need help starting with chords....and just everything

im 15 and have been sorta playing around with my dads old 30 yr Martin acoustic for a couple of months now. all my friends are starting to form bands and the like, and i wanna learn how to really play and get a bit more serious. could anyone give me some help on how or where to learn some chords? I seem to be having some trouble ecspecially with getting my fingers in the right place. Before i even think about getting an electric i want to become profiecint with acoustic. Anyone have some basic tips for learning??? I really want to stick with it and am willing to spend time, but i have no idea where to start or what to work on.... thanks,

aceestrin

Just starting out myself. So I've been researching alot for ways to learn. At http://www.download.com I found a really easy to use HTML based guitar learning program called "Play Guitar 2." This thing starts at day one with how to strum and even how to hold your guitar. Also it's based on acoustic so that could help you as well. It's Shareware and cost $26 to register if you actually like it.

Personally I'm not even bothering learning chords till I have more finger dexterity. I hate constantly hitting the wrong strings or strumming extra ones. I'll wait till I feel more comfortable playing scales and modes before I get into learning different chords.

For scales I just find the simpliest ones on the home page of Guitar Tricks and play it till I have it memorized and can get atleast a steady pace. Then I find another that's a little more challenging.

Anyways good luck.

There is no easy way of getting over those first steps where your fingers won't do what you tell them to and nothing comes easy. Don't want to sound sanctimonious but with practice every day you'll soon see progress.
As for chords and stuff, you could get yourself a tutoral book (which I never found particularly useful)though it might help with holding the guitar, strumming etc. I prefered learning by trying to play songs I liked. You could go to say http://www.guitartabs.cc/home.php for example and look up the chords for a favorite song. http://www.cyberfret.com/chords/changing/index.php is a nice site on chords and how to learn playing them. Should be enough there to get you started.
Hope this helpful. If you're still having problems give us a shout, AndyP

Madcap Laughs

thanks much, ill try that chords website, and try some scales and the like. btw, i see you wrote something about madcap...like punk?Well, i gotta start practicing, and so far my biggest problem is that i cant get my fingers to move quick enough or put them in wrong places.....soo annoying...well, if you have any more hints plez tell me, thanks again,
aceestrin

Wellcome y'all.This is a nicec placec to be.Lots of good tricks anf stuff.
Check out this site:
http://www.guitarnoise.com
I think you'll like it.
About not getting your fingers on the right place....
That's how everyone started.
Everyone.
Eventually you get the hang of it and it becomes so natural you don't even think about it.And btw,Ace,since the guitar is your daddy's,can't he help?is he any good?Guitarwise,ie.

hmm, yeah, he should, but he forgot a long time ago, and hasnt played in 20 yrs.....he knows how to tune it, but thats about it. anyway, thanks for the site...really helpful
by the way, i gt most of the major chords down now, but i still dont know where they will come into play when i really start playing
aceestrin

For the puttin your fingers in the right place and not playin fast enough. The best thing to do is to play it slow and gradually your fingers will find the right places, only then, when your comfortable with playin slow should you start to speed up. I know it sounds borin but it's the best way. Stick with it, you'll get there, just takes practice, patience and a lot of perserverance. As for the theory stuff there's loads of books/sites on the subject. Or get some tabs of songs you like and learn those. There's loads of sites on the net, eg. http://www.guitartabs.cc and http://www.harmony-central.com
But a lot of these have incorrect tabs, your better off going to a music shop and buyin a tab song book.