Guitar lessons, music theory and personal philosophy on video, presented by Tomo Fujita, professional guitarist and Professor at Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts USA.
Tomo, I noticed that when I try to do the Bb7, there are two issues I have:
1. It is difficult for me to mute the 1st string (E) because the weight of my first finger comes down so hard on it. It needs only slight pressure to mute. I think that I am fretting my hand too straight. I notice that you mute a bit diagonally, where the bottom of your index finger slants slightly to cover the top of the 4th fret. That seems to work better for me.
2. Because I'm trying to keep my first finger from pressing too hard, my middle finger doesn't fret the root correctly. This is why you couldn't hear the root last time.
Yes. It is very difficult mute by your first finger without pressing down hard. This will take some time. 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers... use less as possible pressure to press those notes
Your first finger should feel very loose. This process... it will take some time and best to do slowly and try your best everyday. You are doing great!
Tomo, I love watching you play! So much fun! Thank you for this video. I still need a lighter touch, but I will get there! Yes, the slant of the first finger is key for me. I am finding more success with this approach. Thank you, thank you. What a great day playing the guitar!
Thank you Scott! So happy to hear that! You're very welcome! I love practicing R 3 7 a lot! So much fun! I am still working my lighter touch. Good job! Please keep going!
Wow!!!!
I can really see how light your thumb touch is. That’s amazing.
All my life I’ve played with a death grip. It’s gonna take a while to break that habit but I’m working on it.
Still practicing R37.
Trying to play softer and slower but still not sure if it sounds like a fast arpeggio.
Let me know what you think.
Thank you!
(I tried to get my Music Master amp and Brown Box in the video this time)
Thank you Rich for sharing your video! Overall your tone is better & softer. The first hit is the most important here. You can bring your arm as much as higher so that you can strum much wider motion so you can swing fast & tight (even softer touch). Great job Rich! This one is very difficult to master. Around 00:03 ... You should move your arm as you feel the tempo. So your amp will strat above the guitar body.
Another point of view is:
1) Do you reallly love to practice R 3 7 Swing Groove?
2) You practice R 3 7 Swing Groove just because you think it is important.
I guess that’s an interesting question that you ask.
I wouldn’t be inclined to practice R37 swing if I wasn’t a GW member so
I guess if I’m being honest I don’t love practicing it.
BUT I feel like sometimes you have to stick with something for a while before you really understand why it is important and then you can grow to love it.
I didn’t necessarily love practicing chromatic scale exercises at first but since I’ve been doing them every day my playing has become A LOT cleaner. So now I enjoy practicing them (except when I cannot concentrate 😁)
I think with R37 swing I’m not exactly sure what I’m aiming for (as far as what it should feel like) so I’m just trying to practice slowly and get your feedback.
If the end result will be playing as lightly and effortlessly as YOU do then it will be worth it. And I trust your guidance so I’m just sticking with the process for now even if I don’t LOVE doing it.
Rich, I am feeling deep empathy for you my friend.
I don't know what I can say to help.
But that hasn't stopped me before. :)
I think of watching my babies learn to walk. Took a couple years each for them.
It's really a controlled fall, but we always put the other foot out there. And the attempts, seemed like millions of little exercises starting from lying on their backs. They were curious and smiling mostly though hahaha! And my wife and I were so encouraging for every attempt, and we modeled that behavior every day, everyone around them was. They just kept trying (...but why??)
Almost every human being does that. I think playing the guitar is the same thing. All of us can do it.
You are making progress as Tomo mentioned! I making progress too with R37, noticing Tomo's slightly twisting wrist helped me with volume control, like you are doing now!
But I don't control the progress, only doing the exercise. I am enjoying the sound -- the sounds I want, the sounds I don't want too. If there are too many sounds I don't want it can be frustrating. But it is really impossible to be mad at a baby for trying to walk isn't it?
So I just listen because I am alive, and able. We all already did this to learn to walk, so we can do it now too.
Occasionally, in the moment, there are little movies coming up that conceptualize what is happening.
