NEW HERE AND AT PLAYING THE GUITAR

Hey, welcome to the family. If you check out the Public books from the nav tabs above there are plenty of books with loads of good beginners songs in them. Depends what you like. Old stuff, new stuff. There's plenty off choice in the index.

Good luck and most of all............ enjoy!

Start with a simple song with open chords and not too many chords. Like knocking on heavens door. It goes G,D,C,C-G,D,Am,Am you know thats easy.

Don't think you're going to play like Clapton or Malmsteen by tomorrow.  There's been a bunch of folks write in to say, "I've been playing for a year but I still can't ...."  Well no kidding.  You've only been playing a year. 

So, if you're brand new, then I would suggest that you set some REASONABLE goals for yourself for short duration.  Something along the lines of within one month be able to strum the G and D chords cleanly.  Within three months, add G7, A, Am, E, E7, and C to that list.  With those chords, you're ready for songs. 

That's not to say you shouldn't START by trying to play songs.  Note that the goal is to play those chords CLEANLY.  Start by playing songs with a few open chords knowing full well that they're going to sound muddy and you're going to be slow getting from chord to chord. 

By the end of the first year, being able to play those chords cleanly and being able to get between them smoothly at a slow, constant tempo, and I'd say that you had a very successful first year at learning to play guitar.

The item that I hate the most and has helped me the most is a metronome.  Learn to play at a constant tempo (except, of course, when the song's tempo is supposed to change).  If you mix in a metronome to your practicing in the first year, and can strum open chords and get between them smoothly and in time, then you've done super, exceptionally, wonderfully well.   The point is, take it easy on yourself.  There is no short way to good guitar playing.  It takes consistent practice.  Probably 15 minutes a day every day to start, but very soon afterwards you should be bumping that up to 30 minutes.  And hopefully very soon after that you'll be making progress and will discover that what used to be 15 minutes of torture turns into a whole evening whipping by leaving you wondering where the time went.  And with really sore fingertips. 

From there, the world is your oyster.

i have been playing for only a year start off with knocking on heavens door which is dd/uud or every rose has its thorn dd/dudu/ud easy to play

Hey killer!
Don't sweat it, it will come. Here is a system I use for my pupils. It's really geared more towards electric players so you could make little changes to suit accoustic better. But hey, an axe is an axe, jump in there and go for it!

I think you should first learn to  make barre chords (cause then you can make ANY chord by moving you hand up or down the neck or by liftin or adding a finger), learn a few movable scales (your hands are already in position when you make your barre chord) and learn your open chords which sound soooooo sweet on a 12 string.
That sounds like a lot but heres a good method:
1)Start with power chords useing the E, A and D strings. If it feels like a strain or an awkward stretch thats because it is. Don't worry, it will be second nature fairly soon.
2)While you are mastering that, start working on the minor scale it is easy and very versitile
3)As you are learning those 2 things, pick an open chord to learn. Practice making it until you can play it clear and clean with no buzz or muffled sounds (assuming the condition of you guitar doesn't cause those sounds.) Practice going from power chords to your open chord quickly and smoothly. As you learn each chord add another and another.
4)Once you have mastered step 1, make the same power chords on the A, D and G strings.
5)By now you should have your minor scale down pretty good. If not, it's ok keep working at it. Now you can add the major scale, also very simple and very versitile.
6)By this time you probably have some hand streangth, mobility, dexterity. You will need all theese thing because now we move to barre chords. Remember your power chords? geuss what? thats half of a barre chord. Just barre that finger accross all the strings (if you aren't allready) and add or lift your middle finger or pinky. Take your time and do it clean and smooth.
7)get in a band and show off your mad guitar skills! Don't forget to pick up little things from others on the way.

Hope it helps! Some of the accoustic players here will be able to help adjust it to instruments of the non powered type.

"Nobody paints by ear so why would I play guitar by sight?"

Hi sixty19 and welcome to Chordie.

Check out this guy's beginners course offered for free on his site and youtube videos. Justin Sandercoe. Very helpful to me when I was re-learning the guitar. Good luck and have fun!

http://www.justinguitar.com/html/beginners.html

hi sixty19,
good luck and have much fun on this side

Best advice I can give is something I wish I was told when I started learning. (and I have only been playing for about 2 years). Learn your open chords with finger positions that allow ease in making barre chords or ease in moving to other open chords. By this I mean;

Normal fingers used to form the open "E" chord is the index, middle and ring. By learning to form the open "E" with your middle, ring and pinky. This allows you to hold these fingers down, slide them down 2 frets, barre the first fret with your index finger and you now are playing an "F" chord. Move everything down 2 more frets and you now have a "G" chord.

The same principle can be used  with the open "A" chord. Even the more difficult "D" & "G" shaped open chords chords are easier to make a moveable barre chord by using your middle, ring and pinky fingers to form then. (this also works with the open "Am" chords, too. This is why barre chords are called "moveable chords"

Learn "anchor" positions for your fingers that also allow ease in moving between chords. An example of this (and there are many others) is any song with the chord progerssion of "C", "F" and "G". When you form the open "C" chord your ring finger
becomes anchored on the 3rd fret, second string (root note "C"). By leaving your ring finger on this string and sliding it down to the 4th fret and forming a "E" shaped barre chord you are now playing an "F" chord. Next, leave the ring finger down slide everything down 2 frets and you have a "G" chord". Now you can play a complete song with the chord progerssion of "C", "F" and "G" and never have to lift your ring finger fron the neck of your guitar. And there are many more chord progressions that this will apply to.

Hope I did not make too big of a mess in my discription. Anyway, I'm still learning, too.

Nela