I have been playing acoustic guitar mainly on and off for the last 10 years (self taught) but have never been really serious about improving my playing technique.

The majority of my playing is usually rhythm guitar work (strumming along to songs), with a bit of finger picking thrown in.

I have been avoiding scales and theory because let's face it, many people enjoy the practical side of music than the theory side.

I am at the point now where I feel that I have hit a proverbial brick wall as far progressing musically and that scale/theory work is the only way to step up.

My goal is to be able play (improvisation for one) a variety of styles of music (jazz, rock, blues, etc.) on any guitar and to feel comfortable doing it, e.g. Mattrach (search YouTube) - firstly, is this too lofty goal to reach?  If it is not, what kind of things does one have to practise to get there?

Hello audiblenoise, welcome and good for you, finding the best guitar board of it's kind. I'm not about to suggest to you how to procede because here among us is a Maestro and I'm thinking that when he sees your post, he'll point you in the right direction.

For me though, I've been studying theory every chance I get for the past year and a couple of months. I'm no musical prodigy or anything because of it, but I will say that my improv and understanding of how things work is 1k times clearer now. I too would skip over things I found about scales and theory but now I want it because learning such has set me free to go higher.

A year and a half ago I was playing open chords at the nut and now I'm playing at the 12th fret and higher with no problem, playing chords, scales and I'm beginning to 'invent' riffs and it's getting easier and easier to learn popular riffs. I am on the verge of sight reading tablature. All this, in my opinion, is because I've gone heavy on theory in the past year which has made this possible and more and more I see and hear how everything is connected up so to speak with chords, scales, melody and bass. I could go on and on about this because I've amazed myself at what some help and perseverance has done for me.

GuitarZen

GuitarZen, thank you for your prompt response.

You confirmed the conclusion that I have come to - I must study theory and scales to progress.

In hindsight if I had applied myself to the theory side as much as I had to the practical side I could now have progressed much further than the stage that I am at now 10 years roughly from when I first picked up a guitar.  I feel that this time (10 years) has been wasted and now that I have the determination to progress, don't want to waste any more time.

I am not trying to blow my own trumpet here but the one guitar teacher I have had up until this time said I have talent or gift (bit disbelieving about that) and sometimes I can hear a riff or a tune in my head or have a dream where I hear a song that I'm sure I have not heard before but when it comes to actually writing it down and/or playing when picking up the guitar, there is a big disconnect.  Basically, I'm trying to maximise my potential, a life goal (another term for it).

This whole post probably makes me sound self absorbed / full of myself but posting this is not my intention, just looking for advice/direction...

Well, you're welcome audiblenoise, but shoot, don't take my word for it...totally that is... !

I see what you want though and a year and some ago that's what I wanted too and now I have a ton of it. I can read/write tab fairly well and I am understanding scales more and more and the huge value of them.

Hey, no need to beat yourself up either ... you're ready now and you'll do what you need to...heck man, I'm 61 and I've had a bunch of guitars since I was 9 and I kept selling them/giving them away. Oh geez, this is going to sound sappy...but I started having a dream about playing beautiful finger-style accoustic and in mydream I was confused because I knew I couldn't really play that way but during waking hours and with some inspiration, I bought a guitar and not just to punish my ma...anyway, I'm hitting it hard now...and it's great because I can take the time and work on anything to do with guitar be it theory or honing finger skills. Ok, off the soapbox...y'all will start thinking I'm self absorbed or something !

Hope to hear more from you new guy, you've got good things to say and a mind clean of theory...just kidding...you have to know something about it or you wouldn't have asked !

Added: You might read the thread in Chordbook Main Forum named  "Fundamentals of Music Theory 101"by Old Tele Man. It's lengthy but there's a lot in there you'll have to find out about anyway and then some !

Dreams become reality.

GuitarZen

P.S. Yeah, it's raining !