Teaching myself

I started with a recording of a song I wanted to learn. I played the record and found the first note on my guitar, played it again and found the second note. Kept at it until I found them all. It took two days to figure out my first song. I sped up with repitition and now, after copying the lyrics, I can find lead and chords to most tunes in just a few minutes.

Beamer I like the big smily guitar player you put up with your post. We do have a whole section of chords here at chordie.I think they are in the resources area.

As dino48 mentioned, there's a very good chord chart right here on Chordie:

http://www.ww.chordie.com/chords.php

I'm also self-taught, and found that playing along with a few favorite songs is a great way to get the rhythym, timing, strumming, etc. to work smoother. A lot of folk music tends to be a bit simpler in structure as the message of the lyrics is the real focal point. Pick a few favs that you are familiar with, look up the chords for the song(s) here, and play along. Practice will make everything move along smoother with time.

Welcome to Chordie, and welcome to the awesome world of the guitar!

Normally, a teacher would feed this info to you a bit at a time.
Since you asked, I will provide tips from years of  learning
from teachers, books, and other musicians, as well as the great
You Tube, leaving it up to you to incorporate these habits, prioritize,
and even ignore. Other players, feel free to correct, since I am
self taught, but diligent.
1) Most under stressed point, pick up and down. Best place to get
into the habit is with scales and strum patterns. You don't realize
the long term implications for years, then it sinks in. It is
about complex rhythms. When you fall out of a tree, you don't
necessarily have to hit every branch on the way down.
2) Press the string straight down with the tip of the finger.
The force vector goes straight into the top of the finger, like
a torture. Curl your hand up and around so the finger is above
the string. If you get serious, get a good guitar, easier to play.
3) Use all four fingers of the left hand, meaning, use the pinky.
There are six practical positions on a guitar, each covering
four to six frets, counting position five, frets 12-16. These
will be the "modes," made famous by the internet. When you  learn
those modes (most people start with a pentatonic) use all four
fingers and stay loose, not bound to the position. The dots on the
neck show the positions, but once you get the roots of the keys
you want to play, your hand position becomes kind of common
sense. For example, if you are playing in C and find yourself in
position five, you want your pinky to travel between frets 12 and 13,
not fret 11.  I warned you I was going to dump a lot on you at once.
4) Take advantage of computer programs and karaoke style backing
tracks. They will force you to keep at it.
Hope some of this helps.

hi 77, welcome, i'm not dyslexic, though you wouldn't think it, it took me 4 tries to get dyslexic right! i learnt my chords from chord windows when i started playing, in those days you had to buy a book (as opposed to the net). the one i got was "tune in a day" and it showed you how to play various standards. after learning the shapes i learnt the symbols (chord names) eg A-D-E etc.

at 15 i would race home from work and learn a new key, unlike most on chordie i found G to be my nemesis. i've got it now as most of what i do is in the key of G!

maybe it's because i was a motor mechanic that i never suffered with bleeding fingers!

keep at it and you will get there.

phill

Yeah looks like they are forum spamming that link: https://www.google.com/#q=http%3A%2F%2F … msRLQOKAKU