What to learn next?

Learn the barre chords.

Waw2002 Tell us what your music goals are, and what style of music like. Then we might can help you a little more.

I agree with musenfreund, it's never to early to learn barre chords.
And here is a speed and string skipping drill , it's helped my playing alot http://guitar.about.com/library/weekly/aa121301a.htm

This is a pretty common problem I think.

The problem most probably comes from the fact you lack objectives.

You need to set out some goals.

For me this means looking at what I want to achieve ultimately.
Then breaking that ultimate goal into small attainable steps.
Then it can be good to forget the ultimate goal, that way you can feel satisfaction when you accomplish your smaller goals.

I personally work on a number of small goals at once. Just sitting, for example, and fretting barre chords all day isn't fun. So you could work on that then some scales. Then, if you want to go down that route, theory and reading music.

Thanks for the help!

I would like to learn to play different styles of guitar (blues, jazz, rock,) on electric and accoustic. I'm going to continue using guitar.about.com and I'm now on the bar chords and easy songs for beginners.

What I most want to do is learn how to play good accoustic. I don't mean just regular strumming at a campfire but for example when I saw Prince in concert this year, he played an accoustic set and it sounded amazing. He played, but also put in bends and other tricks that make it sound so cool. Thats how I want to play, but I don't know what to learn to get to that point.

Thanks again.

I also want to learn how to play electric like the beginning of David Bowie's all the young dudes. I love the sound of that type of guitar, but don't know much about getting the right sound out of an amp. When I play the electric it just doesn't sound right. It's like I'm just playing an accoustic through an amp.

Sorry for the long posts.

Heres the deal: If you can play good acoustic, you can play good electric, and vice versa.

Learn the barre chords, thats very important. You should definitly get a teacher though, especially if jazz is one of your goals, he can help you much more than anyone can, by showing you how to do certain things, and correcting you.

Thanks. I plan on getting a job in the summer, so I'll have money for lessons. besides barre chords, what else should I learn before getting lessons. I don't want to pay big bucks for basic things that I can easily learn on my own.

besides barre chords, what else should I learn before getting lessons. I don't want to pay big bucks for basic things that I can easily learn on my own.

Believe me, when you start taking lessons, you're going to kick yourself when you see all these "basic things you can easily learn on your own" that the teacher gives you :p

The idea of having a teacher is somebody doing exactly what you need right now - guiding you along so you can improve on your style. The complicated things are really basic things that have other different basic things attached to it.

You'll get more comfortable with everything - picking with a plectrum, strumming, barre chords, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, etc. - as you keep playing.

Hell, don't even THINK about solos at this point.

I know you want to (I did when I started!), but just keep them out of your mind for a while. Focus on the little stuff, then build up to great things.

Learn to site read.

It's the hardest thing you'll have to learn, and it is the thing that will open the most doors for you musically.