ive been playin for nearly 6 years now i pratice at least 6 hours everyday everything from simple power cord's to solos from slash to kirt kammit, but you always sound good playn someone else's solo's,it's only until you come up with your own solo and think yea that sounds **** hot that u know that your good and you dont have to play really fast to be a skilled player your can still sound great by playn slow heart felt solo's but it dosnt hurt to through in some hammer on's and pull off's,and i had a seroius case of tennis elbow there last year the bset thing to avoid getting it is to always warm up first do a few scales or sometin before trying some sort of blistering solos cause it will seroiusly hurt and can cause maijor damage for life

keep on praticing u can only get better