I've went through a number of things to understand the basics such as chords. I've got to say for the price GT is by far the best. But if you cant afford it then thats understandable. When I first got my my guitar about a year ago I was told about Cyberfret.com, Its not near as good as this site but is the best free site I've ever been to it should have enough to teach you about some basics. Books are also a good choice, but I would say the best experience I've had was a guitar class i attended at a community college. I would look around for something like that but Cyberfret would hurt in the mean time.