Hey i'm new here and i just feel like posting this....
When i started getting into the punk rock scene(thankfully since then i have broadened my musical tastes rather widely), something made me want to pick up a guitar. Coming from a musically inclined family, i think it might have been my natural instinct to desire to play the guitar. So in 2003, i got a shitty electric guitar for christmas, but hey it was a guitar. As a beginner guitarist, i did not know all about the theory that goes into music, it almost felt like a different world. I was too caught up playing power chords along to blink 182 and printing out tabs for all their songs. I definitely started off on the wrong note. Now as i look back on my beginnings as a guitarist, i feel agonized at the fact that i did not sit down and learn my instrument and the basis behind theory and scales while i was learning the guitar. I had a set goal for myself when i first got the guitar. I always told myself that i wanted to be a self-taught guitarist. Little did i know i was hardly teaching myself at all. Therefore, now i am picking my brain apart, and teaching myself my instrument. Punk music is fun and everything, but half of the guitarists actually playing dont know what their playing, why it sounds good, and how it was figured out. My goal is to know my instrument like the back of my hand. My mentality before discovering this whole other side to guitar was all about technique and making myself appear like a good guitarist. However, i have come to find out that knowledge yields technique, and knowledge can only be obtained through reading anything and everything about the guitar. I believe a good guitarist is a guitarist who knows their instrument well, not one who can play the latest riff in that new punk song thats all over the airwaves.....eehh...i was so young and stupid....
Think of it this way: you spent your first 19 months with the instrument getting comfortable with it, and now you're ready to put in some work and get to know it well. Perhaps you needed that time to play with it before taking on all the complications presented when you're learning theory.
It's great that you're seeing that there's more to learning an instrument then just playing songs, but don't get carried away with theory either.
Don't get me wrong, theory is great, but it's very easy to get overwhelmed with it. I've actually found out that i've been a little overwhelmed because I noticed that it was practically the only thing i was focusing on. So just remember that theory is a collection of information gathered from past composers and musicians, it's not rules set in stone and also theory ALONE will not make you completely understand the guitar... a combination of many different aspects of guitar playing (technique, theory, having a good repertoire, etc.) is necessary to master the guitar.
On last thing, if you have the ability to do so, I would take lessons from a teacher because you'll be amazed at how much you can improve even after just a couple of lessons.
Steve-0
