How long did it take before you started to enjoy playing?

I started playing 2 years ago. Up until recently playing always felt like a chore because I found the guitar so hard and so complex. I played off and on nothing serious. I didn't enjoy it, but I tried to convince myself I did because I love music and I always found the guitar fascinating. I stopped playing completely for about a half year. I just couldn't get into it. Then about 2 months ago started playing again, and since then I have not put it down. I've become addicted. Its all I think about now. Playing puts me in a good mood. I'm seeing improvements in my playing everyday which just makes me want to play more. I'm also beginning to study music theory(not as boring as i thought it would be). If it wasn't for this website I'd probably still be stuck playing mary had a little lamb...actually I wouldn't be playing at all.

So how long did it take before you started to enjoy playing and learning the guitar?

1 second. :) There certainly are some frustrating times, and I even took a 20 year break from it (but not because I wasn't enjoying it). Even so, I love to play, and to have it (again) to look forward to each day. Like you, I sort of obsess over it, and I think about it a lot. It's a nice "mind break" whenever I need to be in a happy place! (During my nearly 2 decade hiatus, I'd just become disillusioned with life and obsessed with different things.)

Sometimes the learning can seem like a chore, but never the playing.

I am like Razbo. The first time I put a few notes together that sounded like a song, it was all good. I think it was the opening notes to Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. That was when I was probably 12 and I didn't really start trying to learn until last Jan.

I think if I had set goals and pressured myself to reach them then it may become more of a chore. But I only play for fun and the finger ability and musical knowledge come in small steps which is fine with me. The way I am doing it goes against some advice that I read somewhere.

It is similar, for me, to snow-skiing. Sometimes I will make a run and concentrate on proper form and keeping some weight on the inside ski and blah blah blah. But I enjoy it a lot more when I just go hit it. But, the better at carving hard-packed southeastern snow the more I enjoy it. So I do make few runs to while concentrating on getting better followed by several run in which I don't concentrate on anything. So far, playing the guitar has been similar and I imagine it will continue.

Enough rambling...

Truly I would say when I signed up for Guitar Tricks a month ago.

I enjoy the tutorials and the forum to speak with others.