Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Thanks Sammi!

Sorry to arrive late and comment "loudly".
(Still shocked to realize I am not George Benson 🤣.)
I liked Rich's question about singing triads. I am working through "Essential Theory section and trying to sing as much as possible. But I find I have to hear the notes, at least root triad, before I can sing. Maybe I have to hear each inversion at least once before singing, I will check at first practice today after I watch the livestream.

Kazufumi, also had a great question, I want to be able to do the super smooth chord slides with no noise you do Tomo.
I just thought less pressure practice, but Kazufumi is asking how to approch and solve that problem.

Sorry I was late again, I need to start setting alarms for livestreams.

Kurt, miss you on the forums maan, hope I didn't chase you away.

Peace,
George Benson

Thank you Sunil! Yes, first you need to hear those intervals / triad inversions. Then you can sing and imagine those notes/sounds. Think about those as melodies....

Yes! Great question from Kazufumi about "relaxed left hand"

Don't worry! George Benson!

Tomo

Thank you Tomo!

Watched livestream and finished first practice.

I am able to sing the triad and each inversion after playing/hearing them.

Someone asked about seeing pick angle that helped me with R37 swing groove exercise today. I keep forgetting the slight wrist twist Tomo. When I add that, in addition to loose moving pick, I am able to kind of do R37 swing groove! Pitch still not right I may be squeezing too hard.
So close, progress feels good. I am sure I have many "self-taught" bad habits, so I will post soon.

Great comments from George also!
I am going to start taping myself.
How long do you all keep videos of yourself around?

Maybe I will delete every few weeks after posting the most complete example of the exercise I am working on.

It is not such a big deal to post the video as I imagined it to be. You were right Sammi. My G string exercise work video had a handful of views and I think most were my views ...hahaha...I put a lot of energy into worrying about this, it was a waste. Good lesson.

Tell me where your video is posted, Sunil! I want to see it.

Okay, ...it is not great, lots of weird facial movements I thought. I think everyone is hypercritical of their own videos at first it seems, and after, I am guessing, many more, it becomes more natural it seems.

It is at the end of Sammi's last livestream thread for the G string exercise. I posted in response to Serena's video, which was great!

Thank you for watching Scott, that is so kind of you!

Excited about finally fully participating and improving here. (And still super happy to discover no one outside of GW really cares about it 😅.)

Thank you Scott! This Livestream is great for everyone include myself to be humble and don't think too much about "correct way" You're very welcome! Now I need to practice my foundatiuon. Simple and slow! Nothing is complicated and fast.

Tomo

Great question! This case... you slowdown and make it simpler than the original. Next step is to record this simple & slow version and if it is good, you can use a metronome and you can challenge slightly faster to the original. Do this for a while... same way, always record it and check it. Go to next step... eventually you can play the original version. Thank you.

Tomo

My pleasure! Thank you! Palm muting is to mute strings that you are not playing. (Lower side)

So when you are practicing chromatic scale on 4th string, your picking hand's palm muting on 5th and 6th strings while you are playing the 4th string.

When you are playing that shuffle bassline, those notes are moving from 6th string to 4th string... so your picking hand's palm need to follow muting 6th, 5th strings while you are playing the 4th string. It is very hard to control, that's why we need to do this very slow.

This part is easier to show you and see it than using words.
So I made this video to explain and show you what's going on.

Tomo

Thank you Tomo! The angle you filmed at really helped with the explanation. I can really appreciate what you mean by simple and go very slow. If I isolate for this one movement I now hear the muting - it’s a subtle difference of hand position.

This was very helpful! Thank you, Tomo.

Thank you Tomo - I will work on that. I’ve had a lot of trouble with the 5th and 6th string muting. No control. I get better on by the 5th string (probably because I’ve been doing the chromatic exercises for so long now.

Thank you so much for this helpful video!
I hadn’t realized there were any extra sounds. I’ll try to practice more carefully and slowly from now on.
Thank you as always!

My pleasure Tadashi! That's very common. Just easy not notice it. That's why slow down and review your recording.

Tomo

I hear the practice to Tadashi. I hear the string pressure pushing the notes slightly out of tone,
I like strike up stoke, it is the downward movement. I work on the same thing, sometimes it is my guitar tuning, yet it seems it is my pressure to hard on the down. Quite the balance. On to the next, lite pressure, and no pressure. *smiles*.
-johno

Thanks for the unique video, Eiji! Your soft picking really stands out. I'll do my best too!

Thanks Tadashi for your comment. I think R37 swing groove is one of the best way to learn soft picking. I was struggling to obtain this technique. I tried many way like how to hold pick, different thinness of pick and different angle of picking. I still practice same thing over and over. It is like warm up exercise.
Eiji

Eiji Very nice work. Your video is very encouraging. Well done, sir. :D

Thank you for your comment, Scot. I am glad to hear that, Sir.
Eiji

Wow. Thank you Jordan. And that is great question.
Eiji

Thank you Jordan! I am great at teaching via just listening because I focus on listening. I can hear every details from left hand pressure and I can hear positions / frets / strings... TONE! But seeing.... I can see posture and body movement with tempo/feel so it is better. Thank you!

Tomo

Exactly.
That is what it feels like.
Well said Johno.