I like Justinguitar.com method. Free beginner lessons structured to get you playing songs quickly.

It's important, though, to decide whether you want to learn to play guitar (which requires a lot of scales practice and theory) or whether you want to learn to play songs on the guitar (which you can do with a few chords). You can do both in the fullness of time. Justimguitars approach is the latter. He gets you to strumming songs quickly.

Since gc124 is just joining "the world of guitar", and I myself have been in that state of being for quite a while, I was wondering if instructing  our new friend to learn the fretboard and the pentatonic scale is taught by us, or is it mostly an "it's up to them" kinda thing? I'm not being ostentatious, just curious.

If someone had come to me years and years (and years) ago and told me, "Here, you yoyo. That's the way you do it......." , I wouldn't have learned all the bad habits I developed.

Thanks

Bill

EDITED TO ADD: I love Mark Knopfler's playing, but I miss Dire Straits

Hello everybody,
I'm also a newbie here. I'm wondering should I learn chords or songs first when I started learning how to play guitar ?

Welcome to Chordie and the world of Guitar!

Actually both kind of HAVE to come together...... otherwise it just seems boring and painful.  You will find the chord charts referenced on the song pages to assist you in getting the chord forms right, and the rest is practice and more of the same until you develop muscle memory of the chord shapes and positions that make the charts moot.

  Start out with the easy versions (and you will find them kind of indexed on the left side of the screen) in the "Public Books" section.  Start your own "My Songbook" and add the ones that you are familiar with and/or would like to learn. As you advance you will find it helpful to learn scales and such, but most of the "formal music" stuff is optional for back-porch-campfire playing.

Listen to recorded versions (you tube is good for that) to get the feel of the timing and when the chord changes occur.... it's good to "play along".

Visit here often and seek advise when you have queries, but above all have fun with your music, it's a journey that will give many years of pleasure which you'll never outgrow. The Chordie Community is friendly, supportive and pleased to make your acquaintance.

Welcome Aboard!

Doug

All good - its basically the same song....12 bar blues in A yeah?  What chords do you use to play it?  7th chords or a shuffle?

I use the Cream version that we have here on chordie so you can pull it up from there, 7th choards  e7,b7 and a7. take a look at the song. You should check out Todays Friday blues post by badeye He posted Mississippi john hurt and You can learn a lot about fingerpicking from him I did. I do Crossroads about the speed he is but you can go slower or faster. Most of credence is pretty easy,Born on a bayou is another good one too start.

I can play C a hell of a lot better and so now im doing the same thing with the dreaded F chord.

Don

That's a great song to practice the C-F/ F-C change. One of my favorite songs to play.

I LOVE crossroads by Eric Clapton - i'll definitely grab some tab for that.  I have been learning a lot of blues tracks since I began - this would would be a nice addition to my repetoire.

Yeah there is nothing like actually playing to get you goin.  If you are lucky enough to know a drummer or an accomplished guitarist jam with them as much as you can.  Playing alongside another rhythm section is great fun and good for your development. 

If you cant do this then download backing tracks for your favourite songs - the proliferation of these on the internet is another eason why its much easier to learn guitar these days than it was 20 years ago. 

Good work on the finger picking Dino - I havent dont much of that....just a little bit in the sounds of silence by simon and garfunkle.  its tricky (fingerpicking) but sounds very nice.

You might want too try Down on the corner,by credance clerawater and some other credance tunes.  Also I found that Crossroads by Eric Clapton is pretty east if you play it in an unpluged way and slower.

If you cant do this then download backing tracks for your favourite songs - the proliferation of these on the internet is another eason why its much easier to learn guitar these days than it was 20 years ago. 

Good work on the finger picking Dino - I havent dont much of that....just a little bit in the sounds of silence by simon and garfunkle.  its tricky (fingerpicking) but sounds very nice.