@nice gaijin , thanks for the informative and insightful post!
Pitch accent may be a little too specific, but, having a baseline understanding of phonology will help immensely with your general accent reduction efforts, so I would dedicate a little time to learn about
IPA and understand what this chart means:
I'll start on it right after I practice the し words I was given, since I haven't even done that yet
once you can recognize the different sounds humans make to speak, focus on
Japanese phonology
Absolutely will!
Phonology is a great tool but it's also a huge black hole of study that can absorb your attention and detract from your language studies.
I agree, for many things like this too. I won't let it take away from what's most important when I'm learning this new language, but I still feel like for me and the way my brain particularly works, it's important for me to confirm what I infer with a solid understanding, and a proper explanation as to why, so I can be confident that I'm doing something correctly even when going off of instinct
pitch accent is often ignored in Japanese studies, because even if you use the wrong accent pattern the context should make it clear what you meant.
The reason I refuse to ignore it is because as an American I know what foreigners sound like... And I know it may sound mean but I'd never want to come to someone else's country, and not properly speak the language as it was intended... Especially if it were like how many foreigners here are, that have been here for many many years, but because of their age (presumably) their accent became permanent, often to the point that it's hard to understand what they mean. I know it probably won't be as extreme in Japanese speech, but I still won't allow myself to have that persona. I won't allow myself to be viewed as someone incapable of native-like speech or stuck in my ways. I also know that even if people don't realize, there's going to be a bias towards people with a heavier accent. And lastly, the memory I always get reminded of when thinking about all this is when my brother was incapable of realizing his pitch accent was wrong. He thought it didn't matter, and didn't see the difference between his pronunciation and the correct one. He stressed words like "GRENade" instead of "grenADE", and that bothered the life out of me... I don't wanna put someone else through that if they're having a conversation with me
He eventually did learn the correct way of pronouncing words though, and I hopefully want to do the same in Japanese, but I promise I won't let it take over the main mission; I think of it as a side quest, but still an important one.
To learn to use pitch accent correctly, all you really need is to listen and imitate how native speakers say things. If you start practicing early on to speak like a native, you will naturally pick up the correct accent for most of the time. Just watch Japanese content with realistic conversations and just try to repeat the spoken lines and mimic the inflection used. You'll also begin to understand--from the context--the ways Japanese speakers express their mood through their voice, which will make it easier for you to express and read emotion in your interactions, so you can better "read the air."
Yes, I have been watching native speakers having conversations and talking generally to themselves as well. I really like this method since it's a more natural approach to learn, like when we hear about little kids picking up English or other languages off of TV shows. But, I still feel like the understanding can reinforce the speech patterns my brain picks up, as well as introducing me to the things I couldn't have picked up, or possibly gotten wrong. Also things that can't be easily caught, corrected, and explained in daily conversation with someone.
Also, as you might know, it's a bit harder than most other cultures to read Japanese emotions
I would definitely need an extra explanation to help me understand how to vibrantly express myself and understand how others are as well. Although in most cases I'm about as expressive as a robot
But yeah, I've been watching a heavy amount of Japanese content, to the point where when I learn a new word, I've almost 100% heard it before, I just didn't know the meaning, but I can clearly recognize it in most speech now. It also reinforces my memory of the meaning when I heard it many times before, so that's really good as well. I even put on conversational videos almost every time I intend on sleeping, and watch a playlist of them till I fall asleep, continuing the videos in my sleep as well. I feel like it's an added benefit to take in auditory content while asleep too, cause it reaches different areas of the brain that might not be so accessible when fully awake
but we'll see 
I'm going to do the し words now, just gotta find them cause silly me is scrolling through the thread still looking for it 