For example with 1212 exercise (simpler to talk about) there are three actions in this order: muting, letting go, sounding the note. To do this with the intended result, long bouncy notes, these three actions come very close together. But for each note, there is some variation in the timing producing sounds not wanted. It seems I am not in deep control of this but in my mind I keep thinking of three pendulums coming together and swinging apart...that helps me slow down and think about what is preventing the sound I want. To get there I am noticing the patience to look at the problem comes from joy and child-like observation without judgement (like Tomo mentions in the book). I don't pick up the guitar without it. I could totally smash my guitars...the thought is making me tear up right now actually.
Easy to get there. I never want to get there. To prevent that, I don't feed the practice with pain. Only joy.
By the way, I also like watching interviews of masters alive today who are still practicing every day like Tomo!
I love this one of Eric Gales:
He plays with deep connection to emotions, and personal and familial experiences. He talks about playing "from pain". But I think he means playing with joy is letting him channel the "it", the flow, the divine, creativity, the force.
As I was watching, I am thinking of everything Tomo says, because I think they are all saying the same thing.
But for Eric, he doesn't pick up guitar anymore to practice, he picks up drums and piano! Obviously we are not at the level Eric and Tomo are but I am just trying to comprehend of the level of practice to get there. Immense practice. Generational practice.
He also talks about playing "from somewhere else". To me, that evokes deep awe. I have felt it a few times in areas of lifelong practice. To me, it is partially about the way we learn, that is not directly under conscious control. Our minds are constantly learning, but it takes small happy efforts over time, and sleep.
Partially also about the conscious experience of watching ourselves walk or knowing what we are doing it while we are walking. Or listening to what we are playing while we are playing. Tomo is teaching us that when he is encouraging singing while playing R 3 7 / R 7 3 blues shuffle exercise.
From a meditation perspective it is like making the boundary between internal thought (melody) and external events (guitar, finger, pick, amp sounds: Bb7, TRIP-el-IT...)
In another thread you mentioned meditation. I would try to examine why there is a difference between meditation center practice and guitar practice. Like list out the differences for yourself. Why are they different. Because I don't think they are different. We have to let go of the expectations, and try to stick to the schedule.
For me the alternative, everytime is to stop playing...then lots of time passes and I hear an old recording and think "wow that was good!" and then I regret not practicing. I never want to feel like that again. But I know now, how to avoid that.
Again I am only trying to empathize, and trying to convey what is happening when I feel similar stuff. I hope it helps my friend.
From a meditation perspective it is like making the boundary between internal thought (melody) and external events (guitar, finger, pick, amp sounds: Bb7, TRIP-el-IT...)
I realized my strumming was not wide enough and the chord didn’t sound like one sound. Working on bigger motion and move my body .
Also sold my strap today, so practicing without it was a bit distracting. So many details to focus on — ended up sweating hahaha!
Let’s keep practicing R 3 7 swing o(^▽^)o
I’m going to get a new strap and an Azes31 IV ! I thought about choosing the Azes40 cos it has a tremolo bridge , but I know I won’t use it just like my fuzz face pedal so I want to keep things simple and focus on foundation. Practice,practice,practice (≧∇≦)
It is a good vibe Tobi. Whenever I question what to practice next, I fall into R37 for a round or two. I don't have a hard tail guitar like the AZES3, I like their sound. I have not seen one in the wild otherwise I would love to play it and give it a run of the R37. Definitely a comforting strap for sure. I see them second hand and broken-in, some are classics in need of repairs, yet comfortable is key for me. I bet you dig the S-style shape of the guitar. The tele has some unique tones too. Thank you for sharing the videos, not an easy exercise. My initial experience was like in your first video and coordination, I was like mute, what how, huh right left up.. Inverted mute to strum. I hear ya, practice, practice, practice!! Let's keep going.
-johno
First you need to move your body with tempo (big body motion)
Your first video around 00:40 … good. Move your arm as wide as you can.
Bb Blues video. You need to move your body more! Plus you move your arm as if you are alreay playing it! Good job! You can shift to Eb7 when end of 4th beat so that you have muted sound instead of open string or harmonics noises.
Maybe you should practice Bb Blues super slow tempo (slower than 50 per beat) for a while.
Make it a little brighter tone if you can.
