Suggestions for learning acoustic guitar

[starbuck]

I want to learn to play my acoustic guitar either online or by books/dvd's(as can't afford lessons).

Can anyone suggest good websites to try or books/dvd's.

I've never played guitar before, so I want the easiest or best way to learn.

[Knoxville]

First off, take a look at Marshall's online lesson section here. It doesn't go really deep into music theory but the first few lessons will teach you how to hold the pick properly, strum, read guitar tablature and some play nice easy open chords. Once you've got some of the basics down then it's up to you how you want to continue, if you just want to learn to play some songs then you can google guitar tabs for pretty much anything pick a couple of easy tunes and just go from there

I'm not sure what kind of music you want to play but these songs are all nice and simple places to start -

Wonderwall - Oasis
I hung my head - Johnny Cash
Knockin on heavens door - Bob Dylan
Over and out - Foo Fighters

If however you want to get straight into scales and how chords are constructed then your going to want a couple of well written books or a well made instructional dvd as it can be pretty confusing...

I've got a few books but in my opinion this is one of the best out there imo, it's pretty hardcore but you can learn an awful lot from it - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harmony-Theo.../dp/0793579910

I highly recommend Lick Library instructional dvds as well, they're shot well so you can see what both the right and left hand should be doing and most importantly they go through everything nice and slowly. I haven't watched the acoustic tuition ones personally but regardless of which instructor's hosting the dvd they're all top notch musicians - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lick-Library...6381710&sr=8-3

good luck

[Virtual Monkey]

As Knox said, start off with learning the simple things like how to hold the guitar so you're comfortable, how to strum, read tabs and a couple of simple chords. I found this was pretty good in teaching me these things, although you will probably outgrow it fairly quickly if you're practising enough:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guitar-Absol...8&sr=8-1-spell

I found that there are a lot of popular songs that are only really made out of say A, C, D, E, G chords. Which means that you can learn a few easy chords and get playing songs. Then it's really a case of learning one or two new chords whenever you play a new song.

The other thing I'd say is that if you're like me and don't have the longest or strongest fingers around, it can take a while to build up the finger strength to play certain chords without the strings ringing. It took me absolutely ages! Just keep practising, and you'll get there