Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

As stated on the the advice"Concentrate on the music, and internalize it, so that when you play, you can improvise by drawing from the reservoir inside you".
What do you meam by internalize? Hum the melody?

When it comes to Improvisation , I think he means to really know the melody and chords changes so well (internalize)to be able to make the changes. Anticipating the next chord as you improvise

one way to look at it is how your musical influences & heroes affect the note choices, textures, and overall vibe you create in your playing.

the more you listen to music, the more you discover the things you like, and it becomes part of your vocabulary.

playing isn't just notes, but a cohesive sentence...

you usually start by learning from the people who play the way you hope to play, so when you internalize their playing, you're bringing out your own version of your heroes using the vocabulary you learned from them and putting them through your own filters.

plus, it becomes a unique part of who you are when you can really take in, understand, and mimic the kind of playing you want to emulate.

blending styles together is totally unique.

another way to look at it is...

chances are you like tomo's teaching, but you also probably really like his playing. he can teach you, but it's not the same as listening and developing the skill to play what you hear.

if you can listen to a song and quickly play the same notes/chords on your guitar, you can quickly improvise because you understand what's being played and why.

kind of like a conversation...

if you can't figure out what they're saying, you can't just join in, but if you understand the words and the notes being played, you can probably ease your way into the conversation because you get it and you can contribute a few phrases in there.

Analogies are imperfect, but this may help:

Think about how you learned your native language. You listened. You tried out various words. Then you tried out some phrases. By your fifth birthday, you could create unique sentences and speak fluently, because you had "internalized" the rules of your language. You were not able to define the terms "noun" or "verb" or "adjective," but you knew how to recognize nouns, verbs and adjectives, and how to use them in new sentences.

OK, now think about the first time you learned to sing a song. You did not know the key, and you knew nothing about intervals, scales, modes and so on. You see where this is going . . .

Here is Tomo's comment:

"Thanks so much for subscribing to my Guitar Wisdom. It’s so important for musicians to listen to music -- to focus on every detail, and listen over and over. When you have listened to something so much that you can hear the music clearly, in your imagination, you have "internalized" it. when you have practiced something so much that you can hear what you want to play, before you play it, you have "internalized" it. There is not one simple answer to this question, but I hope you get a sense of the way I think about it."