itsukoii

i started with lessons (then i stopped) and magically got better. to this day, i don't know about theory but i can play some kickass rhythm guitar.

tbh the best way to learn is to challenge yourself if you remain self taught. its really hard for a few months, but after you get past that learning curve, everything becomes a lot easier. stuff you found really hard 3 months ago becomes easy, and stuff that seems impossible soon becomes doable. thats a lot of the fun in learning guitar, once your baseline is laid, a lot of the intermediate stuff comes easier.

i hope this makes some sense. its an unconventional approach, its a lot slower than learning lessons and theory, but in absence of the two, that is what has worked for me in the past 4 years.

yes omg thank u so much!!  @emmny

different things work for different people so it's cool to get ideas and possibly combine multiple methods together to find the best one for me.

i guess i just don't really know what i should be practicing ?? like did you start with tabs of songs you like, or ??

I'm no virtuoso to be sure but when I first started I learned a lot of 3 chord punk songs, or big 4 chord pop progressions. I did learn how to read tabs but that's really it. I was never out to be a lead guitarist though, I only picked it up to fill in rhythm in the bands I was in or to write basic melodies for demos. So if you're looking for higher level expertise I can only recommend youtube for some free lessons because you can find basically everything there. That's where I go to figure out something that stumps me and have it explained.