ok improving technique, first finger exercises. another is to practise the blues scale in closed positionup and down the neck
next plectrum exercisespractising different combinatiuons of down up , next finger picking, try practising thumb melody using c f g shapes, practiose the c scale using pen strings. finally most guitar books do not make it clear that it is not necessary to play all six strings at once start to learn chord shapes on bottom four middle four and top four this is elementary jazz technique