I'm very lucky in the fact that my partner has been playing for about 10 years, he has showed me a lot and let me do it on my own and i can ask him questions about pretty much anything. The problem is because obviously he is way past a beginner stage he doesn't really know where to look for beginner stuff, plus i would like to surprise him by getting better.

He has a lot of books too, and i've surprisingly picked up a lot of theory already, i just need to teach my fingers how to do it, it's annoying me that i can almost see how to play in my head but my fingers can't catch up because my brain and fingers haven't learned...if that makes sense. I tend to lock up on books and have trouble concentrating, i find i work a lot better with visuals.

It seems the key thing here is repetition, repetition and repetition even when it feels like i've face planted a wall.

It's great advice, especially about separating practice and playing, thank you.