I’ve been continually amazed at the number of levels between being able to play and being able to play well. I keep thinking, “I’m just a step away”, and keep discovering new ground opening up as I grasp the most recent step. The concepts begin to converge and become greater than the sum of parts.

My teachers have been the songs. Listen, read, transcribe, add nuances, listen, repeat, play in a different key, switch back to the key it was recorded in, then switch to my key. It used to be a tedious process, but like learning a language, fluency requires reading and writing, knowing where you are and where you are going…like moving to a new town, studying the map, taking the main thoroghfares, and then the side streets and then at some point being able to instinctively move from point to point without thinking. So instead of being a chore…now you’re just out for a drive.

I believe that Mastering the guitar is a matter of mastering yourself, AND knowing AND FEELING the music. Mastering instument, theory, and the emotive component.
Technique is absolutely necessary but not the of all and end all. Some of the most emotive songs are quite simple yet are the most complex because you have to get more out of less. Examples: Chuck Berry, U2, Jimi, Thorougood., Boston..
Others like Elton John, Billy Joel, the Who, rhe Beatles, are tight moving from chord to chord with the movement being the guide for the melody.

There’s the ones who master both technique AND improvisation together as well as Orchestration: Zeppelin, Rush, Floyd…
Then there’s Eddie Van Halen: in a league of his own mastering music theory, orchestration, improvisation, alternate tunings, specialiazed guitars, multiple guitars types and augmentations in a single song. I’d say he’s definitive proof that the instrument can be mastered and that it requires mastering MUSIC conceptually and BEYOND the instrument itself.

The real joy after realizing that the guitar CAN be mastered, is realizing that it is a Voice and Expression of something bigger.
And for me the long process has awakened the joy of discovery and the budding belief that it is a distinct possibility and reality that I’m on that road.