Great thread and once again a superb contribution by Chris!

Like everything it's all about balance. I've got a general tendency to get side-tracked and for now I'm trying to concentrate on the physical skill involved in playing guitar, something that's compromised my learning in the past.

What I like about this site is that musical principles are linked with playing right from the word go and this is one of its great strengths. It's possible to not want to get side-tracked by too much theory but then realise that along the way you've learned more about theory than you thought you had!

Being able to play expressively is definitely where I want to be but I'm learning music on the way :D