I’ve really been struggling with my memory and playing Guitar, and felt completely devastated when I decided to pick up a guitar again and couldn’t remember what to do. This run through was really helpful and made me feel like I could be able to play again with confidence. Thank you Tomo! Your cat is cute and I just wanted to say I met you at NAMM, I painted the Japanese dragon amp for Bad Cat and you sounded awesome!
Thank you for sharing! Try not memorize... take your time and repeat same part over and over so you be familiar so much later. Try to learn something very simple. Simple melody on one string or minor pentatonic using only 4 notes. R b3 4 5... not even go to b7 so this will be so special! Learn triad only 123 or 234 or 345 or 456 sets. Only one set. Please use a great " LIMITATION " so you can be so creative within that limitation. For music, I love limitation and for work, I love deadline! So great to meet you at NAMM!
Thank you Mr. Fujita. When I first came across your videos they were a bit over my head and challenging (that will likely always be the case), however, they have helped me immensely. I have never taken guitar lessons but I am learning much of theory and understanding intervals and triads. My guitar playing has jumped to new level as of late and you are certainly a piece of that puzzle. Thank you for all of this wonderful instruction.
Intervals really take the randomness out of it! That's what scales and chords are based on anyway. If you want to take the knowledge further, this is based off of the harmonic series. For example, the reason major chords/arpeggios work is because they fit very nicely into the harmonic series. It's not that useful to know how to play what I'm about to describe by itself, but it really helped me make sense of intervals and chords in a kind of "aha!" moment in terms of how the actual physics work! Based off the open A string (which has a main frequency- 1st harmonic- of 110 Hz), you can create a major arpeggio from the 3rd, 4th and 5th harmonics (330, 440 and 550 Hz respectively). You can hear the sounds by gently touching the A string around the 7th, 5th and 4th frets respectively. The second note in there can also be played an octave down at the 12th fret (2nd harmonic at 220 Hz), but it's easier at the 5th fret. Note that because of the 12 tone tuning system we use, the actual major 3rd we use is a bit out of tune from the harmonic 3rd. Tuning systems try to approximate the harmonics, and there's a LOT of history behind it. We don't worry about that, but at some point you might think it's cool to learn more about. This is essentially what harmony is physically rather than reading from a chart!
It's amazing and fascinating to me...Tom Bukovac, Guthrie Trapp, Eric Johnson, and I'm sure many others if you were to hear them describe how they "approach" the guitar, describe this similar approach. Tomo, you are amazing at breaking it down to the purest fundamental level and describing it to a level that one can take and internalize and build on.
Thank you for helping me see how to get out of just playing vertically. I now know what I need to work on to improve. Excellent explanation - but I will enjoy the dedicated work I have ahead. This helps me make a plan on what I need to work on to make practice constructive. Thank you!
There were a lot of references to the Beatles this week due to the 60th Anniversary of their appearance on Ed Sullivan in the US, and like millions of others, I started playing guitar the day after that show. So, 60 years later, I wish I had known music theory instead of just playing the pentatonic shape all these years! Your video has really opened up a door for every guitarist to improve.
Thanks Tomo! Most of the time online sources, though free and easily accessible, can be too overwhelming and have no direction or curriculum of some sort that's why at least from your teaching perspective you show us the core theory as if we're all your new students. Cool!! Greetings from Canada 🇨🇦
Glad it was helpful! So happy to hear that! I teach this way with a few important must know topics upfront then ... applying these topics with music. Much more fun and so effective! Thank you so much!
@@TomoFujitaMusic of course! I’m actually self taught and going through the Berklee guitar theory book, your videos and the book have really helped my playing come along :)
I have learned that most want to learn a song. But then they learn patterns and 30 years later they are still just playing songs. Learn the instrument, learn the notes then one can play any music. Triads Rule!1 Thank You Tomosan. Nice to see you out and about again. I know Dexter knows more about music than most 2nd years. ❤😽
Ascending scales, two notes per string starting high up the neck on the low E string and working across the strings and towards the nut. Quite challenging and useful
Thank you for the theory refresher lesson Tomo!!! I wonder if in a future video you could discuss the most common mistakes you see guitar students making when playing with others in a live performance or recording session?? God Bless
Generally I think about topic and I don't rehearse anything so it goes like that. We are humans! It's okay... Thank you so much! It was fun making this video!
@@TomoFujitaMusic yes sir I agree totally. When i make a cover of a song its one take with any mistake. Great topic. Really useful and practical.Thank you.
Here I've been going in my head over and over again when away from a guitar. All 1st through 6 string natural notes E 1 3 5 7 8 10 12...A 2 3 5 7 8 10 12 ETC ETC over and over again. In these recent exercises I found i need to commit more on the 1st through 4th string.
That's way too much! Only one string for a while so you won't get too much! Stay simple for a long time! You need this! This Should Have Been Your First Guitar Lesson - Chromatic Scale ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-m2hvyzmBgxg.html
@@TomoFujitaMusic I did feel an overload. My intention is to grasp reason for my notes to be in line with what I am "playing" hearing, which had me picking apart any "habits" to learn more about things I write. BUT Next up was to go to 1 string and Yes stay simple for long time I shall.
Yes! Free lesson so too much! You need these 3 things. Technique, Theory, Ear Training so that you can learn anything from just listening! That's an amazing part of being Musician! Musician is a magic with music! Foundation is the only way to keep improving as a great musicians! Good job! @@SuperCMO79
Thank you so much Tomo for sharing that wonderful lesson and Dexter with us, learning patterns in different keys can be tough so yes practice is for sure a must, " love it when Dexter was licking to your groove" thanks again.
