What advice do you have for someone just learning the guitar?

Get used to painful fingers.

Also, don’t learn notes by learning number’s associated with them. Learn the actual name of the note.

Get books. One of my favs was Guitar for Dummies. It was actually really helpful. Mel Bay books were great too.

Don’t invest in a really expensive instrument to start with. As a novice, a 150$ guitar will do just fine.

Any other questions?

Practice at least 30 minutes a day. Lessons alone won’t do magic.

If you are anything like me, buy a second guitar now, because you will most likely become so frustrated that you throw the first one across the room in a fit of anger.

Don’t be afraid of the skinny strings…Bend them bastards…

Learn on an electric first: They are much more tolerant of your weak hands.

Expand your horizons musically. Immerse yourself in music you normally wouldn’t enjoy in order to clearly train your mind to hear the guitar parts. I have found it hard to concentrate on just the guitar in a song when I like the song as a whole.

Understand that grabbing chords is a very hard thing to do at first, but once you’ve got it, it is second nature.

Remember that booze and six strings to not get along well at first. Even the slightest state of inebriation will make your fingers forget (temporarily) all of the wonderful things they have learned after a couple drinks.

Be motivated by failure: you will experience quite a bit of it.

Love your guitar…It will love you eventually.

Enjoy.

Don’t quit. Pussies and bitches quit.

@Jesus_Ezekial_Jesus : Haha I was gonna say something like that don’t go all rockstar breaking the guitar after your first failure or success of a solo. heh :-)

Pawn shops good place to get decent cheap guitars if you know what your looking for with a little research.

I’d say start with a crappy acoustic first, not an electric…
electrics are easier on your pretty little fingers yes, but you need to build up strentgh and durability in your hands and an electric isn’t going to do that for you.

stick with it, music is full of plateaus, don’t get frusterated when it seems too hard to get better.

Learn sheet music, tabs are nice don’t get me wrong, but learning sheet music now will help you a lot later.

don’t bother trying to learn songs you don’t like, the guitar is hard enough without being bored to death also.

Take lessons. Don’t be afraid to pay for them—it’ll pay off.

practice

Uncle Tim’s First Year is excellent. It has everything my guitar teacher never taught me.

I would say don’t start with a crappy guitar. You’ll be more motivated with something that is responsive, working properly (e.g., no dead frets) and sounds good. It doesn’t have to be expensive, so long as it feels and sounds good to you.

Try to play with other people. It will motivate you to practice.

do you know the chords? Can you find them?
Don’t worry if it gets too confusing. Here’s an easy method.

Learn to play Em. Stick to that for a day or two, just strum holding those two fingers until you get blisters.

Now learn Am, and play “Lady in Black” for a few days.

Now learn E, and play E/Am in different variations for a week. Practice changing between them fast, both ways.

Now learn Dm. It’s pretty tricky. If your fingers can’t do it, go back a couple of steps and try again in a few days. When you’re ready, try a minor song using Am,Dm and E. You can also learn E7 now if you want, and use that instead.

Now learn A and D (or A7 and D7) and play some Blues and Rock ‘n Roll on A. The chords you need are A,D,E. Stick to this for another month, and concentrate on the right hand (different strumming patters, stops etc).

Then learn the rest in this order: G, C, F, B7, F#m, Bm, (Gm, Cm etc). You now know enough chords to basically play any song in the world. Enjoy! :)

@boots Painful fingers, that was my advice exactly! :)

I dunno, I think having a nice instrument would make me want to play/practice more, therefore getting better, so I think it’s important to have an instrument you like.

It worked with my drums…

Learn bar chords NOW and you can play anything.