If you've got one of those small bodied guitars that Rick refers to at the beginning of this thread, you might find the imbalance of those heavy enclosed tuners pulling the neck down (see thread on gravity). Call Elderly and order ebony tuning keys. It cuts the weight by 72 grams and really helps balance the guitar. (Looks better too)

Learn the scales in ascending and descending thirds. It will spare you the boredom of do re mi, train your fingers to play progressions as they appear in lots of tunes, and show you how chords appear in keys. When you've mastered thirds move on to fifths--sounds kinda modal.

just some things that have helped me.

John