Thanks for this great video, Tomo! You make the basics clear and fun… BTW… Dexter knows jazz rules because he’s a hep cat… is he a Rag Doll breed? We had a Rag Doll cat named Maui we adored… she lived 15 years, now we have a “mutt” rescue kitty with some Russian Blue heritage … cats are the best.
The problem today is that people over-analyze stuff. modes are essentially just a way to connect a melody to a chord and how you transition from one to the other, by tension and resolution, it is nothing new, just listen to classical composers.I dont wanna be rude, but this doesnt teach people anything, all we need to do is listen to a wide variety of music, and find out why it works by figuring out the harmonic changes.
@@TomoFujitaMusic you have a youtube channel talking about music right ? you said "i wish everyone knew a little bit more about the foundation" right ? but you dont show how scales are really about chord changes. like how harmonic minor is a way to move to a major scale on the 5th by raising from the minor 7th to a sharp 7th which creates a beautiful tension and resolution in the melody. you say the terminology is too much but you talk about it yourself in the video. sorry, but you dont know what you talking about, or you are a bad teacher.
Hi Tomo, I really enjoyed the jazz chord voicings you used in that blues progression. Are you able to recommend any resources that I can use to spice up my blues progression? Have a nice day.
@@TomoFujitaMusic nobody ever in History went through book three….I want to send a kid to Berklee who already finished book three…..I’d be an instant legend.
Great to watch your content Tomo! i have a question, I became interested recently in Berklee literature as one of the most quality sources of knowledge, i have a question, improvisation is my favourite subject in playing guitar, can you recommend me this book for developing this skill and being a better guitarist overall? A Modern Method for Guitar - Complete Method by William Leavitt volumes 1,2,3 with video and audio, i would be grateful for this tip!
So happy to hear that! Please get only Volume ONE without anything! Just a book then you join my Guitar Wisdom. I teach entire book! So you can learn it. You just cannot learn this without instruction. You're very welcome!
The easiest way for me to think of modes is, Ionian, do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do. Dorian, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, re. Phyrigian, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do, re, mi, and so on. If one know the major intervals, W, W, H, W, W, W, H, and then moves them along with the above shifts in the tones of the scales, i.e., Dorian is, W, H. W, W, W, H, W.
I Mr Tomo, I love your videos. I wondered if you could do a Jimi Hendrix voodoo child slight return improvisation lesson, I feel like this song has a lot of blues fills and solos but I can’t improvise in it for a long period of time and stay interesting
Thank you so much! Because you are thinking E minor pentatonic shape in vertical a lot? First thing I teach is LIMITATION! I tell my students about highest note in this improvisation is... 12th fret on high E string so no vertical shape around 12-15th frets! I teach open position E blues (E7) soloing idea with bending. Albert King phrase & Freddie King phrase... Lightning Hopkins phrase (this guy influenced Jimi HUGE!)
Probably the best advice I've ever heard. I am 61 and have been a frustrated wanna be guitarist for my whole life. I still want to learn and this is a great approach!
My god I'm giddy like a school child. I grabbed a caged chart and started breaking the neck down into c triads. This is just amazing. Sounds so good and i recognize some many didn't jingles and songs and things of that nature. It makes sense. This is what it felt like when i finally understood fractions 30yrs ago. I'm lying i still don't understand them. But this make total sense me.
I'll be 70 this year and have been a hobbyist player since I was 10-12 years old. I can always count on picking up something while listening to your lessons. I love playing the guitar. Thank you for the inspiration, Mr Fujita.
Cool I am also in my seventies and have been playing since a kid. It has also been a part of my life both good and not so good. Oh how I wish the net was about when I was desperate to acquire guitar knowledge.
I had 7 years of classical education in brass instruments. Its crazy to me that even tnough we were taught and memorized 100s of scale exercises were wernt taught to think of them as intervals...it would have made so much more sense and gave us a better understanding of composing or improvising but i realize we were being trained to play the instrument not compose and only in jazz band did we improvise segments. The piano players were always better improvisers and i believe its because of the visual representation of the intervals as opposed to route memorization of scale.
@@dustinb1070 I know C chords up down the neck, even two note inversions of C doesn’t matter. If someone says F# might throw me off, still I can play F# triads up down the fret board. I don’t want to forget, I went without guitar for 5 years . But to this day, I have NO concept of intervals. Wish I did
How lucky we are to have a world class guitar teacher willing to take time to upload lessons for all the world to absorb. Thank you Tomo, watching you has transformed my playing and the way I approach the instrument altogether!
My first teacher taught me all the pentatonic boxes first and you’re right, it got me playing in one position too much for too many years lol. Watching you has made me think more linear and to play up and down the neck more. It’s hard to break old habits, but it’s never too late to learn new things on the guitar. Thanks Tomo! 🎼🎸👌🏼
You have to connect the shapes. I learned that from a Dweezil Zappa course on True Fire. Moving up and down the neck on only two strings at a time and connecting all the shapes.
Years ago I took to mapping out the fretboard and then using a highlighter to map various scales, also circling the root… I still play in chunks. I will be working on horizontal now.
What a language music is. One could study this their entire life and never know it all. Thank you Tomo for sharing your wisdom and insight. I will/would never get into Berkelee but to know I am learning for free ! And from one of the best, Is one of the greatest times of my life !
Music is very deep and it's so easy to skip a few important topics because you can gain these information on internet. (good and bad) If you want to learn more details, I teach all at my Guitar Wisdom. More educational than any RU-vid videos. Thank you so much!
