Tomo Fujita Accelerate Your Guitar Playing Pdf 15
Kum Dana
Compared to the well-established and orderly CAGED system, Tomo's lessons seem disordered. I'm putting in lots of practice time hoping that a bigger picture will emerge, but since I'm an older student, I'm anxious about devoting a wasteful amount of energy to long-term projects when there are more efficient roadmaps. It's a true (and sometimes discouraging) fact that I have less time than I used to have when I was a young man.
First Tomo discourages visualization and related shape recognition. That means dispensing with "positions" on the neck, CAGED boxes, and scale patterns. In one video, he commented that "smarter people have a harder time, because they want to visualize everything."
Taking this one step further, Tomo would prefer that students try not to even look at the fretboard. In his DVD "Accelerate Your Guitar Playing," he writes: "Don't look at the neck when playing. So many people are stuck playing the same patterns, box shapes, and fretting-by-the-numbers. If you want more freedom and expression in your playing, let your ears lead you instead of your eyes."
Second: He wants students to spend a MUCH-longer-than-usual amount of time internalizing note combinations and scales by singing and recognizing them aurally. He talks about the importance of hearing interval colors: He writes elsewhere, "And "Color" means... Many things, Chord changes... or Say Dom 7 has certain color. 9th chord... (Rt 3 b7 9th 5th) not shape , sound and color. So that you need to relearn all your chord voicing with those color, degree... That's why triads are best way to start."
Note: This is already a huge leap of faith. I've heard many guitar players relate the experience of seeing particular patterns and shapes on the guitar fretboard "light up." They talk about "seeing" the connection of chords, triads, scales, etc. In fact, VISUALIZING the fretboard seems like the GOAL of most guitar teaching systems (CAGED, Berklee, 3nps, etc).
Third: It's worth commenting on Tomo's aversion to creating handouts and other teaching materials. (I understand he's published some instructional materials in Japanese.) After so many years of teaching, I imagine he might have created a wealth of highly organized instructional and supplemental materials. Perhaps he has and will eventually publish them here. But for now, he seems to have made a conscious choice on this site to avoid them. I sometimes find this worrisome.
There's another way to see this, though. It's possible that Tomo feels that students should watch and learn by ear, rather than from paper. I suppose this would be very typical, especially among old blues players.
It may also reflect a more Japanese school of thought. I once had a martial arts instructor (a grand master from Japan) that believed an element of randomness was part of good training. He came from a very traditional background. During class, he discouraged too many questions, telling people to stop talking and just listen. When senior instructors asked him to design a written curriculum, he rejected the idea; partly (I think) because he believed discretion was part of good teaching, and partly because he was jealous of sharing his advanced techniques too broadly among students that weren't worthy.
Please keep in mind my post is written from the perspective of a student, and not a critic. To me, being a good student means putting absolute faith in your instructor, and believing that the many long hours of practicing things that don't entirely make sense will eventually pay off. It's a big leap. A student shouldn't be too critical, because they don't have tools to see the bigger picture. But with so much at stake (many hours of hard work), I do feel that it's fair to try to determine, to the best of my ability, what Tomo's overall strategy consists of...particularly because he seems to reject so many foundational elements of other systems.
Christopher, I think something to understand is that Tomo's method relies heavily on knowing the notes of the fretboard. Once you get that down, I think you'll find that things start coming together much clearer.
I've been taking the course for about a month and have already learned so much but it's also taught me to be patient and precise. I watch each video at least 5 times throughout my day and often go back to videos just to make sure I pick up on everything. I am taking notes and reviewing them constantly - always quizzing myself to make sure I understand what Tomo is talking about. I spend time creating the backing track that he recommends using a looper and playing whatever I just learned over it. Sometimes I sound good, sometimes it sounds bad, but eventually I notice it getting progressively better.
This is certainly a different way of learning guitar but, in my opinion, it's a more complete, in depth method than learning using tricks and shortcuts like CAGED which can be extremely limiting (and is also not usually taught at the college level).
