I tried learning guitar from the Mel Bay folk guitar book. It wasn't working. I had had a few piano lessons and knew a little theory, just like you, Rob.

I went back the music store and bought a classical guitar book. With it, I was able to understand the instrument better and to build the chord I wanted by placing one finger at a time. Thus, I could play arpeggios well before I could strum.

Rob, you mentioned playing tunes. Were you aware that a classical guitarist thinks of a scale as being a block of frets within a small area of the neck? In the folk world there is a kind of playing called 'Carter style' which goes way up and down the neck, and I suspect it's actually pretty inefficient.