Having taught at Berklee College of Music for over 30 years and helped shape a serial Grammy winner into the guitarist he is today, Tomo Fujita knows what separates a good guitar player from a great one. But he feels being obsessed with reaching the next level is a pitfall that ensnares too many players.
John Mayer, undoubtedly a generational guitar hero, is his most famous student, but Fujita has also imparted his wisdom to Soulive’s Eric Krasno and Lettuce’s funk maverick Adam Smirnoff. Beyond them still, countless other players desperate to make a name for themselves on the electric guitar have passed through his office over the last three decades.
Yet those fresh-faced, highly aspirational players are a stark contrast to Fujita’s zen-like demeanor. He isn’t obsessed with being the best of the best, and he feels other guitarists would benefit from taking a break from the chase and learning to be at peace with their talents.
“No matter your field, you want to do excellently,” he tells Zakk Kuhn in a new interview. “You want to get better. You want to go to the next level. But you can do that too much; always chasing the next level or trying to prove something.
“This is what happened to me. I’d work so hard, then I’d see somebody else, and I’d get disappointed or jealous because they were doing so well. It’s natural. We’re human.”
Fujita once famously told a then-unknown John Mayer to quit college and only return when he’d achieved something as a songwriter. The intention was for Mayer to learn to connect with his music and the messages of his songs, rather than being blindsided by technique and book-smart knowledge.
It proved a pivotal moment in Mayer’s career, and Fujita wants that story to resonate with other players, too. Players need to stop focusing solely on the technical aspects of their craft.
“Balance is important,” he nods. “Just like how you need to eat good food, exercise, and sleep well for your health. So, for my mental health, I started to teach myself not to expect too much, too fast.
“If I have a gig in LA, but there’s a snowstorm, and I have to rebook, years ago, I would be so upset because nothing was happening [with my career],” he continues. “But there’s nothing you can do about the weather; you don’t have to hurry. That’s number one.
“Number two is don’t compare yourself to others,” he adds. “If you look around, then you look at yourself, and you fix something, good. You’ve learned from other people. But you don’t have to put yourself down.
“To this day, I don’t think I’m an amazing guitar player. I always have to work on something. But I’m satisfied as long as I’m just above the middle, not the top. If I try to go to the top, I’ll be disappointed.”
Indeed, one quick scroll on social media and you can find umpteen players who seem leagues above us, the scroller, and that can be devastatingly disheartening. For Fujita, being the best isn’t his goal, because if it were, he’d be fighting a losing battle. It’s about players being kind to themselves first and foremost. In doing so, players can learn to be satisfied with being better than many, and to find their level where they lose sight of others’ virtuosity.
When it comes to improvising and jam sessions, Joe Bonamassa recognizes that the days of mindless shredding are long gone: “It’s so unappealing to watch that go down,” he believes. Once more, his mindset is about taste over a need to assert authority over his peers.
“You wanna make music for music’s sake and not your sake,” he says.
Meanwhile, Mayer has reflected on another huge moment in his career after his label’s dismissal of his songs brought him to tears. What happened next, just as that infamous conversation with Fujita did, would go on to define his career.
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