Originally Posted by: ZakJenkinsYay for theory.

Learn your note names on the guitar.

Learn your scales, and then learn why they're scales. Learn the patterns for major and minor, learn your note names even more.

Learn how to construct chords, and learn how to name them fully and properly.

Work on modality until you understand the concept.

Learn what chords fit where, and likewise, which chords don't fit where.

Learn how to take a chord that doesn't fit, and use it to express yourself.

Learn all the rules, then proceed to break them in structured way.

That's my advice.

well here are the things I've been studying like for 3 or 4 months (thanks to the internet):

1. note placement in the fretboard
2. i know whats the formula behind major and minor scales, yet i don't know why they're scales.
3. chord construction? is that the "triad" thing where you can extend it? well i have a little idea.
4. i know the different modes, but still i don't get the "concept" and what and where they are used.

things i still don't know and desperate to understand:

1. i don't know what chords to use when i try to make some riffs of my own. i just follow what my ear says - sounds good or not. i don't know what chord fits in a specific place and those that doesn't.

2. rules? what are they?