The caged system is not limiting and it s certainly not a trick. Its just how the notes fall on the fretboard. Eventually muscle memory takes over, whether youre transcrivinb by ear, reading music or improvising. Muscle memory takes advantage of the patterns on the fingerboard, and caged is just a way to describe those patterns. There are 7 continents inthe world, its not a trick nor a shortcut. Notes on the fretboard are organized by patterns described in the caged system. Is there a way to look at the world in terms of patterns other than continents? Sure but it doesnt mean that continents dont exist or that referring to them is useless or limiting. If people dont want to learn any pattern i hope that they become good sight readers; and even then sight reading takes advantage of patterns.
The Accelerate Your Guitar Playing DVD will help take your playing to the next level. Professor Tomo Fujita shares his proven method for improving the essential skills required to play with other musicians and to freely express yourself on the guitar. Over 20,000 of these videos have been sold in Japan alone. This video offers easy-to-understand exercises and demonstrations that can be applied to all levels and styles. These include: scale and picking exercises, interval and ear training, rhythm studies and stylistic grooves (blues, swing, jazz, R&B, funk).
Tom Fujita's proven Guitar method is a proven express method to take your playing to the next level. It teaches the essential skills and fundamental techniques to enable you to play with other musicians and to freely express yourself on this versatile instrument.
Suitable for all levels and styles, the easy to understand exercises and demonstrations are sure to interest you and aid your progression. The DVD, and the accompanying 80-page instruction booklet, make a successful tutorial with on and off-screen guides to maximise learning.
Tomo is really passionate about music, you can tell if you've seen him in action before. He taught John Mayer before he became "John Mayer". If you feel your playing is too sloppy, slow, or just want to learn some cool funk/r&b/blues style playing, then this is the DVD for you. He teaches you simple enough stuff to improve your playing you wish you came across earlier when you picked up the guitar. He is also has "More accelerate your guitar playing".
There is material here to keep you busy for a long time (6 months, a year?). If you do the exercises, unless you're already a pro, it will definitely improve your technique. Tomo is also a real stand up guy - no doubt about it. It's good to support such a great instructor and selfless musician.
"After I graduated from Berklee, I was interested in discovering more about the blues. I listened to all the records of B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, and I started playing with blues bands. I could play blues technically, but emotionally I couldn't connect myself to the music. I tried to connect my soul with the guitar, to get away from any theory or technique, to stop thinking too much. I started playing gospel music at a Baptist church every Sunday. There were no charts; for every song, all I got was the key. It taught me a lot about feeling, and I thought, 'That's really what music is all about.' You hear things, and you have to feel things."
"If you make someone read music, and they don't know about the sound of the music, that's like reciting words or sentences that don't mean anything to them. Everything that they play sounds technically right, but musically it's not there. So I try to teach my students as though they're blind. I say, 'Before you start to play your guitar, find an object close to the ceiling, or buy a picture and hang it above eye level. Look at that, and then play. Try to disconnect your mind from time and place while you're playing, so that after you finish the song you don't know where you are, because that much energy is going into the music.'"
This revolutionary new book will have you jammin' right away. No matter what your level of musical knowledge, this is a simple fun method for students of all ages who want to start playing the guitar. Pop in the accompanying CD and jam with the band in a variety of musical styles, including rock, blues, country, and funk.
Whether you are learning to play the guitar as your first instrument or adding it to your line-up, this Berklee method is the fastest way to learn the guitar. It will set you well on your way to becoming a highly skilled player.
Tomo Fujita earned his degree from Berklee College of Music, where he has been teaching since 1993. He has developed a great reputation as a master private teacher, as well as a crowd-pleasing performer who has shared the stage with the likes of Phil Collins, bassist Darryl Jones (Miles Davis, Sting, Rolling Stones), Ronnie Earl, and Mighty Sam McClain, just to name a few. He has also enjoyed a stint in the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning musical RENT. Tomo tours and teaches clinics annually throughout Japan and is the author of the instructional video, Accelerate Your Guitar Playing (Berklee Press, 2001).
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