Self taught guitarists get in here!
 

As a self taught guitarist of 4 years, I can't believe the progress I have made...I remember my very "first self teaching lesson" 4 years ago with a £5 classical guitar that I bought off my mate to see if I would like it...

Trying to hold an A minor and finger picking house of the rising sun using a beginners guitar book and listening to the track at the same time...20 minutes in I almost snapped the guitar in half

4 years later I'm writing my own songs :-)

Anyways I was wondering what are some of strategies you use to constantly get better..

For me I'm at the point where I've learned basic techniques and theory and so now focus my time on artist and style studies

For example I'm currently spending the next couple of months focusing on folk style acoustic guitarists and have just finished learning and breaking down all of ed sheerans songs...my practice schedule is usually to learn the song...break it down and understand the theory...then play with the song and make it my own....once I've done that I will write an original song in the style of ed sheerann...then I will move onto another artist

What do you think? is this a good way to practice as a self taught guitarist...its quite a scientific and experimental approach I find...

The only advice I can give is meet and jam with as many musicians as possible. By the time I had been playing for two years, I had a network of over a hundred talented musicians.

By constantly jamming with different styles and personalities, some classically trained, others self taught - you learn a little bit of everything.

I have 45 years of 'self-teaching' behind me and I'm still learning something new every day, be it about tone production, technique etc. One thing which always helped me was playing with more experienced and competent musicians whenever I could. Being stretched and challenged, rather than staying complacent and static and going over the same old stuff because it's easy, is always beneficial.
I'm still a hack and regret to this day not taking formal music lessons when I was young, learning standard notation and becoming a proper musician.

thats a good point you make...being self taught whenever I pick my guitar up the first thing my hand does is form an E chord and I start playing some blues licks over an E...this is fine, but I do it everytime, I'm not learning anything new here...

So I force my self to form a C#Minor and start jamming in that key instead, mix it up abit...where as a teacher will have you learning new things all the time, as a self teacher you need to make sure you are doing that

I've been playing since 1975 or so... Self-taught by "book larnin'", hanging out with playing friends and stealing licks, and reading Guitar Player magazine.

I keep stretching things... I'm currently working on fingerstyle jazz.. Chord-melody stuff. Feel like a raw beginner next to the greats, but I occasionally turn out a nice phrase or two....

Well I'm self taught but I wrote the same tune 1691 times to date.
And I'm happy with it.
What to do ?

Yep, that's where 'discipline' comes into the picture, and working within a structured practise regime-away from the couch and TV! (Something I'm often guilty of...)

Started with a plywood Yamaha dread and a few tabs from the internet along with a couple of songbooks about five years ago. I've slowly added books as time passed - some more songbooks, a couple of theory books, and I graduated to Travis picking last year. Now I'm learning old school country blues and enjoying the heck out of it. This place has been a wealth of info as well. I could probably get some use out of a few months of lessons, but my work schedule says no to that for now.

I focus on learning new songs and playing with my partner and a few others when I can.

My scope of knowledge is limited but I can do a couple of things very well. I would benefit greatly from lessons but I am too stubborn, lazy or broke to seek them out.

Reminds me of a Jerry Garcia interview from the '70's where he stated he spent an entire year starting every musical passage with his pinky so as to both strengthen his pinky and break out of the rut of his playing routine.