Originally Posted by: greg65 Tried learning a few new songs but my technique isn't good enough to play the ones I really want, it's frustrating, what am I doing wrong? any advice would be great.

As Maggior says, it really helps to set clear defined goals... which songs do you want to learn? Let us know, and we can probably steer you in the right direction. I'd give you a bunch more advice for getting out of a rut, but I'd like to wait until we hear about your goals. Sometimes it takes just sitting and really thinking things through to define your true goals. So for example, wanting to play a song ("I would like to play 'Comfortably Numb') is quite different than wanting to be able to play like you hear in a song ("I wish I could solo like David Gilmour does, I love his style"). Neither goal is "right" or "wrong", it all depends on what you're after.

Its easy to be chasing after something that you think will give you a result, only to realize that you've been barking up the wrong tree the whole time.

Regarding the "CAGED" system that fretsmith mentions (and yep, they do cover it on this site), MIT used to teach that system, but "updated" it to a system that is based on five octave shapes that repeat across the fretboard. I investigated both methods, and found the octave system much easier to understand than CAGED, but there are people who find the CAGED system easier. The important thing to realize is that both systems are just different explanations of the exact same thing... they are both just methods of explaining a way to visualize the 5 major scale patterns across the fretboard, so if you find yourself preferring one method over another, you don't have to worry that you're missing anything.

Another thing I'll quickly mention is the Guitar Fretboard Workbook which I've recommended to a few people here on GT. The video lessons here are great (I was full member for over a year) but there are times where looking a diagrams is more helpful than watching a video of the fretboard.

But we're getting way ahead of ourselves here... back to your original post, if you could tell us what songs you'd like to learn and why, or any other goals you have, then that's when people can offer the best advice.