Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Day 4 - practiced very loud, loud, normal, quiet, very quiet variations for several repetitions each.
I turned on the metronome for a bit. Even though we are doing half notes at a slow tempo, it did mess with my volume consistency - like if I felt a little behind the click, I tended to attack harder. This will be fun to work on the next couple of days.

Thank you Hugo, Clay, Scott, Linda and John for following up this thread. Good job guys! Slow is so good! Even slower! Softer part is very difficult. Great exercise for picking hand and volume control. This exeercise is so great for “tone” and more! This technique will make your phrasing better!

Glad to hear that Scott! My pleasure! Thanks for your inspiration to us!

Thank you Hugo! Shaun Ok now?

Tomo

This exercise is harder than I thought it would be for me. I find myself doing better each day though and I find myself doing the spread triad diatonic chords differently now, so this exercise is carrying over into my other playing as well. I am pausing more and listening better somehow. I appreciate this so much!

Thank you all for sharing what you've noticed so far! It's very cool to hear how this exercise extends into other areas of practice. Just goes to show how the basics are worth our full attention.

If you've spent a few days with this and haven't recorded yourself yet, I'd encourage you to do so. Doesn't have to be fancy - just set up your phone, play through the exercise (~60 seconds), and watch it back without sound (is your body moving? Do you look relaxed? Do you notice anything about your picking?), and then with sound. It can be for your personal viewing.

The reason I say ~60 seconds is that it's long enough to evaluate consistency but short enough to watch more than once. I know how painful it can be to watch and listen to yourself, lol, but we are learning to be kind to ourselves too!

Proud of you all!
Sammi

Guys I found a gem. Check out around 6 minutes. Turn the auto translation on.

Hugo

Day 5 - don't usually do GW practice on Wed due to band practice, but this exercise is super easy to slip in.
First time doing fully with metronome. Not sure why, but it is more difficult to keep even volume while trying to keep a beat - even with this slow tempo. Maybe even BECAUSE of the slow tempo.
Normal to loud is easiest to keep consistent, but lower than "normal" is tough for me.

Quality time and your positive feeling can really make your 2-3 minutes exercise.

Tomo

‘Join me live tomorrow!’ Great email it builds the excitement too. Hope everybody’s having a good one

I have been doing the exercise each day. I found it very meditative. The first day seemed more focused for me and easier to lock in. On the next day I could feel myself speed up. I am trying to move my body with the picking but I never felt like the two locked in together. I am going to try record tomorrow. Well done all.

Been tuning up a travel guitar and thinking those waves, G string ringing in my head. So I ended a practice session with this. My uniformity was pick depth, resting my palm strings 5-6, clean hits to keep the notes rolling even as I could. No Metronome yet on Day 4,slow tho. If it is a natural rhythm, I am wondering what bpm it is. I see, I will record next to see what that is bpm is and check it out.
-johno

Day 6 - all half notes with metronome. I tried to keep everything at one level below "normal" volume. Very challenging. I could get 3-4 consecutively, but then would get one too soft or too loud. Kept my eyes closed. Funny - if I would get on a decent streak of consistency, then play one accidentally loud, it would startle me.

Thank you Clay, Scott, Marcus, Johno, Hugo, Linda, Andy, Matt and Serena!

Once you do this… you know how difficult to control super quiet soft picking. You don’t need to play it loud. Play it soft then go from there. Go softer and softer. What great about the Franz metronome is that no volume control and it is so good! Not too soft and not too loud. So it is so natural. Yes! It is harder than you though it would be. One oif those things that you never know until you really do it by yourself. Thank you everyone for doing this mini challenge. To me everyday is challenge! I do many little things so I can keep pushing myself. There is No Magic! Only good plan and pure efforts!

Focus on 60 seconds is so valuable. No need to do more than 2 minute. You need to focus every seconds so longer is not effective at all. Plus record yourself full 60 seconds. You guys are doing do good! Be proud yourself! I am so proud of you guys deeply!

PS, Thank you for watching my YouTube Livestream last nigh! We are so appreciate your support on Guitar Wisdom.

Tomo

Great stuff Scott.
Great live stream last night too on YouTube too not to go off subject
I used my acoustic guitar tonight I was curious how long a note would go in phase 1. My guitar almost makes about 10 seconds before it fades out. I wonder how long tomos gibson acoustic goes. This is a fun challenge and I’m still discovering the benefits of this one. Something is happening though you can tell.

Day 7 - kept same - eyes closed with metronome. I still laugh each time I give myself a jump scare with an accidental loud note. But I think I was a little more consistent - need to record to validate.

Ture that Clay, the sounds of an even flow to be clanged with a wrong note. I was resting palm on the 5&6 string to gauge it better. Record last night, still have yet to listen. Thinking about the natural timing thing, what is that, maybe it is like what Jeff is saying, the sustain holds the next hit, so could be guitar & Amp dependent. Either way I only had few minutes and dailed up this exercise from my day 5 already...Let it ring in open G.
-johno