Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi Tomo,

I want to learn three genres: Blues, classic rock and neo soul.

I am following your advice to listening to the same album repeatedly everyday.

For Blues, I am listening to BB King's Live at Regal you suggested.

Can you suggest one album that I can listen repeatedly for Classic Rock and Neo Soul?

Thanks!
Jiacheng

Hi Jiacheng! Thank you for your question, and welcome back to Guitar Wisdom!

I'd also like to add the idea of following the family tree. Whatever music you aspire to play, discover what artists influenced them. Keep going back until you find the root.

A lot of music comes from the blues, so studying it is a great way to build a base of understanding. Deep listening to older albums and simpler forms can also help you recognize what you hear in more contemporary music.

Branch out, but remember that you can also find what came before :)

Thanks!

For Blues, I am currently focusing on listening to:
- B B King
- Buddy Guy
- Stevie Ray Vaughan

For Rock:
- Jimi Hendrix
- Elvis Presley

For modern music:
- John Mayor
- Tom Misch

Unlike Blues, I found it is harder to learn Rock and modern music as there are so many varieties (e.g. different chord progressions and styles). Not sure if you have good tips on that.

Thank you Jiacheng!

Blues is very hard to learn once you listen one song for many many times!

It's all about consistency and pure hard work. Keep listening same blues music and keep finding more depth of this amazing music. Less albums, less songs are better!

More chords... are actually easier for me. Learn a little bit on Jazz.

Tomo

Hi everyone!
To follow up on Sammi’s comment, Hendrix and BB King were both influenced by Lightning Hopkins.
“Lightnin’ Strikes” and “Soul Blues” are two albums that Hendrix had in his collection.

Tomo has a lesson on Lightning Hopkins here: https://tomovhxtv.vhx.tv/videos/fb-finger-style-e-blues.

Sensei Tomo if I may ask, it would be so great to see more lessons on Hopkins’ style, I find it quite difficult to catch all the nuances of his playing on my own.