One of the best things I've run into is the contextual menu. Say you want to extrude a face... R-click on object > select Face Mode > L-ckick to select face > SHIFT+R-click for the contextual menu > Extrude face. If you're in vertex mode, it gives you options for dealing with vertices and so on. Using SHIFT + R-click will…
Spend some time playing with the various tools, see what they do, how they work. Ask less broad questions, and give Maya's online manual a read now and again
Watch tutorials and follow along. They will quickly teach you content and context of the tools available. Here are some goodies: [ame=" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-3Ujw8pIWM&list=PL3EBD1FFF7FBC0690&feature=plpp_play_all"]BossBunny1 - YouTube[/ame] http://www.youtube.com/user/Pixelbahn/videos?flow=grid&view=1 Goodluck!