Tomo Fujita, a seasoned guitar player and assistant professor at Berklee School of Music, performed and shared some of his musical expertise with Wayland High School students during Winter Week. Fujita is the father of Wayland High School senior and sophomore Nate and Sammi Fujita.
Music has been a huge part of Fujita’s life since he was young. Fujita got his first guitar when he was 12 years old and living in Japan, but didn’t begin learning to play until a year later. When his friend bought a guitar and began to teach himself, Fujita realized that if he worked hard enough, he could learn as well. With his friend’s advice and help, Fujita’s skills improved.
The more Fujita learned to play, the more he fell in love with the guitar. He said his parents would call him for dinner, but he would just ignore them and keep practicing.
Playing guitar for so long has taught Fujita the skills necessary to advance his guitar playing abilities. While many people dive into learning guitar through trying to play full songs right away, Fujita strongly advises guitar players new and old to review the basics, like the chromatic scale, even if just for five minutes a day.
“It’s kinda boring stuff, but it works,” he said. “Then you improve your foundations, so when you make music you have enough ability to improve.”
Fujita grew up listening to bands like Led Zepplin and The Beatles and was inspired by their music. Fujita recounted bringing 50 tapes and a tape recorder on a high school trip, saying he “drove everyone nuts” playing music all the time. “I can’t go without tapes,” said Fujita. “That’s my life.”
Although he spoke no English, Fujita came to the United States at age 21 with a dream of playing music. Fujita attended Berklee School of Music, where he would eventually go on to become a teacher. One of his most well-known pupils was the popular singer/songwriter John Mayer whom he taught in 1997.
Fujita demonstrated a number of different playing techniques, including “slap”, a difficult method he explained for the crowd. Fujita warned the crowd that some of these techniques took years to master, but also emphasized that “you just learn something and you take something from it to make it your own.” Fujita mentioned that even John Mayer had difficulty learning the “slap” technique, so Mayer created his own technique which he then used to write his song “Neon”.
Although Fujita focuses his musical career playing with his trio in the United States, he hasn’t forgotten his native country, Japan, and he occasionally returns there to tour.
“I’m thankful that I play guitar and I make a living,” he said. “I never thought this was possible, but it is possible if you have a big dream.”
Want to see Fujita’s performance at WHS? Check out the video here.
