Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

Hi Tomo and all guitar players on this forum
Thanks for all the great input and advice that can be found here!

I have a question.
After practicing a certain song or technique I often find it hard to know when to move forward to a new area.
For the last two days (30 minutes each day) I have been working on the rhythm guitar part to Isn't she lovely. Yesterday I felt like I nailed the rhythm part.
Today I decided to record myself (video and audio) using the original song as a backing track. The song is over 6 minutes long and after about 3 minutes my playing got sloppy.
Here's my question, should I continue to practice the song until I can play it on a performance level or should I move on and learn something different?
I often find myself in this situation. How do I know when to move forward?
/Martin

Hey Martin!

Your hands are just like your body. If you are running and getting tired too quickly it means that you need to first stretch, warm up, and do some more training until you you can run for longer without getting tired.
Guitar is the same. If you are getting tired you should focus on that exercise for longer and everyday of possible. Everyday before I start I do the 3 things Tomo suggested. Chromatic to warm up, triads to remember and rhythm guitar to build up the muscles.
Your muscles will gain strength, you will start playing with less effort as well.
When you are running and you realise how important is to breathe correctly and how much difference it does on your performance it makes everything much easier. What I want to say is that maybe you should have a look at your technique and see if you could be playing the same thing more effortlessly.

Stay safe.

Cheers!

Here is Tomo's reply to Martin:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom.

"I would work on a lot of details. I prefer that you stay on (or go back to) simple things. If something is not working, practice at a slower tempo. As for rhythm guitar, I practice something every day!! Even 5 to 15 minutes helps a lot.

"It is great to learn that you are recording yourself! That’s the only way to understand your playing skill. Whenever you feel that your playing is sloppy, go back a few steps. I recommend that you practice the R 3 7 swing groove more, so that your other performances will get better!"