[turnipmonster]

my advice is to forget about learning things from books, tabs or any sort of visual medium, music is a game of the ear.

to develop your ears, play along with some of your favorite records. try to learn the chords and also the melodies. playing melodies is how you learn to solo, playing a solo is really just hearing a melody in your head and playing it on your instrument.

learn to play melodies that you already know really well on guitar, start with something simple like "happy birthday" or a beatles tune. it may be hard/frustrating at first, but eventually you can get to a point where you can play anything you hear right away. nothing magic about this at all, just experience and practice.

also, a great way to get better really fast is to find some people to play with that play better than you. find a good bassist and drummer and rock out.

--turnipmonster