I have never had a lesson in my life, and i would like to think of myself as a damn good guitarist. I taught myself but i took music theory at school so i got a good understanding of how the music system works. My advice, learn your scales and learn as many chords as you can, and make sure you know what note each fret is. But don't make the mistake of thinking that chords is all there is to it. You said your musical tastes have change since you started playing the guitar...probably a good thing, it shows your actually listening to the way people play guitar and you can define talent from trash. Good luck with it :cool: