Tomo Fujita has been a professional guitarist for over thirty years and a faculty member at Berklee College of Music since 1993.

Tomo’s philosophy, distilled into a one-liner, is that music is not just about playing; it’s about emotional expression.  He teaches students to inject emotion into every phrase, whether the style is blues, jazz, funk or rock.

Although he has resided in the United States for three decades, Tomo remains closely connected with musicians and the music business in his native Japan. He visits for a quick tour two or three times each year. Japanese guitar players have bought more than 160,000 copies of his (Japanese language) instructional books and videos.

Tomo has performed with some of the best, including Will Lee, Steve Gadd, Bernard Purdie, Steve Jordan, Susan Tedeschi, Phil Collins, John Mayer, James Gadson, Travis Carlton, James Genus, Kenwood Dennard, Darryl Jones, Lemar Carter, Paul Jackson and Janek Gwizdala. When he is not performing on his own, Tomo likes to sit in with others, like Ronnie Earl, Coco Montoya, Eric Gales, Josh Smith, Kirk Fletcher, and Matt Schofield.

Tomo has been an instructor to many great players over the years. The most famous of his former students is John Mayer. Tomo and John stay in touch to this day. Pictured above is a guitar that John signed for Tomo, next to the factory signature. Check out the video of these guys playing together during John’s 2008 visit to Berklee, in the sidebar.

Tomo also taught Eric Krasno of “Soulive” and Adam (“Shmeeans”) Smirnoff of “Lettuce” at Berklee. And there are three entertaining videos in the sidebar on this page featuring another former Berklee student: Tyler Larson, a shredder who has become an impressive teacher of guitar and music theory.