Originally Posted by mr dave

chopped the quote for simplicity but i'll touch on everything.

learning to read tab will make it SIGNIFICANTLY easier to find new material to play along with. it won't teach you the intricacies of creating music but it does provide a simple method to expand your playing catalog. unless you plan on learning other instruments learning to read music over tab is kind of futile. it's almost impossible to find a guitar book that doesn't have both listed unless it's something like '1001 classic campfire songs' which would just have chord charts instead (G,C,D for the verses, A,D,E for the choruses, etc.)

personally the idea of repeating scales makes my skin crawl, why repeat scales when you could just play along to Black Dog instead and still practice the same skills? whatever though, i'm hardly the most standard guitarist either.

you say you want to learn music, how do you define it? it's different for everyone. for some it's rebellion, or a vehicle to spread a message, for others a plea for attention, personally it was a cathartic release for me and my friends while we dealt with demons from our formative years.

don't take this the wrong way but based on your posts you seem to be associating your sense of satisfaction with technical progress. you imply that you get bored when there's nothing new left to learn. that wall will always be there. which brings us to the last thing you said (with which i wholeheartedly agree) - HAVE FUN WITH IT. that is - by far - the most important thing to remember when playing music. everything else is just noise.

also reminds me of a Jimmy Page interview from back in the day. he went on to say that he never EVER wrote complicated guitar parts, he wrote whatever felt easiest for him to play - so he could have fun.