Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Thank you all so much! I feel like part of great team. We are all moveing forward together!

Hello everyone, This one (exercise 3 of Volume 1) looked so simple, but it gave me so much trouble. I just couldn't get my fingers to make the change from the C root triad on the lower register (5th string) to the F2 (2nd inversion) on the same 5th string fast enough. I hope I got the names of those triads correct, although as Professor Fujita says, the names don't matter at all, you just must learn the sounds. I went searching and found SR53 about 6.5 -8 minutes in is a practice routine that should help me change cords faster even though it is one note at a time. I also watched Professor Fujita's YouTube video on triads "Super Simple Slow Major Triad Inversion Lesson That Anyone Can Understand (123 Strings Set)" from about 9 minutes to 15 minutes in. The one where he advised me to drink a lot of beer while I'm practicing (so I won't be so frustrated by my mistakes!) I watched his hands carefully and it seems he has developed incredible muscle memory to the point where his fingers form the next chord formation almost instantly and unconsciously as he moves from one chord to another, which helped and I am sure someday I will get faster, but for now, I ended up leaving the 3rd finger anchored on C while I strike the first note of the arpeggio then bring over the 4th finger, play the second note, then move the 2nd finger for the third note. Cheating, I know, but for now, the best I can do at the moment. Here just to document progress is Exercise 3.

Nice! I like that you can sing the note slightly before you play it. I try to do that but still have to wait until I play the note sometimes. I am 100% certain you will get faster at the chord changes if you keep doing what you're doing!

Really amazing performance , RICHARD!!
Every notes that your singing , is so beautiful sound !
Even three chords , your working is pay off , totally beautiful guitar sound !!
Thanks for sharing , inspiring me a lot !

Really great update! Thanks for the inspiration, Richard. I'm working on the same exercises.
I find the fingering gets easier if I try to really relax my hand,
Good job with the thumb pick! Keep it up!

Kurt

Thank you guys for encouragement!

Beautiful!

Tomo

Very nice video Richard. Singing before you play, wow. Thanks for sharing. Keep up the great work. Cheers.

Accidentally recoded as slow motion!
Do you know how to fix it?

Thank you.

Tomo

I made this additional video for you guys!

Please leave your feedback on this video.

Thank you.

Tomo

Great reminders Tomo! Thank you.
I still do chromatic scale and fingering exercises for 10 minutes before anything. My plugged-in acoustic is so loud it almost feeds back if I don't mute everything at all times.
I have to slow way down and concentrate to keep the string/finger noise down. Really challenging.
Also, I've been watching you at 1/2 speed for years.

Kurt

Great Thread! I only found this out today! You are doing great Richard!
We are doing the same exercises! You video is an inspiration! Lets keep going!! 🌞

I love Sergio Walgood! I really, really really wanted to hear the words of the garbled video that Serio fixed! So that I could see and hear the professor's instructions and practice them! So I asked chatGPT if it was possible to fix it. He guided me to the same program Sergio used, Davinci Resolve. I spent three or four days getting past problems with cookies on both ends, VPN, and then learning how to use Davinci Resolve which is not an easy to learn tool!!! Segio must be a genius! I have not practiced for a week because of my obsession with this. Please use Sergio's version which is gorgeous work, and don't bother looking at mine unless you want a laugh, but I'm going to post it here because I worked so hard on it and it works for me even though the audio is a bit out of sync with the video. Now that I am starting to learn DaVinci, I could probably fix it up, but why bother,Sergio's is beautiful!
I will post the story of my Ibenez tomorrow, but I am so happy that I can now start practicing again. Thanks Sergio!

Lovely conversation guys!
Thank you!

Tomo

Thanks so much, Professor Fujita, for those two videos. They are priceless and foundational, especially for rank amateurs and beginners like me. I will refer to them over and over forever.
Here is my Ibanez guitar story:
My Ibanez is a model GA5TCE-AM with an AEQ2T preamp and onboard tuner with piezoelectric under-the-saddle pickup. Its body size and shape are a little bigger than a Grand Concert (double O) and a little smaller than an Auditorium (triple O) EXCEPT that its depth is not 4.8 or 4.1 inches; it is only 3.0 inches at most (at the lower bout). The back and sides are composite sapele veneer over a softer wood, less expensive, less sensitive, but more stable and sturdy wood. Its top wood is spruce veneer over softer wood. All surfaces are finished with polyurethane. The fretboard and bridge are purpleheart wood. The neck is made of Okoume wood. It has 21 frets (14 to the neck-body joint). The neck is 25.6 inches (65cm) long and varies in width from 4.6 to 5.8 cm. It has a two-slot headstock ((designed for nylon (lower tension) strings)). The recommended string sizes are 28, 32, 41, 30, 36, 44. I didn’t know any of this before you asked me about my Ibanez.

