[ramonesfreak]

while i would recommend you do get together with your friend to have some fun, dont expect much progress if he is at the same "lack of" skill level as you.

in order to progress by playing with people, you both need to have enough skill to at least play, for example, a 12 bar blues progression so that you can back one another up.

This is how you explore the fret board. Eventually you will see and hear how the notes all fit.

However, if you both stink (no offense) then you may both be running in circles together -- which of course can still be fun but not all that productive. It is much more helpful if you have a good player to mess around with. You will be much more inspired and certain tihngs will rub off on you quickly

Ive been playing for 24 years now. I learned how to play simply by playing over and over, by ear, along with LPs, tapes, CD's, 4-track recordings, watching players, occasionally looking at books to see the scales and chords.

Ultimately, it was the absolute burning desire to want to be a good player that made me a good player. It was and to an extent remains, a total obsession like no other obsession ive ever had.

If you are a bit obsessed with the desire to play well, you will get off your butt, get some reference materials and begin playing often and soon you will see some improvement that will only make your motivation stronger

One technique that I have used to stay interested is to attempt to learn different techniques that I like to listen to. Sometimes I will go into a random alternative tuning period for a year, or I might spend 6 months studying the flatpicking technique of Doc Watson, I may spend 5 weeks playing just open slide tuning ala Muddy Waters.... for the past 2 or 3 years, ive played almost nothing but reggae

explore on the guitar, the types of music you love to listen to and you will find plenty of inspiration to keep you interested for a lifetime