Thank you for all the responses. 
zguitar is kind of right, I generally just find songs I like, find the music, try to play it, fail and get extremely frustrated.
I see people pick up a guitar and just play. My dad's friend can't even read music and doesn't know chords, he just picks up his guitar and plays how he thinks it's supposed to sound and it's amazing because he's so right.
People can just play like it's second nature and they don't have to think about it.
I know that can't happen overnight, I'm just way too impatient about it, you know?
But thanks for the help, I'll definitely take a look at those websites
1 2010-04-25 18:58:11
Re: Too New To This. (13 replies, posted in Acoustic)
2 2010-04-24 21:46:49
Topic: Too New To This. (13 replies, posted in Acoustic)
Hi, I just joined this site about a half hour ago.
I've been playing guitar for five years, except by 'playing' I mean simple melodies that don't have chords.
Finally got over my fear of chords to realise that I had good reason to be afraid.
It's not that I can't play them.
It's that I can't work out any strumming patterns despite watching numerous videos. And when I do finally get one that works, and slowly, badly, apply it to the correct chords, it sounds absolutely nothing like the song is supposed to sound and I can't seem to keep in the rhythm of strumming with my right hand whilst changing chords with my left hand.
Any ideas on how to improve this?
Most people will say practise, which I have been doing, it just doesn't seem to be paying off so far.
Any advice is appreciated