[Ben1101]

Hi,

I've been playing guitar on and off for the best part of 5 years, teaching myself songs via tabs online. I like the fingerpicking style and have learnt a few songs from artists like John Mayer, Ben Howard, Bert Jansch & some of Sungha Jung's arrangements of songs.

I'm at a stage now that whenever I pick up my guitar I play the same few songs, or parts of songs over and over again and It's driving me mad. Even when I'm learning new songs I seem to always resort back to playing the same stuff after 10 minutes.

I got bought a Martin GPCPA5 and It's helped me decide that I want to progress more with my learning rather than just play the same stuff as I seem to be stuck in a stage without gaining any other knowledge other than just learning a new song by following a tab. Ideally I'd like to be able to jam along with other guitarists without having to first spend weeks learning the same songs.

Do any of you have any suggestions on what I should do to start? I did go through a stage of learning music theory but after getting told by a few other guitarist that it's possibly not the best way to get where I went, I stopped.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!