Learning to Play Guitar?

Question:

Learning to Play Guitar?

Can I just pick up a guitar and try to teach myself or should I seek immediate help? I really don't want an instructor, so if anyone has any other tips it would be great!

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I would start out with learning chords first. You can find chord charts online. Start slowly
http://www.guitar-players-toolbox.com/im...

The move on to the harder chords
http://www.mmissary.com/guitar~1.gif...

Learn to play a few acoustic songs that consists of chords. This way you can also learn different strumming techniques.

Then I would learn how to play tabs. Which is actually really easy. I agree that ultimate-guitar.com has awesome tabs.

Reading tabs is simple also, the number on the string means how many frets (spaces between the silvers bars) you go down. And the strings are in order in the way you would hold the guitar.

Learning tabs is a great way to start melting peoples' faces off.

ROCK ON DUDE. |m/(>.<)\m/ i taught myself by just picking up a guitar. What helped me the most was learning to read guitar tabs and then finding my favorite songs online and learn them that way. ultimate-guitar.com is a good tab indexing site Ive been playing for 24 years...im in my mid 30's now and they best way to start out is to learn a few songs to keep you interested in the guitar...then after that you could learn some basic theory.

Also guitar tabs are a good source of learning.

I suggest joining the UG guitar forums...there is so much info and help there for beginners...Im a member and like to help out when i can.
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/... Many good guitarists are self-taught. Be sure to learn how to read guitar tabs while you are at it. The hardest part about playing guitar is conditioning your fingers. Building callouses on your fingers. Unless your fingers are hard enough to hold down the strings on the frets, it sounds lousy, and becomes discouraging. Now, there is a difference between acoustic, and electric guitars. The strings are closer, and easier to hold down on an electric. Sounds easy, doesn't it?. Nope. It takes a lot of patience to do it correctly. You have to build the callous slowly, or you get a blister. Once you get a blister, that finger is out of commission for quite a while. If you have the patience to condition the fingers correctly, then you will learn how to play the guitar. If you're interested, check my profile for my email. I will be glad to assist you. Buy a chord book and learn the chords. Here's where I part company with a lot of players and more than a few instructors; don't bother learning tablature. There isn't a professional situation where you will be asked to read tab. Learn to read chords and apply the chords to the songs you want to learn. Talk with other guitar players and learn from them.