Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Thank you for making this fun thread!

Can you narrow down to 5 top your favorite guitar players?

I am very curuious. This way you can focus better.

Tomo

Thank you for your response Mr. Fujita!!

My top 5 would maybe be

Julian Lage -- I love his creative use of all the "guitar-y" sounds that people tend to avoid in jazz, like bottom 3 string set triads and blues pentatonic melodies
Jim hall -- Very modern sound that i would love to emulate to comp
Django -- his mix of Debussy harmony and Gypsy swing forever changed guitar for me..
Yamashita -- He has an entire ORCHESTRA in his guitar!! and he's so prolific it inspires me
Anibal Arias -- I like tango, and his solo guitar performances of Milonga classics is so FULL its hard to believe its just one guitar

Good job! Thanks for the details too!

Learn more Jim Hall 's R 3 7 Swing Rhythm Guitar please!

How many songs from Yamashita did you learn so far?

Tomo

Thank you Mr. Fujita!

Currently I listen to Mr. Yamashita for inspiration, as his work is out of reach for me. I am in awe of how much of himself he throws onto the guitar..

I am focusing on my R37 swing only on the a few tunes like Autumn leaves and blue bossa this week. Jim Hall's comping is so sweet despite using a pick.. very modern. I rewatched the swing R37 videos here and got very inspired by how clean your sound is.. there is much i neglected to learn in R37 swing.. "not to expect too fast" is very helpful philosophy :D

Thank you Kurt!

Tomo

Love it Jeff!
Tomo's CD's put him on top for me.
I am impressed by Kim Sun Ho's list!

Kurt

Thank you Jeff!

Tomo

Thanks Karl for including me!

Do you know EVH loves his Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp?

Tomo

Yes, I include you because you have enabled me to enjoy guitar more than any of the others in my list. The way that I am enjoying learning jazz standards, blues and fundamentals, was unexpected and welcomed.

With your lessons I've learned so much; I am very grateful for GW.

No, I have not had the experience with a Fender Musicmaster, I will check it out.

Thank you.

Thank you so much Karl! So happy to hear that! Please enjoy more! I am so grateful too!

Plesae check it out if you have a chance.

Tomo

Markos, Thank you so much for including me!

Can you narrow down to top 5? I am very curious.

Tomo

Hi professor. Difficult task! I was like i forgot hendrix, Mark knopfler, Guthrie Govan, the ther 2 Kings, Joe pass! There are so many great players!

My first guitar hero that really touch me until this day is 1) john fruciante : when I saw the concert at the slane castle for first time at 15 i got chills! so beautiful soulful emotional player, everything he plays makes sense for me and he also know how to serve the song and his a genius writer in my opinion!
This are also my criteria! A player like Guthrie Govan that he is a monster player and i love to hear him especially albums like West Coast grooves it's how every guitarist want to Jam! I can hear it in repeat all day! But my number 2) slash shape my childhood with his genius beautiful songs and intros like don't cry, civil war, and solos like November rain or sweet child of mine! Will be always in my hurt!
3) Gary moore: What to say about this man! The passion really overflows in every live performance i have ever see him (from YouTube ofcourse RIP legend) and he makes feel with him! A monster player and song writer!
4)Joe bonamassa: I am literally hear bonamassas live performances every day he is the real deal his care in what he is doing is evident from the tone to the great musicians that he has in his side its a dream of mine to travel to see him live in his European tours!. Unfortunately he doesn't come to Greece! 😢
5) Tomo Fujita: first time I sound professor it was just by himself and his guitar! The first thing I said was omg how he sounds so good without background music! I was hooked ever since! i listened his work and i knew it would be my honor to be his student! Tomo learned me to be patience, positive and enjoy the process and i am so much better player and grow my love for music even more and for all that it will always be in my favourites.

Thank you professor. 🙂🙏

Sorry for the bad writing for some reason I can't edit! In some point i wanted to say that even Guthrie is one of the best players ever touch the instrument he wasn't so strong of an influence like the others for me.

Good job Markos! A lot of details! Thank you so much! Now you can try to play something by yourself and sounds good!

Tomo

Don't worry about Guthrie!

Tomo

Thank you Clay! Age / Time .... Very cool!

Tomo

Thank you so much! Once I was really into distortion tone! I wish I can share my recording from 1991! I was just playing for my student at Berklee today! Very very fusion! I am so glad that i found my voince / my tone!

Tomo

Thank you Matt! Think deeper and no need to do this right away.

Can you narrow down to 5 and explain more detaisl how you love those 5.

Tomo

Here we go. I wasn't thinking too much into the guitar study part. I was just listing my favorites. So more inline with the questionnaire thread that Sammi linked to, here we go, and the order doesn't matter from 2-5, but 1 is my absolute #1.

1. Mike Campbell. From what I've read, Chuck Berry is his main influence with Carl Wilson being second. He plays for the song, and only for the song. Everything he plays, rhythm/lead/fills, is just so right for the song and not for his ego.

2. George Harrison. Carl Perkins and rockabilly influences. Another guy that plays for the song w/o ego getting in the way.

3. Mark Knopfler. Influenced by Hank Marvin. Back in the 80's he was the first guy that showed me that you could fingerpick on an electric guitar. And his style of fingerpicking was completely different from the Travis Picking that my first guitar teacher had taught me. Money for Nothing blew me away.

4. SRV. Influenced by the 3 Kings. Spearheaded the resurgence of the blues back in the 80's. And let's face it. He's SRV, so no other justification is needed.

5. Keith Richards. Influenced by Chuck Berry. Yet another guy that plays for the song. He also showed me that you don't need technical brilliance, you just need groove.

Thank you Matt! We all have our favorite. This one is a little more deeper than favorite... more like someone really influenced you from beginning. So happy to see these & thanks for include all the details. I love Hank Marvin! My karate teacher's favorite "Melody" I love SRV so much!

Did you study Chuck Berry Style?

Tomo

Starting to work on the Chuck Berry stuff. Just so hard to pick one song to start with, there are so many! In fact that's what I'm going to do this morning is to listen to a CB playlist and pick a song to start studying.

As an aside for everyone, if you haven't seen the move Hail Hail Rock-N-Roll, it's a great watch about Chuck and Keith rehearsing for a show.

Edit: So here's what I picked:

Thank you Johno! Definitely we all have more than 10 great guitar players for our ears!

But guitar study purpose, so important to narrow down to 5... then even dear to 3!
Then think more which part and how much do you know?

Do you know how to play Look Ka Py Py?

Tomo

Fun funky song Look Ka Py Py :) I have tried to play it like many years ago, since then not so much. Good to refresh on this tune. :) Cissy strut and Hype in the Hoopla off the live in San Francisco album still on a practice set list. For sure tho Tomo, I ought to revisit. Now that I am more educated, I just listened to Look ka Py Py to refresh, and yes I may need to pick up where I left off. Good idea, new visions for this song, Get a little funky back in the groove. Thank you, - johno

Thank you Johno! Funny name song indeed! Cissy Strut is so famous. Those two tunes are great! How about Little Old Money Maker?

Tomo

Hey Jeff, yes check it out. My goals are there too. Definitely check out Leo Nocentelli' guitar works, he has over 65 years of work out there. I think those favs have some interesting changes and keys, let alone song writers. Rory ' tattoo' album is a good break, song 'they don't make them like you anymore' he does some blazing Irish guitar on 'tattood lady' . Enjoy :) - johno

lol, yeah, I answered a different question. :-)

Thank you Jonathan. Yes. Not easy at all. More like someone really influenced you.

So how about this... can you narrow down to 5? Try it for fun.

Tomo