei has a video series on it - thoughts?

5. List your gear
Artist P90 Thinline Tele AT93 (inspired by Soejima-san's Bruno TN-295), Edwards LP-CTM-BLK, Ibanez AS93
1.00 Dunlop Flow Picks
10s Elixir long-life strings
Fender Blues Jr IV
Pedals - Roshi Blacklon and Seji, Strymon Flint and El Capistan, RAT, Boss CPI-X and RC-1

6. What is your goal
To improvise freely along the neck, highlight changes and tones so I can say what I want to say in neo-soul/jazz/blues style. I will then take that music and compose/record lo-fi lounge beats at home :)

It's been an amazing few weeks since joining. Each video blows my mind more and more, I find myself wanting to go over foundations. Triads are like x-ray vision. I can finally see chord tones and feel the notes, instead of shapes. Finally free!

Thank you all for sharing and contributing! よろしくお願いします！

Hi everyone! Started a week ago and I have been having a lot of fun.

1. List your influences (5 artists)
Jimi Hendrix
SRV
Marvin Gaye
Gil Scott Heron
Black Sabbath

2. 5 favorite CDs, favorite song from each artist

Single songs:

* Riviera Paradise, SRV
* Cornucopia, Black Sabbath
* Spanish Castle Magic, Jimi Hendrix
* Lady day and John Coltrane - Gil Scott Heron
* Inner city blues - Marin Gaye

3. What is your strength as a player?

I've started playing when I was 8 (28 now) and have a fairly clean technique thanks to a professor I had a couple years ago. I used to play a lot of heavy and technical stuff (to this day I can play perfectly "Die to live" by steve vai) and I have a good stretching and finger independence routine that I do before every practice. I also have a good sense of rhythm and I can learn new grooves easily. Lastly, I started playing piano a year ago and that has solidify a lot of concepts about chord, intervals, triads and inversions.

4. What is your weakness as a player?
I learned to play using guitar pro, so everything was tabs. I have never transcript a song by ear. When i improvise, i can only follow the pentatonic shape across the board, but cannot play anything else. I have been doing a lot of training with the first triad videos and the C major video, and I can now quickly find c major triads and inversions all over the fingerboard, and if I take a minute to think i can follow a shuffle blues with triads, but I know I have a long way yet

5. List your gear (guitars, amps, effects, strings, picks, etc.)

Guitars: Gibson les paul studio, jet Js300 (strat), peavey raptor exp (hss)
effects: i have a fuzz and a ts808 clone made by a local company (i'm from argentina), a tonex one that i switch between a deluxe reverb capture and a friedman be100, a mooer tremolo, and a zoom g2 that i use for phaser/chorus/delay/reverb and also looper and drum machine. I don't have an amp so I plug to a pair of presonus eris e5 nearfield monitors. Daddario 10s strings and dunlop jazztone 208 picks that I really recommend anyone to try, I think they are the most dynamic pick I've used

6. What is your goal? Any additional comments?
I used to play a lot of complex metal riffs that didn't usually involved a lot of dynamics, so the last years i've started to play with only a clean amp and a lot of soft blues stuff and i think i have acquitted good picking dynamics, but I really struggle finding melodic lines and improvising, and I can't follow chord progressions easily without thinking in "big chords", so i think that my goal is to be able to play solos and chord at the same time in the style of jimi hendrix. I also want to dive in jazz and more complex progressions, and I'd like to understand how to play soul/neosoul(been analyzing "how does it feel" by d'angelo in both piano and guitar) and funk

thanks to everyone!
Brian

I've been here now almost coming up to a year, I think? I hope this survey gives the community an idea of who I am and what I'm trying to accomplish.

1. List your influences (5 artists)
Jim Heath (Reverend Horton Heat)
Styx
Ripe
Wolfmother
Unknown Mortal Orchestra

(It was hard to pick just 5 haha)

2. 5 favorite CDs, favorite song from each artist

Single songs:

Galaxy 500 - Lucky 7
Suite Madame Blue - Equinox
Ladies Night - Joy in the Wild Unknown
Woman - Wolfmother
Hunnybee - Sex & Food

3. What is your strength as a player?

It helps for me that I’ve been doing music for awhile, along with some guitar playing at church for a few years. I was given euphonium in high school, so I got a lot of experience there. I also did musical theatre - I’m naturally more of a vocalist. I had some experience playing at a church for a little bit as a guitarist which got me more comfortable playing my guitar in front of people consistently and singing with my guitar. I believe I see music much more like a vocalist and I apply that to my guitar (or I attempt to). That can lead, I think, to my music being much more “emotional” and not as theory-only from experience.

