I remember years ago seeing the circle of fifths in a mel bay book and I said, wow somebody took the time to write this down! I was so stupid. I taught myself most everything I know from books and learning songs. I think that is the best way anyway. Learning songs allows you to put it into practice right away and you find out that most songs are very similar in structure and the theory is always evident once you study it a little bit. I think learning songs from the records helped me tremendously with my ear. Having to listen to those Chet Atkins licks over and over and figuring out where he was on the neck etc. What I do now is make up a playlist of songs I don't actually know how to play in BIAB or Real Band using the juke box function and then try to pick the melody based purely on memory. Yesterday I did it using Christmas songs since I already know the tunes basically, so it is just a matter of finding the key and then picking out the melody. It never comes out perfectly, but the idea is to stress your ear and find the notes quickly and accurately. It always helps to sing it out. As I mentioned before that skill is tremendous. All the best guitarist I know, can sing a melody and then play it. Knowing scales in all the positions really helps too. Most popular standards stick to the scales (major or minor) for the most part with only a few outlying notes here and there and those are usually easy to pick out as they give such a unique sound when paired with the chord.

My wife asked if I had seen the dog bowl. I told her I didn't even know he could.