Hi I'm Gert, living in Norway, 51 years old, and after 30 years of playing 'air guitar', I finally took the plunge and bought a real guitar. A Fender Tim Armstrong Hellcat. In the 1980s, many of my friends learned how to play; they learned from books, went to private tutors or music schools, and learned from each other as well. So my first thought was that this was going to be easy, anyone can obviously do it. Just have a look at some YouTube videos and gradually build from there.

But that just didn't work. Much of the stuff shown there is too fragmentary and not suited for absolute beginners at all. Guitar Tricks starts from ground zero, it is very very thorough and builds on itself. Absolutely worth it!

Having said that, once I reached the chapter about the 5-chord power pack I find you can branch out again towards other online resources like YouTube. E.g. for those that haven't come across the easiest 2-chord song out there try playing Horse with no Name (America) with just the Em and D chord (or slight variations). This song is perfect for practising switching between those two if you are tired of playing Lisa's song. (No offense, Lisa! I think your songs are absolutely great and I love playing them. I think it's amazing that you go through the trouble of composing songs at all just to fit the course stage!! One of the reasons GT is worth its money!)

About the Em chord, though: the first thing I noticed, when opening the window to look at other players, was that some out there play this chord with 2nd and 3rd finger on the 2nd fret, instead of 1st and 2nd finger. Any reason for that?

My goals 1-2 years from now: being able to play great accoustic songs like Via Chicago by Jeff Tweedy, or Closer to Fine by the Indigo Girls. Tips for your catalogue?