Originally Posted by: haghj500Wow musically you've grown a lot in this thread! My guitar teacher was my brother in-law. He had already been out on the band circuit and left from burn out. I had to be able to make open chords as he said them before he started giving me songs. He said your not ready to learn songs if you still have to stare at your hands to make chords and can't make them fast enough to stay in time with the music. It couldn't argue with that, so I leaned them.

If you stay with what you said and learn them before moving on it will help you more than you understand at this time. You will have a real chance to work on your rhythm because you can form the chords fast enough that you don't have to stop your right hand and wait for your left hand to do it's thing.

I'll second the importance of learning good rhythm guitar and chording technique. I spent a couple of years playing acoustic guitar in a church group just strumming chords. My playing in general was greatly improved by the experience...even my lead playing. It *really* surprised me! Not saying you need to join an acoustic group, just don't dismiss the importance of playing chords and rhythm guitar in general.

If you walk into a group of people to play with and say "I only play lead" it's a major turn-off for the other players. A guy with the bunch I'm playing with currently is like this. You don't want to be "that guy" :-).

Glad to hear you got over your funk. There will be ups and downs, and you are learning how to deal with them.