Use only one pickup. The front pickup or the middle pickup. So you can hear notes very deeply.
The Ibanez AZES31 is super duper great! Keep going! Good job!
Thank you Scott for making this R 3 7 Thread for everyone! A lot of inspiration is coming from you and this thread! This video is one 8 videos that I already prepared.
Thank you Tomo. I have been working on proper muting. I focus on making sure every finger is doing its job with its related string. I am working on lighter touch and not pressing with first finger. I must work on swing groove more. I have not tried metronome yet.
Good job Scott! So glad to hear that! Great combination between this R 3 7 Swing Groove / left hand muting exercise & Chromatic scale exercise for less pressure fingerings and steady picking.
You can try using a metronome for anything. If you want to work on keeping in time. Even just feeling it with your body motion. In this room, I always hear 60 per beat in my kitchen. (Clock)
I have an old-style pendulum metronome because I found the ones on your phone have too many offerings, and I get confused too easily.
Can you explain the difference in starting on the 1 beat and the 2 and 4, like I've seen you talk about? I know one version is 40bpm and the other is 80 bpm, but I do not see the reason why we do this.
I use a Franz Metronome with One Knob! One great wooden tone!
1) Metronome on every beats. You hear your metronome on 1 2 3 4 beats. You can listen a metronome at 60 or 80
2) Metronome on beat 2 & 4. You hear your metronome on 2 and 4 beats. You can set a metronome at 40.
Thank you Eiji for sharing this video. Good job playing and singing PLUS playing with a metronome. Your guitar tone is really good!
A few things to check:
1) Your body motion. I would suggest to move your body a lot of more.
2) When you are playing Root 6th string form. your first finger should cover the 6th string too.
3) Down stroke. Should be a little faster. Very difficult to do! (One sound!)
Good job. Nice light picking touch. It is kind of difficult to move body and play without moving guitar neck.
By the way Eiji pronounce like age. Thank you Lavoy.
Eiji
Thank you LaVoy for sharing your R 3 7! You have been practicing these! Good job! Your tought is so light! Great picking tone! And your right hand strumming = wide! Please be proud yourself!
Please keep in tempo. Slow as 50 (Metronome) to 65 first. Then you can try 40 (metronome at 2&4)
LaVoy, I love your general disposition.
It made me wheezy laugh! Haha!
Thank you my friend.
I didn't hear muting issues! Sounds good like Tomo and Eiji mentioned above.
I keep saying Trip-pehl-It, beat on T, stroke on caps. Like the three-finger visual Tomo used in the live-stream, helps as Jeff pointed out too. Or I could be completely wrong -- not about ego, doesn't matter what anyone (except Tomo 😅) says, just listen. I love that about music, science and the truth.
Glad you got you got your strat back woooo! What did the luthier say about neck twist after fixing the nut? Mine is back from the luthier's but still at the shop, hope to pick it up in a few days.
That cinder-block universal university dorm construction tech brought back decades of memories man. Hope its warm in there. We're in for a couple weeks rain here. Quite mild compared to S.Dakota, Boston, Japan(...?), and even Washington, I am sure!
It is so difficult for me to play and sing. While trying to make up the melody I forget the guitar part then when I focus on the guitar part melody starts to linger a little.
Also amp is pretty quiet right now also.
Singing and playing is not easy! That's why we need to work on! Plesae sing some simple melody (you don't want to make up by your own) Start with Bags Groove then Blue Monk etc.
The Electric is back, Sounds like it is all tuned up and singn' it LaVoy!! Dorm room life, it too shall pass. I think the earlier you can get the flow of singing and playing together the easier it gets. The hard part is, these are out of time sync of each other guitar to voice like the back beat. Excellent practice tho.
-johno
I have fixed R37 swing groove.
It is not perfect yet.
I was thinking about shaking my iead, quick down stroke, singing softly and soft holding my pick.
Eiji
Eiji! I want to say I love your passion. I hear a consistency in your chords, so I know you've worked really hard on your fretboard finger position. It's taking me months and months to begin to get there. Very impressive. Also, your rhythm is steady. I can learn these things from you by watching you play. Thank you so much for sharing. You are helping so many of us here grow. Keep on going.