Hey & welcome to GT! You got some great replies. I'm just here to reinforce them!

Originally Posted by: jragsdale9

I have been "playing" for around 10 years. I know a thing or two but after all this time I don't feel like I really "know" how to play guitar.

The best place to start is one of the guided curriculum courses. Have a look at this page.

https://www.guitartricks.com/beginner.php

I encourage everyone to work through the fundamentals. Even if you already know all or most of it, it will shore up any weak spots in your knowledge & skills. You might just click through & watch some of GF 1 to make sure you already know it all. Then have a more serious look at GF 2. You will learn barre chords, how to read music notation & single note melodies. Those skills are crucial & will serve you well for as long as you play guitar, no matter what style you play.

If all that is too simple for you, then jump into a style course! Blues, Country or Rock course!

And don't forget to look for songs that you want to learn.

https://www.guitartricks.com/songs.php[br]

In general, your conceptual knowledge (theory) & your physical ability to play the guitar (practice) should keep pace with each other. The best way to do this at GT is to use one of the courses! The best part about using the courses is that you will learn the right amount of theory in the right order as you gain skills & practice applying those concepts, as you progress along in the courses.

It's important to keep your theory & practice levels close. Otherwise, you wind up being able to play a bunch of stuff, but it's unintegrated: you don't know what you are doing, or why & how to connect all of it together.

On the other hand, if you know some theory, but you can't actually play anything, then your knowledge isn't helping you at all. What good is a scale if you know all the letters, but can't actually play it on the guitar to make music?

Another option if you already have some skills, is to check out my older fundamentals course that starts with the basics of music theory: intervals, scales, chords, reading music.

It's a great, organized place to start learning theory also!

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=fundamentals2(discontinued)

Hope that helps! Please ask more if necessary & have fun!