What you say about not practicing only one thing (the solos) is true. You should make a schedule each week of what you’re goals are gonna be for that week. This practice schedule should include: chords and progressions, scales and licks, and songs. If you can, you can add ear training too (transcribing). Each week you should revise and add new things, delete things that you already learned, keep things you still need to work on, and adapt the schedule to what you think is best.

The slow and steady thing is very true. I’ve spent days trying to get something right and fast, and it was horrible.
What I really recommend is that you learn a lick that you really like, then play it perfectly but on a very low tempo. EXTREMELY LOW. Make sure you don’t make any mistakes on it.
Then, rest on it. I go sleep or take a couple hours off, and when I come back I can play it much better.
That’s just me, though. I never really enjoyed the slow progression thing, but it works at times.

Another tip I have is very simple: DO NOT STRESS YOURSELF OVER SOLOS.
Work yourself up, start with easy songs and licks, then when you feel you’re “ready” start up with a solo. But don’t focus on a single solo for two weeks, by this I mean that you shouldn’t ONLY practice the solo. I did that and when I was done, I could definitely play the solo, but I was sloppy with the rest of the song.

There are two important scales. You can play a lot of styles with these two scales. The first one is the pentatonic scale, which is used to play most classic rock solos; and if you add some notes you have the blues scale! The second one is the major scale, which is great for creating fast licks.

Oh, and learn the basic chords. That’s the first thing beginners should learn.
They’re not that many, just: A,B,C,D,E,F,G, their minor equivalent and their sharp equivalent.
And with that you’ll have the skills to play almost every ballad that you hear on TV .

Great post kev!