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I find that some of my biggest improvements in playing have come after putting he guitar down for a while. I've played at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week for the last 25 years except for a few times when I've taken a week or two off. I find that rather than trying to play through plateaus it helps to just take a little break and re-approach the instrument with a fresh head.

I believe this is effective because the process of playing guitar and thinking about music are two totally different things (at least for me). Back when I was learning modes and improvisation, I got caught up too much in the mechanics (learning finger patterns, root notes, arpeggios, scale drills, etc), and didn't learn about/think about musicality nearly enough.

Today I find that I use fewer notes and scales than ever before but my playing sounds a hell of a lot better than it used to 'cuz I'm not just running scale patterns when I solo...and it's largely due to the little breaks I take every few years or so.

Artless I really would not suggest that. Our cabin, picnic tables, my new truck were all coated in embers - they shot out to a radius of 40' or so.

To play on keys or transpose to guitar?

Bdim/E  I like to substitute a diminished chord with the dominant 7th a major third beneath it, omitting root notes. The notes in a Bdim are B D F Ab. Looks a bit like a G7alt, right? (The notes in a G7 are G B D F) . You can play the Bdim/E as a G7 barre chord with a low e root. Also don't play the high e string or use your pinky to fret the Ab on the high e string:
e  x or 4
b  3
g  4
d  3
a  5
e  0

D6b9 I would play as follows:
e  5
b  4
g  4
d  4
a  5
e  x

All that said, the reason Georgia sounds cool with all these funky chords is the voice leading, so if you are just trying to drop in and out of these chords without the correct motion it will probably sound goofy.

Downstrokes only, upstrokes only, alternating downstrokes and upstrokes in quarter notes, eighths and 16th to start.

Then try some drills where the metronome doesnt tick on the quarter note - it ticks on the half note, the whole note, or every other whole note. This will help you internalize tempo.

Mr Wright - what type of music are you playing?

Oh yeah, "I was gonna learn to fly." I walked through the lyrics in my head but I misremembered that line. Oops.

Also:

Taxi by Harry Chapin
Shooting Star by Bad Company
Take The Money And Run - Steve Miller Band
The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Charlie Daniels

Thank you!

NP man - I'm an internet marketer for a living and run some forums and always appreciate when people ask first. You can view the site in question, it's in my profile - if that helps. LMK!

What kind of music? your price range screams "used." Way more bang for your $$$

Artless, you should practice the Am shape without using your index finger. You should also try the G major shape and C major shape w/o your index finger if your hands can make the stretch - it helps build dexterity in the pinky and gives you more barre chord options (I use the C barre fairly regularly...)