Just learning how to play

The only thing that is going to help you learn faster is to practice every day.  There are no shortcuts. You have to train your hands and your mind. Be patient and persistent, and you'll be fine.

Start with chords.  Start with these five chords.

C A G E D

Everything else will fall out of that.

Jerome is right.Be patient and don`t get discouraged.Eventually it will come to you and the pain will disappear.If you have any friends or family that play,ask them for tips.Most guitarists will be more than happy to answer any questions.When I first started learning,I would ask questions.Only once did I run into a player with a snotty atitude.Almost every time they handed me their guitars and said go ahead.I do the same with mine now if someone asks how it is.Then in time you will be handing yours to someone and letting them try it.It feels good

Welcome to the site winky,all the post above point too good places too start,youMight also Try Jamplay advetised here,I have heard alot of good about them.

Justinguitar.com and the beginner's program there.  Practice every day.  In the early stages, frequent short practices are better for retaining what you've learned than long infrequent sessions. 

Good luck and have fun. 

- Zurf

Good tips above!  I'll third justinguitar.com as well.  Remember, your fingers will hurt so just slow down a little but keep at it until the callouses are built up and you'll be grooving along in a couple months!  Welcome to chordie!

tfsails,

i'm guessing that by bending you are referring to the practice of speeding up or slowing down a recording to (usually) make the vocals sound better? it's normally a tape thing that knocks the tuning out, i wouldn't have thought that with digital recording it would de-tune.

the beatles did a lot of that to either give a song more "poke" or maybe just confuse we strummer's who try to play along. whichever way you look at it, it's annoying. but it's their song and their recording....catch 22?

Another tip: Keep the guitar accessible.  Buy a guitar stand for it and put the stand wherever you park your butt during the evening. Leave the guitar there.  Guitars that are easy to pick up will get played more often, making it much simpler to practice whenever you feel like it.   If you have to haul it out of it's case every time, it becomes a chore.

Lost of good tips here.  I've only been playing "seriously" for a couple of years but the best advice I would give a new guitarist include a couple of points I've already seen on this thread:

1.  Learn the difference between practicing and playing.  Make sure you PRACTICE a lot, and then break up your practice sessions by playing just to keep it fun and remind yourself why you are practicing.

2.  Keep your guitar accessible and grab it during commercials.

3.  Learn good habits early, and they are probably not something you can teach yourself because at this point you don't know what you don't know.  If you can, invest in a couple of months worth of lessons.  This isn't absolutely necessary, but bad habits become VERY hard to break.  I learned more in a month from an instructor than I did in two years by myself and the internet.

Enjoy the journey.

'Nom

Welcome to Chordie Winky.  Lots of good advice here. Practice, practice and more practice. Your fingers may get sore but that will pass. Enjoy your new Ibanez.