My previous go-to guitar (which I still have) is an Alvarez model RD-20SC Nat. Its body shape and size are Dreadnought (20x15.6x4.8) with a cutout and steel strings. The back and sides are composite mahogany veneer over a softer wood. Its top wood is solid spruce. All surfaces are finished with polyurethane. It has an Alvarez System 200T preamp and onboard tuner with piezoelectric under-the-saddle pickup.

These are both “entry-level” guitars. My daughter-in-law just bought a Taylor 814 CE (around $4000.00). My son says the sound is incredible! At least a factor of 10 better than her previous $800.00 Taylor. But Eric Short, my go-to luthier, tells me of one of his customers who plays at outdoor beach restaurants on Cape Cod in summer and Florida in winter, who bought a high-end acoustic guitar that he had to give up on. It was sensitive to everything, the changing wind speed, and the sun going in and out of clouds would change the tone and tuning. But especially the humidity changes. Humidity going below 30% and later coming up to 50% or greater will eventually crack the tone woods and bend the neck.

So here is my story: About two plus years ago, I tore my left shoulder rotor-cuff muscles right off the bone trying to attach a 30-pound outboard motor to a rowboat on the beach in 12-knot winds. I still have not had surgery on that shoulder (long story). I still cannot raise my left arm above level with the ground. Nobody told me, and I was unconscious enough not to realize that at my age, if the muscles and deteriorated bones in the left shoulder were prone to separate, I should be very careful or I might do the same to the right. 6 months later, while playing tennis, I went after a ball so far to my right Roger Federer couldn’t have gotten it. I fell on my right elbow and tore that shoulder worse than the left. Then, neither arm could reach the top shelf in my refrigerator. I had surgery on the right as I am right-handed. It is much better now, but not even close to when I was 21. So, the bottom line is, I can’t really get my arm around that big Dreadnaught and play for more than 15 minutes without my shoulder starting to hurt.
I was going into Charlies Music store here in Hyannis for some work on my Alvarez and as I was entering the Luthier (Eric Short)’s little workroom, a salesperson was coming out with my Ibanez, fresh out of the box from Ibanez and just set-up, voiced, tuned and with a price tag of $279.99. I said “STOP”! Let me see that! I played 3 chords (D, Em, A) from one of the few songs I know (Silver Wings by Merle Haggart) and I said, “I’ll take it”. The manager came over; they were all astonished. “It hasn’t even been put on the floor yet”! You don’t have any questions about it? Do you know anything about it? A salesman could help you! Nope, I said I will just take it. I like it. Of course, the reason is I could get my right arm around it and it sounded great to my amateur/beginner's ear. The lesson is, if you are getting along in age, don’t do what I do, do what I say, as my dad often said to me. Thank you so much for the request, Professor. I have learned so much about acoustic guitars by researching what the characteristics of my Ibanez are.

By the way, I bought the Alvarez in a parking lot in Tampa Florida, in March of 2019 from a young woman who bought it new a year or so earlier and discovered a) it was too big for her and b) she didn’t realize how much work would be required to learn to play it, so she put it in Facebook market place for $175 and gave up any thought of learning guitar. I could have gotten it for less, but she was so nice, I didn’t even try to negotiate. I wanted that model Alvarez because my good friend Dusty Starr Williams ((who has a music page on Facebook,
taught me and embarrassed me into playing and singing “Silver Wings” on stage at two of the most colorful indoor/outdoor music venues (bars) on the west coast of Florida)) often plays that model on stage. So, I went out to find one exactly like his. Alvarez no longer makes the RD20ce model, but still makes the regent (entry level) series, and the closest match I could find is the RD26CE that retails now for $419.
Ibanez still makes the GA5TCE, and it is called “Thinline Classical Acoustic-Electric Guitar Natural” and still retails for $279.99.

Here is, hopefully, a short video showing both guitars visually, in which I probably repeat too much of what I have said in writing above.

Thank you Richard for showing your Ibanez Nylon Guitar & explains all these guitars & your condition. It does make a lot sense to use that guitar! Thiner and easier to play.

You're very welcome!

I just got Ibanez acoustic guitar last week.
Ibanez AAM380AC ... body thickness is about 4 inch
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AAM380CENT--ibanez-aam380cent-advanced-acoustic-auditorium-acoustic-electric-guitar-natural

Thank you Richard!

Tomo