My little addition to the convo is this > Learn the Pentatonic scale. It is overwhelmingly at the basis of most current, popular music solos (Rock, Pop, Metal, Country). It is the meat and potatoes.
To use it, learn what makes the root of a rhythm pattern and how the Pentatonic relates to the pattern.
1. Learn about root chords
2. Learn the Pentatonic scale
3. Learn how to overlay the Pentatonic scale over a pattern
After that, it gets all fancy but most guitars players get a HUGE distance just by having that much and that's not too complicated.
Hope that helps.
