So I am going to be 49 (*gasp*) in a month! The first time I picked up a guitar, I fell in love. I was 16 and bought some used cheap ass dime store brand from a friend for $20 and stripped it down and put on an EVH frankenstein style paint job. I was the shit. After screwing around with it for about 2 weeks, I put a brand new Ibanez RS550 on layaway (GOD I WISH I still had that guitar!), it was sweet. "Purple Haze" metalic burst with gold trim. Badass. I took lessons from the local guitar store. The first guy was kinda a dud, the second guy basically got paid to let me watch him jam. Gave up on lessons after the third guy and decided I would figure it out myself. After all the lessons, I knew the 5 basic "cowboy chords", and how to form a rock/metal style power chord. Played with those for about 1-2 years, then hung it up after "jamming" (mostly watching) with a few friends and realized I was way behind them.

Fast forward to about 6-8 years ago. A new inde guitar shop opens up in town. I was "in between jobs" (unemployed) at the time, so I stopped in to see if they needed a part time guy or something. Of course I knew they didn't that was just my subconsicence making an excuse to go see what was what. I once again, was in love. It was pure this time I thought. So I asked my wife if she minded that I bought an acoustic guitar, of course she mentioned that I was unemployed and probably not a great time. So I of course did what every man would do: I put it on layaway, including a practice amp! Somehow, she found out and for my birthday surprised me and paid off the layaway! What a cool chick I have, huh?! So I started up again. This time I was armed with YouTube, so many ways to learn! After about 2 months on the acoustic, learning a few more chords and a scale or two, I ran out and bought a used (from the same local shop) Mexican fat strat. Yes, love. But once again, it was very unstructured and the guitars eventually got packed away.

Now, about a week ago I got the itch, AGAIN. Love-hate relationship here for SURE! But this time is different. I have a plan. I have direction. I have structure. I have GUITAR TRICKS! This could quite possibly be, after more than 30 YEARS, the thing that does the trick! I am so grateful to have found this site! I am 4-5 days in, and have burned through the first half of Guitar Fundamentals 1 (I kinda had a headstart)! I work form home, so I even put in 15 minutes on my "lunch" sometimes! This is GREAT!

So that's my story. Not a beginer, but kinda. I will say though, the one thing I wrestle with is "what" to work on. Or better put, what a practice regime should look like. I don't want to keep just working through the lessons, I feel like just "doing" a lesson is just the begining. The tips in "Learning and Practice" lesson are great, but I feel are a little too generic/unstructured. Any tips on this would be appreciated.

Thanks!