Hi, I am new to the guitar tricks forum and this is my first post. I think the question that guy has to ask him self is how much of them advanced techniques does he want to practice before he plays his own stuff in a band. You dont have to be like Yangwie or gilbert to start a band, but u can always aim for that, or else u would have nothing left to try. I am similar to u though, I am 20 and started at 16, I can not do sweeped appegios very well yet and am struggling at fast alternate picking but I masterd string skip tapping(by just doing loads of practice slowly speeding up on metronome. Mabey u can give me some tips and the appegios or anyone who reads this, they just sound to blury and distorted and not fast enough any thoughts?