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Originally Posted by marinoFret
Here's my problem:
I like improvising so much that everything I play is improvised, I improvise all the time! I stopped focusing on learning songs.
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I'm pretty similar. I really enjoy just improvising and noodling about. The danger though is that I can neglect skills that I probably will need at some stage - at least, that's the way I see it.
To take an example - timing. Many new players hate metronomes or anything that seems to force you to play in a rigid and 'rule bound' way. But if we simply avoid the issue it's going to be hard to ever play with other people. So I'm trying to get into the habit of using a drum track some of the time (or even the hated metronome, now and again) and at least adding some structure to my improvising.
Another thing I do is to have a dozen or so simple songs in my working folder. When I sit down I work through them as close to "as written" as possible. One verse, or whatever, is usually all I manage before I start messing around, changing the tempo, experimenting with what else I can do with that chord progression, adding another chord to see what happens, and so on. But at least I'm still working on (and improving) those songs as I go.
I'm hoping to develop both sides - the freedom and creativity of improvising, and the structure and discipline of learning 'by the book'. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I just improvise too much I will start kidding myself that I'm better than I really am. I'm sure that learning set songs and exercises will be useful, and I also feel that it gives me a 'reality check' too.
Good luck with whichever path you choose. It's all good.
Cheers,
Chris