u/ellieserova

I've been learning electric guitar for a couple of months and I want to try playing with other people. There's someone much more skilled than me who is willing to play with/help me learn; he composes his own music but doesn't teach guitar, so I'm trying to figure out what we could actually do together at my level.

My current skillset/inclinations:

— I can play open chords relatively cleanly and switch between the ones I've practiced without losing the rhythm too often.
— I'm learning barre chords, but they're still muddy about half the time.
— I can hold several basic rhythms.
— I can fingerpick a bit.
— I understand intervals theoretically and can find octaves, fifths, and major/minor thirds from a given root.
— I know some notes on the fretboard but can't find them quickly yet.
— My theoretical understanding is ahead of my motor skills.
— I mosfly prefer fingerpicking to strumming.

I'm not really interested in functional harmony. The kind of music I'm drawn to tends to be harmonically complex (Elliott Smith is the clearest example), I'm learning some of it on my own but its not something I would practice with other people just yet. Right now I'm interested in playing together as a kind of musical conversation rather than songwriting/performing. I also tend to panic when I play in front of someone and don't trust my ear very much yet, so I'd like exercises where the point is simply to listen, respond and experiment.

So, if you were working with someone at my level, what two-person exercises/games/activities would you use?

It may be stupidly simple and it doesn't even need to sound good— I want activities that help me connect theory and practice and overcome my freeze response.
I'm also getting some basic looper pedal soon, so any advice about getting where I want with it is very welcome as well.

Basically: if you had a beginner player in a room with you and they asked you to play together, how would you approach that?