beginner

pagie hang in there someone will point you in the right direction

hi and welcome to chordie and to the guitar learning.

There are a few places online that teach you how to play from scratch.
Chordie advertises one here called PLayjam  www.playjam.com
. there is a section here that tells you about it and reviews. It costs money though, but not as dear as an actual guitar tutor.
Also there are free sites online.

http://www.8notes.com/  this site is very good

and also

http://www.musicmoose.org/index.php?opt … ;Itemid=46

hope these help you.

Ken

Dive in.  Cut yourself some slack.  Sing while you learn.   Keep it fun, but don't shy from the frustrating stuff.  You've got to slog through that stuff to get good with the more funnerer stuff. 

- Zurf

I am also a learner.  Bought the Guitar for Dummies book and have learned the following chords:

A, Am, C, D, Dm, E, Em, G, F, A7, C7, D7, E7, G7

It astounded me how fast you can pick up the chords.  I just keep practicing them now so I can remember them by heart and trying to learn a few songs (which I am finding hard). 

My fingers hurt like mad at the beginning but are coming around now.  I dont know if I'll ever be any good at switching chords between songs but I enjoy trying and can spend hours at it.

I also bought an automatic tuner as not too good at tuning by ear.

can anyone recommend an easy song that is good for a beginner to learn

Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison

Return To Sender - Elvis

Young Ones - Cliff Richard

Leaving On A Jet Plane - John Denver

Texan4ut, I do agree with you. I play since 30 years and what started as some fun, is now a passion.
Here is my timeline
- 30 years, an acoustic, with an electric element, I was convinced to become a "guitar god"
- in 1977, I was still a student, med school, for another 3 years, playing guitar dropped  to 5%
- Army, no guitar.
- Having a lot of work, a lousy guitar, and broken too, I played occasionaly
- 1990: a new start, buying a gibson LP studio, incredibly cheap, black, you could see your face reflected, golden hardware. 400$ right from a big boss, a very good friend, of the customs at the airport. Couldn't be sold because of some scratches, bought 2 of them and sold the other for 600$.
- Sold my Gibson studio, to buy a PRS Custom 24, an unknown guitar in 1996, except by some professionals, too expensive. That guitar was a 1993 PRS, and 6 months old, because the band splitted. PRS minus Gibson = 600$ to pay.
- 1995; first acoustic, a Martin HD-28 for 750$ from a junkie needing money
- the rest is history
I started to collect, and started to play more and more, today, I am able to play at least 50 different chords, and playing was FUN, and practice SWITCHING CHORDS.
If you know some chords, switch, switch and switch + learn more chords.

Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater revival- 3 chords D G A
The joker by Steve Miller Band- also three chords, G C and D
The House of the Rising Sun is a popular one for beginners, you'll need to know Am C G D F  and E7

All You Need is Love

For acoustic a really easy and simple song to learn would be country songs (if you like that genre of music) ... I learned a bunch of these songs when I first started playing ...

George Strait
Adilida - Open A, E, D chords w/capo 2nd Fret
Stars on the Water - Open G, Em chords w/capo 2nd Fret

Kenny Chesney
Please Come to Boston (little harder) - Open D, G, Em, A chords - Bm w/capo 2nd Fret

Eddie Rabbitt
Driving My Life Away - Open E, A, D, C#m, E7

Drivin N Cryin
Straight to Hell - Open G, D, C

4 Non Blondes
Whats Up - Open A, Bm (I use opn chord variation), D

Tom Petty
Free Fallin' - Open D, Dsus, Asus w/capo on 3rd Fret

Bob Segar
Accompany Me - Open A, D, E

Alot of these songs are real simple and easy to learn ... the best thing to learning strumming patterns is to go to the following site I mentioned in an earlier post

http://www.justinguitar.com/

That's where I learned strumming patters in one day (it's pretty simple once you get the hang of it)

Hope this helps!

Your Freudian slip is showing John.

B & F are called "barre chords" and they are the unseemly underbelly of guitar playing, I guess maybe unless you play electric.  You use your index finger like a bar across all six strings and finger the other notes with the fingers you've got left.  Basically you make a new nut (the white thingy at the top of the neck) by pressing all six strings down against a fret with your index finger.  For F, you press your index finger across all six strings at the first fret and for B and F#m you press your index finger on the second fret.  You can also do a G just like an F, except press at the third fret with your index finger. 

Do not expect to get it right in the first try.  Or even the week of trying.  It's taken me six months to get what I called in another thread "almost adequate".  Adequate will take a while longer and smooth is a pipe dream at this point. 

They are worth learning, though.  It just takes time.  Pick some songs with open chords to learn in the meanwhile.  Just be sure to practice barre chords every day just short of however long it takes you to get frustrated. 

Best of luck to you and your wonderful guitar tutoring phone.  That's a very cool sounding thing.

- Zurf