4. What is your weakness as a player?

Confidence, consistency, and technique. I notice when I make a mistake while soloing, I have a hard time to fix it quickly sometimes. If I was singing, I would know exactly how to fix something. I think a lot of this is because I don’t have the confidence and muscle memory yet.

5. List your gear (guitars, amps, effects, strings, picks, etc.)


Guitars: HHS Fender stratocaster, Taylor Acoustic, and a soon to be Les Paul Custom 70s.
Amp: Boss Katana Artist and all the fun effects that it has.
Strings: D'Addario NYXL1046BT Balanced Tension Electric Guitar Strings
Picks: We are still experimenting, but current 0.60 thickness picks.

6. What is your goal? Any additional comments?

My goal is to play with confidence and hopefully get to a point my guitar playing is as natural as my singing. I would love to be able to play something more than just barre chords and sing along to them. That’s fun and all, but it’s not the music that I want to be expressing to the world. I also want to be able to solo and absolutely shred. I enjoy unique music that really pulls at the emotions. If I could make this type of music that exists in my mind and play it as well… I’d just have so much fun! At times I get frustrated that I didn’t see how much I didn’t know with guitar and could have been working on years ago. But the Tomo mantra of “Don’t worry, don’t compare…” is often just the extra resilience to keep me going when I’m frustrated with myself.

Great work Dave! That’s so awesome about your singing. Enjoy the new guitar on the way Les Paul custom sounds amazing

After watching videos for the last year, I am starting to understand enough to really dig into playing. I decided enough time has gone by that I should answer these questions for myself with an open mind and new understanding.

My five influences (artists) are: Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Led Zeppelin, Dave Brubeck.

5 Favorite CD's are : Dave Brubeck Quartet, Time Out-Take Five is my favorite track.
Led Zeppelin Mothership - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You is my favorite track.
Dire Straits, Dire Straits - Wild West End is my favorite track
Pink Floyd Dark Side of The Moon - The Great Gig in the Sky is my favorite track. I love most PF..
Fleetwood Mac Rumours - Go your own way is my favorite track.

My strength as a player is my appreciation of music. It is what drives me and makes me want to create what I feel inside.

My weakness (everything is weak at this point) as a player is making my instrument produce the same sound that I hear inside and that I feel inside.

I play a Telecaster through a Runt 20 combo amp. I sometimes us a Strymon Blue sky reverb pedal, like when working spread triads. I have a nice Martin acoustic that is a joy to play as well. I own a Gibson LP junior double cut but I don't know it well yet. I use D'Addario NYXL 10-46 or EX110 XL 10-46 strings and I am trying different picks.

My goal is to play blues and Jazz Blues with emotion. To make music that tells a story. I want to be able to "let go" and know when I put the guitar down that I said what I needed to say.

Kind regards,

Marcus Hembree
Age 64

Thank you everyone here. I can learn from you all. I listed mostly the music that made me interested when I was young. I once asked who I was listening to on a stereo when I was young and they said it was SRV. I did not listen to Stevie Ray Vaughan for another twenty years. I never listened to Steely Dan ever. I didn't care who Larry Carleton was. Now I listen to these artists all the time and BB King, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, the list goes on. My wife listens to Jazz all the time know and I am learning to love Jazz also. I am wearing out the album Jazz at the pawn shop. I listen to vinyl records at home, and I never thought I would ever do that again!

My mind is open and I appreciate this journey so much that I don't really care where it goes it is all so surprising and unexpected.

Kind regards,

Marcus

Here's my filled out questionnaire:

Influences (Artists) in random order

1. Rush
2. John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra
3. Queens of the Stone Age
4. John Scofield
5. moe. (their studio albums are good, but their live performances are where they really shine)
6. Umphrey’s McGee (their studio albums are good, but their live performances are where they really shine)
7. Tool

5 Favorite albums and favorite song of each album in random order

1. Rush - Moving Pictures; song: YYZ
2. John Scofield - A Go Go; song: Chicken Dog
3. Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork; song: Fairweather Friends
4. moe. - No Doy; song: Rebubula
5. Umphrey’s McGee - Hall of Fame: Class of 2021 (Live); song: Tribute to The Spinal Shaft

Strengths as a player/person

I love learning new things, and learning languages usually comes easy to me. I am very critical of myself, so I think I am realistic when self-evaluating my current level. I am perfectly okay with no-nonsense feedback and real talk without getting offended when the feedback is negative. I like to know when something isn’t good so that I can do better next time. Another strength is that I am too stubborn to give up when I get stuck on a difficult task.

