I want to start playing guitar, but I dont want to pay for lessons. I'd rather teach myself. So if anyone has any suggestions on wesbsites/books that'll help me get started, itd be greatly appreciated. I have a pretty decent acoustic guitar so dont need any suggestions on that front. Thanks.

Learn all 5 pentatonic scales, have a mess around with them, then learn some licks with them. They are fun and really easy to get into

PM me for info on my self-edited, classical guitar learning method. Don't start with tab scrub. my method will teach you basic theory, although at least asking someone educated for more advanced questiosn might be worth paying for if you're serious about guitar. i'm also available through MSN, AIM, and Yahoo msgers, email, and this forum ofc.

if you are just looking for some cool tabs, check http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/

learn all your Chords, Scales, and Modes...and you're set man
get a decent picture chord book, it should have everything you need to know, including a picture of how your hand should be while playing *tihs helps more than you'd think*

Set your mind to it, get a tuner or learn how to tune the guitar yourself.
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com/onlinetuner.html
Tabs are good, in the beginning. But try not to get too dependent on them. The best thing (In my unproffesional opinion) is to try to listen to what you want to play.
Maybe use tabs as guidelines, but mostly work on your pitch. Listen, really listen to the melodies, try to find them on the fretboard, it will go very slow at first (& for a long time), but be patience!
Learn the basic chords & scales and play whenever you can or feel like it.
And for fuck's sake, Do not make my mistake Don't play if it hurts

Please for the love of god do not get into guitar by playing tabs

For electric guitar: Start with tabs.

Yes, tabs are the best way to first start out when you know NOTHING. But do not stay on tabs only for very long.


Learn some easy songs from tabs. You can. A monkey could read tabs. After you can play a few songs from tabs then start working on technique.


Practice the chromatic scale alternate-picking, a LOT. It will really help you learn to pick good. Once your picking is good I'd start working on theory, there are many sites/programs you can learn it from.

He's wrong.
The best way is to learn music theory and practice chords.
It will take longer to get started, but you will develop your own sound and technique in playing guitar.
If you start with tabs, it will all be wasted time; you will end up having to forget what you've done so far (with tabs) and start from scratch in the long run.
It makes no difference if you are playing acoustic or electric, you will not become a good player by trying to master the techniques of other guitarists.

I suggest you PM onepagememory, who posted earlier in this thread, and ask for help learning music theory.

Tabs are an excellent way to get into guitar, no matter what you say about it not being good for music theory.

It helps you get the basic mechanics of actually playing down, so that you can move your fingers and strum correctly and gain some speed so that when you actually move on to studying music theory you can keep up and not struggle on the minor details of something being too difficult to pick up with laboring to move your hands.