So I'm pretty new to the guitar. I've been self-taught for about two years. I play power chords in my church's music service, but I'm really stuck in my pursuit of skill. I have some solid entry-level Fender gear, but no extra money for lessons. What should I do? I really don't know where to go. I know its not gonna be easy ,but the only thing I ask is that all suggestions not require more funds.

What else do you feel you need in your playing?

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

How to Improvise lead riffs over chord changes, Beginner's songwriting, general dexterity and technical proficiency exercises. As far as my genre tastes, contemporary Worship songs, classical rock, blues. I play my pride & joy Blacktop Stratocaster through a Boss Super Overdrive into a Fender Frontman 65R(I know, solid-state, cue groans of disgust). The tone I like is from some thick blues squealing to chunky, but not chuggy power chords.

I'm assuming you don't have prior knowledge on the subjects you mentioned, if that's not the case I apologize ahead of time ^^

Improvising riffs over chord changes: First off it helps to know what key you're working in as well as the chordal structure (major, minor, 7th, etc...). There's a wealth of information on basic music theory, here's a link to a thread on the forum you might find helpful:
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=34223
A book I'd recommend is the Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory. I found it quite helpful as it provides a good basis on all the aspects of theory without sounding overly theoretical ^^
As far as improvisation goes, it's something that's hard to teach. That's a skill gained from practicing and listening. Over time, you'll pick out the notes that work and the ones that don't with certain chords. Knowing the key and the basic scale and chord structure helps in finding the ones that work.

Songwriting: Can't help you there, I suck at songwriting as far as words go ^^ Hopefully somebody else can chime in.

Dexterity and technical proficiency exercises: Pumping Nylon is a book I recommend for this. It is a book consisting of mainly exercises and detailed explanations and diagrams for technique. While it is a classical book, the workouts for the left hand I have found to be very useful. Plus you never know, you may want to play classical someday...
As far as dexterity goes, practice proper warm-up and stretching every time you play. Exercises such as hand grips and stress balls help, pull-ups if you can do them are great for forearms.

Basically the internet has a wealth of information for free (Aside from paying for internet >_>), and books are only $10-20 normally, way cheaper than coughing up $15 for a 20 minute lesson session. Someone in your church might be willing to give lessons too, you never know (maybe you do).

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I traded my car in for a microphone.

There are quite literally dozens-maybe hundreds-of free guitar instructional sites such as www.chordie.com and others that print out tab and chords to hundreds of songs that they have on file.I am solely self taught and I used to get discouraged with my playing/learning from time to time.I found it a great free lesson was just to sit in front of the radio and play along with a station that I liked since most recordings use standard tunings.Doing this type of playing helps keep you on your toes as you try to keep up and after a while it becomes easy.Chordie is just one of the sites available and I'm sure that others will come up with sites that may be even better and more informative.Lots of Luck.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

Songwriting....If only it was that easy.
On this 1st topic I would say write down or record on your smart phone whenever you think of a catchy phrase or something in your day that strikes a note.
I'm not a songwriter per se, but I have written a few things for my own set list.
One reality is that lyricism and musical notation are extremely difficult to create at the same time. One is visual, the other aural, yet both are dependent on one another for effect.
How often do you hear a song or composition where the lyrics are quite clever but the musical notes that accompany the song just fall short.
Think of a song in two parts, say like a vehicle, being the notes and the lyrics being the engine. Or vice versa.

As for where and how to proceed when in a rut ? I don't like that word because it automatically infers failure. More often than not in all aspects of life we find ourselves at a moment that we consider a standstill.
THat is actually an opportunity to branch out. It is a perfect time to try something unconventional, even simple.
By your description I would try playing without effects. Clean where you can hear every note and all it's nuances including the mistakes. Those mistakes, the flubbed notes, are an indication that your technique needs refining. WE all do no matter where we are at in our playing. You could attempt to play in a jazz format, or classical ( not classical rock) but as in classical guitar where technique is paramount.
I warn you that you will find it difficult to challenge your parameters, but after a while you notice that what was at some point difficult has become part of your style and has given you additional tools to use in your playing.

Good Luck

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. Theres some good stuff that I plan to read and some good stuff that I plan to do. Hopefully I'll be able to forge ahead and make some new roads for myself.

Patience...Time...It really is best to spend quality practice time rather than endless repetition.

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"C'est parti mon Kiki "

i suggest 2 books that are very cheap. inside you will find many answers to the questions you have above and tons of answers for questions you dont know to ask yet.
both books are very easy to follow and worth every penny you put into them.

matt smiths chop shop. you will learn more the first week than youve taught yourself in the last 2 yrs.
fretboard logic SE. this book will carry you for 1.5 yrs for sure. after completing these 2 books you will be well rounded and at one with your guitar, able to set in on jams in just about any style and feel comfortable doing so. very easy to read material and well delivered.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

noisemaker, try not to get too frustrated. i too am self taught. after 20+ years of playing, i suffer from some of the same issues. some of this stuff just comes easy to others. for the past year i have practiced at least 5 times a week. i've done some really boring excercises that i used to think were a waste of time. i wish i would have done them when i started.
use the advice above and keep at it.

Thanks, guys. I've looked at some of the books and plan to get a couple of them. They're very reasonably priced and look like good texts to make me a better musician.

I would also highly recommend the free video lessons at www.vanderbilly.com. These have been extremely helpful to me.

Cheers.

Don't forget Fender's on line lessons site.

http://www.fender.com/community/onlinelessons/

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I agree with the magnatone poster.

Also, consider playing another type of guitar (acoustic, bass, etc.). Perhaps if you lack the inspiration or passion at the moment, try a totally different instrument alltogether or a different style of guitar besides the one you currently are focused on. I got bored with electric and turned to acoustic fingerpicking in open G back in the mid 90s, and got bored of that after 6-7 years and returned to the electric. However, I always end up going back to and enjoying the blues.

I was self taught for my first year and I know what it's like when you feel like you hit a brick wall. It happens sometimes. In this case books are your friends, and so are internet forums like this one.

One book which really helped me was Electric Guitar for Dummies. Don't let the name fool you into thinking it's lame, there's actually a lot of good information in it which covers a lot of things.

And keep playing in church, I played in churches constantly from the time between ages 14-17 and it really forced me to improve. Nothing beats real life experience.

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