Guitar is not "taught".....it is "felt".

Some mechanics are taught, sure.....but the music must be "felt" somewhere deep inside the player for it to sound like "real guitar" when he puts it to the fretboard.

I have three pieces of advice:

1: Dont try to learn on a cheap guitar. They are too hard to play and sound like carp anyway. You'll only give up.

2. Learn your chords. ALL of them..in each position. You can NEVER play an effective riff unless you know your chords. All great players use their chords as a basis of their riffs. The ones that dont, sound like amateurs...because they ARE, no matter how long they've played.

3. Just as in playing pool....a guitar is meant to be STROKED.....not POKED. If you bang on it, you are NOT a guitar player....you are just a kid, trying to IMITATE a guitar player.
It's not how many notes you play or how fast you play them. It's WHICH notes you play....and when you play them. But most of all it's the notes you DONT play that separates you from the herd.

If you dont feel it in your chest....then dont play it. If you feel that the note HAS to be there...dont play it more than once in a riff, if possible. It doesnt always have to have balance. Letting things hang in mid air is a good thing. Leave it up to the listener's imagination.

I know you're right, OF. I picked it up when I was about 15 and always played by ear. I was just itching to be Jimi Hendrix, and didn't give a hoot in heck about playing chords and had no interest in playing an acoustic.

When the day came that it was an acoustic or nothing (finances and college), I got pretty frustrated trying to play the few clumsy lead lines I had figured out. I had to modify my approach, and I found that chords were my friend. Then I discovered how the feel thing works. You are absolutely right---if you can't feel it, you can't play it (and sound good). A line played with moderate speed and precision sounds way better than something played sloppily and really fast. The acoustic forces you to play cleanly if you want to sound good.

I had to give up guitar playing for about twelve years because of an injury to my left hand back in '96, but have recently picked up electric again. As it turns out, one of the best things that ever happened was when I had to play an acoustic for several years before the injury. That broke a lot of bad habits. If I can get back the dexterity I had back in the old days, I might be able to play something worth hearing one of these days.

I have not played a single note of music in my life but I am musically inclined. I believe very much that you must be able to feel the emotion before you can express it to those around you. The expression could be visually, verbally, or musically.