Originally Posted by Gavin B.

I'm going to sound like a nagging schoolmaster, but learn to sight read music and study basic music theory. Nearly every great musician has done this, with the rare exception of a handful of musical savants like Coltrane. But you're probably not John Coltrane, no matter how many people tell you that you're a musical genius.

Seek out a musical mentor, even if you have to pay that person for lessons. I moved 900 miles away to a strange city at age 19 to take guitar lessons from a player I admired. I drove a cab & lived in a hovel for 2 years because I was spending half my income on guitar lessons.

I never became rich or famous but I learned everything I know about music over the course of 120 lessons from Eric Schoenberg. You never discover how ignorant you really are until you take lessons from a musical master.