This thread might be a long one. I hope. Now, here's the story ( of billy joe and bobby sue- nah ha- only steve miller fans will get that one). Yeah yeah yeah im 14, blahblahblah, now, im an obsessive at the guitar. OBSESSIVE. just about. getting there. Today my mom threatened to ground me from my guitar, i got really upset, grabbed my Guild, got in my room, slammed the door, locked it, so she wouldnt take my precious guitar away from me. now, chords are relatively easy for me to both learn and play, even like 7th and 9th chords and stuff like that. im at the stage where (hmm...what stage could i call it) its at LEAST intermediate. but definitely not pro or near pro. Most kids my age just wanna **** around on the guitar, while at school 7 hours a day 'in my head' im playing my guitar, when i get home i grab a pepsi and play...im constantly thinking of guitar, have played for less than a year, a little less, but have the hugest craving. so where am i getting at? Well, I want to know how to fill the gaps between where i am at now and say, where Jerry Garcia was. No no no im not asking for 'there is no shortcut' or 'hahahaha!' im completely serious here, i can memorize one scale a day or so ( all across the fretboard) if nessecary, I know the A and G major scales so far. But i just learned G today...A is nice, on a few songs, im not bad at improvising and solo-ing for a 14 year old. But 'solo-ing' isnt really everything in my opinion. To many bands and groups, the solo is when the guitar player is like "yea thats right bitch this is my time" well im not like that, but im for improvisation all the way. I may be thinking too much, but i NEED a goal, a nice goal that might take a while, something for me to be like "yeah i gotta get to this point, gotta do it! you can do it!" its all motivational ( some might think ' is this kid nuts? how much does he think/play/listen/talk/etc about guitar! jeez does he have a life!? the answer is nearly no for the life one, i'd rather sit in my room playing guitar for 5 hours than kill time with friends...). anyways, back on track ( if there was a track on this thread), i'll set this up as a step-solution problem thing. this is for experienced guitar players and semi's alike. hell i want everybody's opinion because this is a community.
what are the best things to learn/master/do REAL good on the guitar?-
1. Chords
2. Solo-ing
3. improvisational lead ( well i know this is important for me but its more of 'how' to get there for this one, and the rest)
4. jamming with others
5. theory
6. fingerpicking ( fun, sounds good too, but bein a dead phan and a phishphan i wonder how important it is...)
7.learnin to read, write, etc.
8. dexterity
9. speed ( kinda goes with dexterity...)
10. rhythm
11. other...
after this, give ways i can improve on this...i posted about this last month, and since last month i have DRASTICLY improved. like, holy ****. i got some words of advice that helped, but more just encouragement. like "Way to go kid your 14 you can play chords." this is the knowledge station right here, i bet llamicofolle (sp?) is gonna have a good answer for this one.