Weaknesses as a player

I have never really created my own music, always just played parts of other people’s songs. I don’t know why music works, but I know that there is a set of rules and a “language” to explain why things work the way they do.

I lack basic technique. My muting needs a lot of work, thumb placement isn’t good from years of playing without any real guidance, I tend to fret pretty hard, so notes go a little sharp frequently while playing. Precision of my picking/strumming hand needs work, too. I know very little theory. When I first signed up for GW a couple years ago, I started practicing the C-Major scale and C-Major triads to learn the notes on the fret board, so that’s where I have picked up again recently.

List of gear

Guitars:
2001 Epiphone Les Paul Standard, tuned to C-Standard (neck pickup: Seymour Duncan SH2, bridge pickup: Seymour Duncan SH5-Custom), strings: Ernie Ball Not Even Slinky 12-56) -> this is my first electrical guitar from over 20 years ago, it’s very heavy tho and the frets are really worn down from improper technique unfortunately

Silver Sky SE, standard tuning, strings: D’Addario NYXL 10-46 (I will switch to EPN110 next time the guitar gets a spa treatment -> this is my favorite guitar in terms of sound

Ormsby Goliath 7-string guitar, standard tuning -> this is my favorite guitar in terms of playability, but I regret getting the 7 string version over the 6 string version
Yamaha TRBX174 bass guitar

Amps:
Marshall DSL-5
Fender Rumble 40
Neural DSP Quad Cortex (I cannot always play loud because we live in an apartment building and I like to keep it peaceful with the neighbors, haha). This thing can be set up in a way that I can still hear string noise and bad muting technique through open back headphones.

Pedals:
Boss SD-1
Tone Group 10-band EQ
Orange Fur Coat (Fuzz Octave Pedal)
Stone Deaf PDF-1X
Catalinbread SFT
Boss NS-2
Nux Tape Echo

These pedals I mainly bought to replicate some older Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age tones, which is also why the Les Paul is tuned to C-Standard.

Keyboard:
Arturia Keylab Essential MK3 49 (I find this very helpful for learning music theory)

My musical goals
Long term:

Clay posted this awesome jam video here earlier https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/forums/general/74801-what-are-you-listening-to-just-for-pleasure#post-461213 and the jam kinda captures some of my long term goals. I wanna be able to jam like that with my friend that I mentioned in my introduction post here: https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/forums/general/72938-welcome-to-guitar-wisdom-october-2025#post-461059

I also would like to learn/understand and generally play jazz and fusion. All of the music floating around in my head…I wish I was able to bring to life on my guitar.

Short term goals:

Build a solid technique foundation to undo years of bad habits. I would like to “master” the fretboard, and build a good foundation of music theory so that I can understand what I’m actually practicing.

So for now, I started volume 1 of the Leavitt book for basic sight reading, for muting, I am doing the chromatic exercise from the Guitar Wisdom book, and on top of that, I have restarted C-Major triads.

You gotta learn to walk before you can learn to run, right?!

Have a wonderful Sunday, all!

Ben

You're very welcome Ben! Great job on narrowing down! Have you ever heard Jim Hall? Undercurrent album? Or Wes Montgomery "Incredible Jazz Guitar" or "Live at Full House"?

I am super picky and that will lower your performance level. Not so much about "Correct" or "Perfect" How much fun you have when you are performing! Let those details go! But listening yourself from recording is a great way to improve your playing.

My pleasure! My job is to make a smile with guitar!

Yes. So you need to slow down on thicker string so that you can control any string noise issue. When something is not going smooth them slow down. Please take your time and use both hands for muting other strings.

Turn my amp a little louder, brigther and less bass so I can hear my string noises and I can hear "pitch" as relaxed or stiff so I slow down and try to use less pressure from my left fingers as much as I can.

Tomo