Why can't I just learn songs?

This is a common question.

Let's face it. The reason we learn guitar is to play songs. Who wants to play boring old scales? In my first few years as a young teen I learnt many songs. Badly. I couldn't understand why the kid down the street who started after I did and was 5 years younger was better than I. I needed to know. Well it turned out he had a teacher where I was trying to teach myself. I actually knew many more songs than he did but his technique, feel and sound were superior. So I got myself a teacher and within months my playing took off. The reason was mostly to do with motor skill development. I had plenty of songs and riffs up my sleeve when I started lessons but my motor skills were poor. My teacher was able to transform my playing within months through skill development exercises.

Let me use an example we can almost all relate to. Typing. My guess is around 80% or more of us go out and buy a keyboard and never learn to type. Most of us spend anywhere from one hour to 10 hours a day on a keyboard yet we still never learn the actual skill of typing. We literally waste hundreds of hours every year because we take 5 times longer to type something compared with someone who has mastered the skill of typing. Why? Because all we want to do is write emails. We don't want to learn to TYPE! How boring.

But it does seems kind of ridiculous to not spend a few months learning typing to save hundreds if not thousands of hours. This is exactly what happens if you learn songs on guitar while ignoring the motor skill development. I am not suggesting you won't become a good guitarist just playing songs. You certainly can but like the person who doesn't learn to type you will just take a lot longer to do it. Trust me on this. Develop those motor skills and I absolutely guarantee you will never regret you did.