> Learning to improvise and to write your own songs requires 1,000+ hours of the type of "playing/dancing/exploring" I was mentioning above. You'll learn the th

> Learning to improvise and to write your own songs requires 1,000+ hours of the type of "playing/dancing/exploring" I was mentioning above. You'll learn the theory on the 10% of those 1,000 hours that you are resting and browsing the internet. This has been my experience as well. When I first started I thought I would rush into the theory and that would allow me to improvise, but what was lacking was the playing of songs and getting a feel for the music. Learning the theory was easy -- getting a basketful of songs under my belt and then getting good at playing them took much longer, and required much more effort -- and now improvising comes more naturally, including being able to use use my ears to hear things like keys, intervals and so on. Practice, practice, practice! Learn a lot of different songs well, and fully understand the Circle of 5ths.