Accelerate Your Guitar Playing DVD

This is a fantastic DVD full of exercises that will benefit your playing, regardless of whatever style you choose to play. I've adapted many of Tomo's exercises into my daily playing (the rhythm exercises, in particular, are amazing), and the grooves section was really helpful in developing my ability to be able to play various styles, which helps land more gigs (and more gigs = more money). My only complaint is that the booklet, for the wealth of information it contains, which the student is required to study at length, is extremely small (it fits in the palm of my hand). The print inside is even smaller, which was really hard for me to read (and I'm a person who has good eyesight and doesn't wear glasses). It's also thick, at almost 80 pages, which makes it hard to keep open. Perhaps a code to redeem a PDF version of the booklet could be included in future DVD pressings. I feel bad for taking a star off because of the small book, because this is easily a 5+ star DVD, but most of your time is going to be spent using it to practice..

The production on this DVD is not that fantastic, in the sense that what you get is brief segments of Tomo showing you the practices, and then you have to do them. So it's pretty straightforward and basic. And you get a little book that shows you the exercises also.However, I do think these exercises are very well thought-through and very helpful if applied systematically. I have been doing this for about a month now, and see a rapid improvement in my technique, in terms of basic cleanness and accuracy of picking and fretting, as well as muscle development and coordination. If these are things you're interested in developing, I would highly recommend it. If you're looking for blazing licks, etc., right from the start, then go elsewhere!I would highly recommend this. 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.

This book is very good if you are wanting to work on the foundations of your playing. It has a lot of finger excercises and rudiment type drills.I was looking for something that I could use right away, and impliment into my playing and did not really feel like I found it here. If you have the time and dedication I'm sure the instruction can help, but if you don't want to go back to the basics than I would look elsewhere.I was looking for maybe some new rhythms or approaches to lead playing, maybe some new insight into my approach, but got more of an elementary feel.It's kind of like the difference between learning how to read the basic notes vs giving some ideas on how to put them together. The instruction has merit, but if you have been playing for a long time and want a little more meat than milk, I would say it's not here.

Furst let me sat that if you are looking for a DVD with a bunch of "hot licks" this is not for you.. What I liked the most about this DVD/Instructional booklet set was the getting back to rudiments approach.. I've been playing the guitar since I was a kid, I have a good ear, and feel that anything I can hear, and sit with for a while, I can figure out, and play but where my playing suffered was learning good habits from the beginning, working on timing, feel, tone, and, importantly mastering precision hand. Ivements with a focus on economy of movement. The lessons and exercises enclosed really helped me to achieve my goals in these regards, and I whole heartedly recommend this to anyone looking to hone their chops and get the most out of their practice time.

this is excellent. 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. ex 3 and 19 were the most beneficial to me. 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" which i will be picking up soon. check him out on youtube if you haven't and/or buy his cd "right place right time". it'll funk you up, good son.

He is the holy grail of guitar teachers

I've played guitar for several decades and during that time have played in bands and studied with various teachers. I bought this DVD because there is always more to learn... but not from this DVD!While Tomo is obviously a talented player, his teaching skills are nil. He explains nothing. His style is just "do what I do". He uses a wide range of chords and shows you none of them. He uses some advanced picking and strumming techniques and again doesn't show you how to do them. He uses some great jazz chord progressions and again fails to mention any theory behind them.While I'm skilled enough to be able to painstakingly figure out SOME of the things he's doing, I can just as easily listen to any record and eventually figure out what's being played there as well. I was hoping to get a better understanding of some of the theories behind what he's doing, but there's none of that here on this DVD.I own several other instructional guitar DVD's and they are heads and tails better than this one! Frankly, I'm shocked that he's a teacher at Berkley School of Music! If you want a DVD of a competent rhythm guitar player strumming a lot of chords in a blues/jazz/funk style, then I guess you might like this DVD.

This is a really good DVD. To the former poster : try to follow the exercises as slow as possible..you will see the benefits soon!! maybe you wanted some theory..there are other DVD's out there .This will give good technique in short time.Give a chance to this DVD,try to learn from it and don't have a negative reaction without digging into it...all your questions about the chords is in the accompanying book.And the most important thing: enjoy it!

Stell dir vor, du könntest beim Gitarrenlehrer von John Mayer Unterricht nehmen. Stell dir vor, du könntest privat Stunden nehmen bei einem Professor vom Berklee College in Amerika. Mit dieser DVD kannst du genau das tun!Tomo Fujita ist ein angesehener Gitarrist im Bereich zwischen Funk und Jazz und außerdem eben Dozent am Berklee College (USA) und war auch mal der Gitarrenlehrer von Blues-Überflieger John Mayer. Und er ist ein wunderbarer Lehrer!Diese DVD ist gefüllt mit vielen Übungen, an denen die meisten Gitarristen wahrscheinlich ein ganzes Jahr lang üben können, um alles ordentlich spielen und mit Groove spielen zu können. Auf der DVD finden sich:- Chromatische Technik / Warm Up Übungen- Übungen, um die Griffbrettorientierung zu verbessern- Vorschläge zur Gehörbildung- Greif- und Akkordübungen- Rhythmusübungen (Notenlesen / Blattspiel)- Funkrhythmen und Funkriffs- Blues und Jazz-Blues Begleitungen- FunkgroovesAlles in allem gibt es hier ordentlich Stoff, mit dem man sich auseinandersetzen kann. Es gibt aber eine Einschränkung: Es wird kaum etwas erklärt. Es gibt zwar nein Begleitbuch mit Tabs/Noten und auch auf der DVD ist alles so aufgenommen, dass man alles sehr gut sehen (und hören) kann. Für Anfänger ist es aber eher ungeeignet.Beispiel: Bei den Blattspiel-Rhythmus-Übungen wird nicht das eigentlich VOM BLATT SPIELEN VON RHYTHMEN erklärt, das müsste man dann selbst lernen oder sich von einem Gitarrenlehrer erklären lassen. Oder bei den Bluesbegleitungen werden die einzelnen Spieltechniken nicht erklärt, die muss man dann schon mitbringen und können.Ich selbst spiele von 20 Jahre Gitarre und muss selbst richtig üben, um die Blues-Stücke so zum Grooven zu Bringen, wie Herr Fujita dass hier macht.Weil ich so begeistert von der Vielfalt der DVD bin und auch bei allen Übungen Spaß habe, habe ich mir gleich den 2. Teil der DVD bestellt: More Accerlerate Your Guitar Playing. Dazu werde ich dann auch eine Rezension schreiben. Aber erst, wenn ich das hier genug geübt habe!Absolute Empfehlung für fortgeschrittene Gitarristen!

I am a big fan of Tomo Fujita, so I ordered this DVD. I live in Germany and supposedly it shipped from the UK, but I never received it. I cannot comment on the quality of the instruction itself, though typically Fujita is a great teacher, but the product never got delivered, and so far, I have just gotten a run-around from Amazon support.