I could use some guidance please

I am a 64 year old recent retiree and life long casual guitarist.  My goal is to get better and I’m not sure what path to take.  I can pick up my acoustical guitar and learn to play many songs.  I have a custom made electric guitar I have left on the stand with the intention to learn how to play lead and riffs but have become frustrated and don’t know where to start.  Should I take a couple steps back and focus on theory and scales?  Private lessons?  Guitar Tricks course?

Thanks in advance for anyone that reads this and would like to share their opinion.  I am ready to do the work,  it as a wise man once said “if you don’t know where you are going, any path will take you there”.

Bests, Shep

It's never too late to rock out and improve your guitar skills, dude! Private lessons or online courses like Guitar Tricks could totally help you find your groove.

Hey & welcome.

This depends on your current skill level (playing technique & theory understanding) & your musical goals.  It's good you want to get better.  But what do you want to get better at?  What can you currently do?  What can't you do that you want to do? 

Learning theory & scales is a great idea, but only if you have the playing skills to make practical use of them.  This is where one of the courses or collection of tutorials will help because the theory & application are taught together.  Your playing skills have to grow along with your conceptual understanding, and vice versa!

You might start by looking through the Fundamentals courses to review & shore up any missing skills or concepts.  Jump in & start practicing when you find something that matches your current level.  If it's all below your level, skip to one of the style courses.  Since you mention lead & riffs, I'm guessing the Rock course is the one you might enjoy the most.

If you can get more precise in your goals I can point you in the right direction!  

Welcome,

if I can just add to what Chris has down, and he will be your best guide btw.

But here is what I would add after studying guitar since 2019 and being older (60) and kind of on the same path as you

You can learn songs, so you have a lot of muscle memory and dexterity already so nothing to do except keep learning more songs. But it doesn't sound like you know why those songs use the chords or licks they use? If this is correct, you need some theory on why the pieces go together the way they do.

And on the topic of licks, a good instructor I had told me to keep a "lick library". These might be licks I made up, or more likely something someone else made up and I can use over and over again if I know the key we are playing in. Why re-invent the wheel. I sometimes enjoy writing songs, but after having written a few I realized they all sound they same and I don't even like playing them once they are written, but its a good exercise to get theory down. 

The last item I would mention is what I would call an over-reach or a deep dive. For the past several months I have studying SRV with a local teacher. This is tough and I will never be able to play like Stevie, but there is so much to learn, I can use some of his technique to improve my playing. And I was not a huge SRV fan before doing this. But when I 1st met with the teacher and went over where I currently was he suggested to make SRV a study and it has been amazing. In fact it's been unbelievable how much it has helped me. So maybe there is someone you would like to study and find out how they played and why they played that way and then use those in your own playing.

So, to me it sounds like you already know how to play, but aren't sure why you are playing what you are playing. Hopefully that doesn't insult you.

Good luck