Hey & welcome to GT, Tony!

Originally Posted by: tonypashigian

I joined last year but didn't really start using GT until sometime this year. I'm hoping to find a way to stitch all this together to be able to sit at a camp fire or in front of an amp and sound interesting for 30 minutes or so.[/quote][p]You need to acquire a vocabulary, a list of skills & ideas that you can count on. Things you've done so many times, through repetitious practice, that they are second nature.

Then you need to apply those skills & ideas to learning a repertoire of songs.

The good news is that you can do that at GT.

[br][quote=tonypashigian][p]I feel like I have a bunch of puzzle pieces but don't know how to put them together to just play music. Chords, GT lessons, scales, 12 bar, etc...I have GOT to figure out how to turn it into music.

You've got exactly the right idea! It sounds like you have some skills, but need to turn those skills into songs.

There are 3 primary categories of tutorials on GT.

1. Core Learning System. This is an integrated step by step curriculum of lessons that start at absolute beginner. If the Fundamentals are too simple & you already know all that, then dive into one of the style courses.

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

2. Song Catalog. This is all the songs GT has the secured the rights to teach.

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

3. Instructor Directories. These are more specialized topics, sometimes organized in sub-categories. You can view the instructors & their specialty here. This is where you dive deeper into the skills & ideas that taught in the courses.

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

For example, I have over a thousand lesson on various topics, organized by topic or focus.

https://www.guitartricks.com/instructor.php?input=155014

We encourage all beginners to work through the Fundamentals courses, then the style course of their choice. If your knowledge & skill level is beyond the Fundamentals material, then skip to the styles!

At any level you should look for songs you enjoy, want to play & are close to your skill level. Because that's what you do at a campfire, or in front of an amp for fun. That's why we practice all those chords, scales, progressions. Because those are the tools we will use when we play songs. But learning songs is a separate step. Making the time to learn the sections of a song, the chord progression, riffs, fills, etc. is a whole process in itself. And then learning a repertoire of songs takes time also!

You can build & expand you skill set in the process of learning songs, but without a solid foundation of skills, you can't even start to learn to learn some songs! So, it's important to be objective & honest with yourself about your current skill level. That's why working through a course is helpful. At some point you hit a wall & that's where you need to work on your skill set. So be prepared to be patient with yourself & practice a whole lot!

If you have a question about a certain topic, or how to do some skill, please ask! The GT database of lessons is enormous! That's one reason the forum is here, to help you find the resources you desire.

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