I want to echo PeterT's comment--Although from a slightly different perspective--In school,I studied instrumental music parallel to learning folk music and rock and roll from friends, but never found a way, or actually even thought of looking for a way to bridge the two--

I made a mess out of both for years, til I began to play with an old time jazz/club musician who understood guitar technique and music theory really well, and could explain them simply--

The most important thing I learned was to think about what I was doing, rather than just trying to imitate what I thought I heard---it straighted a lot of things out for me, but made me do a lot of work that I didn't know I needed to do--

Still, I regret many years spent running around in circles and learning things half way, often from people who didn't understand them much better than I did--