Hi Vulcan

I am a relative new learner as well. The previous posts were filled with good advice.

I wanted to add as a beginner, that I personally don't find the Am & E chords to be particularly simple. They use 3 fingers, and for me, that would have been challenging. I started in January with the Truefire Learn Guitar 1 lesson and in this lesson the 1st two chords that Jeff teaches are the Em and Asus2 chords - both of which only use 2 fingers. I found switching between these 2 chords cleanly while maintaining time with a metronome not impossible, but not easy. It took concentration on my part. But I went through and do go through the same frustrations as you outline, but as I continue to learn and practise things do seem to improve.

Lots of wisdom in the advice to have patience.